Squeeze Box Man: The Lazy Allen Stories

by Eugene Knapik

Lazy Allen worked the line at the Bottle & Can. He never talked about his days squeezing out polkas, waltzes and obereks. When Lazy's one-time student and old friend Staash Dudas bought a concertina and began talking about bringing polka back from the dead, Lazy wanted no part of it. In these 16 short-short stories, Lazy Allen recounts stories from his days fronting Lazy and the Rockets, the endless shifts at the Bottle & Can, and his return to music with Staashu and The New Polka Kings.

90 pages, Paperback

Published November 10, 2018

Reviews

[Jennifer Arnott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Squeeze Box Man is an intriguing collection of connected short stories. Organized labour, factory work, and music are the threads of life of the characters that Eugene Knapik has woven together. Accordion enthusiasts will appreciate the accuracy of the descriptions of various accordions and concertinas and their innermost workings. The rest of us will just enjoy the stories of these snippets of life. I found this a quick and fun read; an entertaining way to spend an evening.

Note: the characters don’t filter their conversation for polite company—this wouldn’t be a book for those offended by swearing.