An Equal Music

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Vikram Seth

Used from £2.14

Pages: 400 (Hardcover)

ISBN: 0767902912

Pub: Broadway Books

Pub date: 1999-05

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 40422

Reader Reviews:

The best book I have read so far (2/3 people found this helpful)

A book written with such a good knowledge of music one would think the author to be a professional musician. Being a musician myself, this was the second thing that occurred to me. The first thing being the style of writing. So poetic, flowing, beautiful, with Michael's music in the back of your head. I would recommend this book to anybody who is interested in reading about music and a wonderful, sad, love story. A brilliant masterpiece.

A disappointment, except for the many music theory passages (0/3 people found this helpful)

I found this book disappointing and frankly annoying. It was difficult to emphasize with the main characters, Julie, the beloved, now deaf, pianist in particular. Michael, the violinist, fatally smitten with Julie, was quite well drawn. I was happy about the outcome concerning his beloved violin, but really did not care about his future fate.

The descriptive passages, gardens, birds, Vienna, Venice, etc., were endless and felt to me like the author was filling lines. I wanted him to get on with the story.

The passages about the music world were interesting. The descriptions and interpretations of quartet music and composers were lovely and that alone made the book worth finishing - just.

Love In The Time Of Quartets (1/3 people found this helpful)

It's only fair to start this review with a caveat - it is based on the abridged audio version read by Alan Bates - I have not read the full book.

I was persuaded to buy this book(tape) on the back of rave reviews in the Sunday Times and was expecting to read(hear) one of the great love stories of modern times. On that basis, I have to say I was extremely underwhelmed. It is the first time I've read a love story where I have felt no empathy for or sympathy towards either of the two main protagonists. The female lead just seems generally wet. The male lead describes himself as a "selfish self-centred bastard" - and that just about sums him up. There's a lot of detailed description of quartet music, both its rehearsal and performance which I did enjoy - despite my knowledge of classical music not extending much further than Beethoven's 9th and Bach's Brandenburg concertos. I cannot comment on how accurate or realistic the author's descriptions are.