“Maillard succeeds in giving Jimmy a distinctive voice . . . he’s an older but less cerebral version of J.D. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield.”
– The Charleston Gazette, 3/23/02
“Deeply and authentically rooted in Polish-American culture…This is a remarkable novel from an important writer.”
– Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize winning author of
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
“Rings utterly true . . . with a wicked sense of humor that keeps a reader hanging on his every word…”
–
Detroit Free Press 2/23/03
“Maillard makes the connections seamless, and his prose is often as buoyant as the polka music he describes.” (
New York Times Book Review)
“[Maillard] gets so many things so right . . . . I guarantee, you’ll have a ball.” (
Washington Post)
“Music, family and heritage are the spirits that give life to Keith Maillard’s new novel.” (
Denver Post)
“Jimmy’s irreverent voice remains strong. . . . [A] stylistic re-creation of a turbulent era in our history.” (
Rocky Mountain News)
Advance praise for The Clarinet Polka
“Deeply and authentically rooted in Polish-American culture,
The Clarinet Polka also brilliantly resonates into the universal human condition. Keith Maillard has created a fictional landscape in and around Raysburg, West Virginia, that brims with life as we all live it. This is a remarkable novel from an important writer.”
– Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
“Great novels immerse their readers into a world previously unknown and by that test alone, this is a great novel. A West Virginia Polish community is the setting for this touching story, a place where dreamers, misfits, lost souls, saints, and sinners all dance to the rhythm of the joyful polka which will, given time, heal all their wounds. I promise these are people you will never forget and will be glad you got to know.”
– Homer H. Hickam, Jr., bestselling author of
Rocket Boys
“Encore! I’ll play over and again in my mind this hard-edged, sweet-souled story of a heart’s homecoming.”
– Suzanne Strempek Shea, author of
Songs From a Lead-Lined Room and Hoopi Shoopi Donna
Praise for
Gloria
“Keith Maillard gets the details right . . . succeeds in building a gilded, crinoline-draped labyrinth and watching his lithe, artful protagonist wiggle and reason her way to freedom.”
–
New York Times Book Review
“A mesmerizing story . . . succeeds in prompting reflection on the nature of authenticity in a culture that easily surrenders to stereotypes and sound bites.”
–
Boston Sunday Globe
“Beautifully detailed . . . enormously entertaining.”
–
Marie Claire
“Recalls Balzac or George Eliot. . . . Meticulously observed, immensely satisfying.”
–
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A merciless and accurate picture of the power grid of American class and gender at mid-century, a meditation on the nature of human consciousness and creativity, an investigation into the horrors and delights of emergent sexuality, an homage to the powers of friendship between women. . . . This is a book that delivers profound pleasures of the body, the mind, and the spirit.”
–
Vancouver Sun
About the Author
Keith Maillard was born and raised in Wheeling, West Virginia, the inspiration for the fictional town of Raysburg which serves as the setting for The Clarinet Polka and Gloria (shortlisted for Canada’s Governor General’s Award). His previous eight novels include Two Strand River and Alex Driving South. He now lives in Vancouver with his wife and two daughters and teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia.
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