Portrait of a community rings true in 'Clarinet'

Joan Hinkemeyer, Special To The News

Friday, March 7, 2003

Keith Maillard, author of the critically acclaimed Gloria, returns to his fictitious town of Raysburg, W.Va., in The Clarinet Polka. This time, however, he explores life "across the tracks," where the blue-collar Polish-Am- erican community struggles to survive and perhaps even snatch a corner of the American dream.Maillard's narrator is Jimmy Koprowski, recently returned from a stint in the Air Force to his old attic room in his parents' home. Lacking both immediate plans and long-term goals, ("I'd done my four years in the Air Force, and I figured the world owed me a good time"), Jimmy quickly clashes with his hard-working father, not always affectionately referred to as Old Bullet Head.

A chance sexual encounter with an unstable wealthy married woman who shares his affection for the bottle leads to lost days of drunkenness, while countless drinking buddies at the Polish-American Club offer additional opportunities for regular indulgence.

However, other, more positive influences slowly insinuate themselves into Jimmy's life. His quiet sister becomes interested in Polish polkas after studying ethnomusicology for her college degree. Her efforts to start an all-female polka band lead her to Janice Dluwiecki, a talented but sheltered 16-year- old clarinet player from a white-collar Polish family. Jimmy briefly rises to the exemplary big-brother role, with Janice succumbing to his lower instincts.

As Jimmy drifts along, Maillard adroitly brushes in the cultural details on the large canvas of the Polish-American community. The local Catholic church remains the center for both religious and social functions, even for younger members who've abandoned their faith. Earlier generations' struggles to form unions for safer working conditions in the steel mills evolve through the story of Old Bullet Head.

Finally, Maillard introduces the shadows of the Holocaust and its effects on survivors and their children through Janice.

Although the book often seems bloated with excessive details, especially on the polka scene, Jimmy's irreverent voice remains strong. His descent into alcoholism and his subsequent arduous climb toward a life of purpose ring true, as do the voices of other characters who each play a part in this stylistic re-creation of a turbulent era in our history.

Joan Hinkemeyer is a Denver librarian and free-lance writer.