The clarinet polka

"The year is 1969, and young Jimmy Koprowski returns from his stint in the air force to Raysburg, his blue-collar Polish-American hometown where nothing much happens beyond working at the steel mill, going to Mass, and getting drunk at the local PAC. Jimmy's efforts at rebuilding his life result in sleeping off hangovers in his parents' attic and drifting into a destructive affair with a married woman.".

"But things change when his younger sister, Linda, decides to start an all-girl polka band and Jimmy falls for the bands star clarinetist, Janice, whose young life is haunted by tragic events that happened before she was born. The threads of Jimmy's family life, the legacy of WWII Poland, and the healing power of music, language, and tradition all begin to converge."--BOOK JACKET.