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Amazon.co.uk Review
Michael plays second violin in an up-and-coming Maggiore Quartet, lives on the north side of Hyde Park, takes early morning dips in the Serpentine, has a French girlfriend named Virginie. But his mind is constantly drawn to his first and only love, Julia, whom he knew in Vienna many years earlier. When he catches sight of Julia on a London bus, he cannot help but pursue her. Vikram Seth's new novel is a gently-paced, multi-layered work, proceeding in short sections which flit from Michael's ongoing search for Julia back to his childhood as a Rochdale butcher's son, his early training and breakdown in Vienna under the tyrannical Carl Kall, and the emotional history of his quartet; while Michael's discovery of a Beethoven trio rewritten as a string quintet acts as a motif for Michael's pursuit of the lost Julia: can Michael recapture the magic of the past, like Beethoven, who deafly transfigured what he so many years earlier had hearingly composed? Seth is quite brilliant at conveying the intense and complex interplay of chamber musicians, in rehearsal and performance (an odd, obsessed, introspective, separatist breed), and manages the near-impossible--to write in 1999 about Art and Love without embarrassment. --Alan Stewart
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
A powerful love story from the author of the international bestseller A SUITABLE BOY
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Vikram Seth strikes a chord with this reader,
By A Customer
This review is from: An Equal Music (Paperback)
I found this book to be utterly engrossing, the central Love story which winds from Rochdale to Vienna and Venice via London, is beautifully accompanied by the music of the Maggiorre Quartet of which the protagonist is a member. This might not sound like it is to everyone's taste, (my girlfriend questionned my sanity after I recommended it to her), yet I am totally ignorant of classical music, have never visited the geographic settings and I found the story deeply involving. Without wanting to give too much away the story revolves around a passionate relationship which ended 10 years previously in Vienna, and recommences again fitfully in London with dramatic repercussions to both people's lives. My enjoyment of this book, and my girlfriend's dislike of it centres around the central character, and whether you will allow a grown man such a lapse into love and obsession after an affair he left behind so long ago. I was convinced, and thus found it spellbinding, more so than Seth's more celebrated work; 'A Suitable Boy'
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful, tender, tale of love. Exquisite,
By
This review is from: An Equal Music (Paperback)
The basic plot of this novel by Vikram Seth is simple: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl again but with this simple story the author has constructed (perhaps composed would be a more apt word in this case!;-)) a most exquisite and beautiful novel. Mr. Seth obviously loves language and here he uses it to express himself and the emotions of his characters in a poetic and intelligent, meaningful and alluring manner. The images he builds are very powerful and moving and I found myself quickly drawn into this book so much so that I suspended my daily routine just to be able to finish this book! I found myself reading through the night to finish it. The characters Mr. Seth has created are very realistic, vivid and interesting people and ones which you empathise with. The main lead character Michael is beautifully developed as the novel progresses so that one feels his excitement when he meets Julia and his pain when things dont go his way. Julia too is an interesting character, beautiful, talented yet devastatingly handicapped and unsure as well. The secondary characters in this book also add considerably to the novel's depth. As in his work, A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth is at his best when describing scenes and here again his vivid and colourful images of Vienna, London, and Venice are superbly crafted masterpieces of descriptive writing. Of course music plays a major role in this book both in its plot and its aestethic appeal and the book is full choc-a-bloc of descriptions of various pieces of classical music especially the Trout Quintent of Bach and also The Art of Fugue and of the perils and joys of playing the violin and the viola. I am immusical (though I do enjoy listening to music) and therefore will failed to have appreciated this aspect of the book properly but it is a measure of how well Mr. Seth writes and his mastery of language that not once was I bored by the technical musical passages. Indeed the book made me interested in learning more about this aspect of music. Better even than his previous book! A joy to read. Tender and exquisite.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Moving and fast moving,
By
This review is from: An Equal Music (Paperback)
An easy book to read as the plot flies along, the characters are very well drawn, the dialogue is good and the sense of yearning from the main protagonist is well drawn.
A love affair that ended abruptly without as the Americans say 'closure'. Both parties remain hurt, still in love with each other but dealing with the extenuating circumstances that crash into everyone's lives and pull them off in different directions. For the main protagonist the book relates the story of a crisis year in his life both in his professional life as a muscian and his love life. It is extremely well written and very moving at the end as you feel for poor Michael who struggles to withstand the neverending pounding that just being alive can give you. Also if you love classical music the extra dimension this brings is a joy. Not quite great literature but in that territory.
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