An Equal Music

I have read this book so quickly. It was a mad passion which took over my week. I haven't really wanted to watch TV or movies in the evening. I just needed to know what the hell was going to happen in this novel.

This book was not my normal choice but I have had it on my shelf for  about 2 years. I also got a copy for Catherine Blay and this is the first book I have ever read in tandem with another person.  Almost like a book club. (Sorry Catherine I'm writing this without talking to you first.) 

This is nothing like A Suitable Boy.( Vikram's Indian based, wrist breaking family saga.)  And looking back on it I can't really understand why I was so sucked in and loved it so much. I think it is because I just had no idea what the hell was going to happen and what on earth this book could be about. Nor how on earth it could end. It was a really different book to anything I have ever read. 

I was totally absorbed and sucked in. Looking back it all seems quite a boring predictable story but it wasn't. It was all so real. People you could touch, emotions you could feel and music you could hear. 

Vikram Seth's writing to me is pure magic. I love his style. I haven't read a book whose author gave so much love and focus to their craft since The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. 

This book is on one level all about trying to rekindle the passion of lost love but more for me it was about the highs and lows of playing classical music. Vikram Seth was able to put into words what it must be like to be a classical violinist. Being a musician on one level makes you incredibly selfish, self obsessed, critical of others and possessed by your desire to make music your way. It also makes you aware of your emotions, the needs of the other players in your group, and the total joy of really living in the moment. 

I also loved that the main character in this book was not of the right 'type' to be a musician. A guy who became qualified through the free instrument he got at school in Rochdale and finally the 'owner ' of a beautiful, old Italian  violin given to him by a rich local woman. An instrument he hasn't been separated from for over 20 years.  In fact when the benefactor's  family start to get angry about their right to the violin when she dies is when i got really sad. Who has the stronger right to this beautiful instrument? 

This book is a love story but to be honest it was always quite doomed and dark. Vikram Seth is never scared of sharing people's emotions clearly; how selfish we are, how we can hurt each other and how in the end we can't ever truely go back to how things were in the past.  

But his style got quite indulgent and over poetic and by the end the book had turned into a weird kind of poetry anthology which got on my nerves a bit.   The best thing about this book for me was the great love of classical music. Now I have a list of pieces from the book which I have listened to on YouTube and they are all great. Thank you Vikram Seth for putting your love of music into words and sharing it.