Saturday, October 08, 2005

An Equal Music - Vikram Seth


For some strange reason, this book keeps reminding me of Before Sunset. Maybe because of the references to Vienna and Venice or that the protagonist girl friend is called Julia. At certain places, i could even visualize Ethan Hawke and Julia Delpy!
An Equal Music is about Michael, a violinist who plays with a string quatert name Maggiore and the love of his life, Julia a piano player. The story flows like a calm river and you are just content with sitting on its shores and letting it take its course. Its spans 10 years of Michael life, 10 years in which he regrets having to leave Julia, is elated when they meet again only to realize that she is deaf and will never be able to play music with him again and his subsequent breakdown.
The book is filled with references to classical music and a person with certain basic knowledge might be able to appreciate it better.
Its not exactly a light read, neither is it philosophically like Shantaram. Its not even a feel-good kind of book, but surely worth a read.

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