Reviews

The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason

jess_mango's review against another edition

3.0

I would rate The Piano Tuner somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. The book was about a quiet, dull British piano tuner who is sent by the army to the remote jungles of Burma to tune the piano of an eccentric army surgeon. The book is well-researched but tended to be a little too dry in parts. Also, I never felt like I really understood what motivated the central character--the piano tuner.

booknick's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

monkeychops's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Gave up at 40%. Liked the premise. The plot seemed to slow right down though. Some boring tangential stuff too

knitswhilereading's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

evgeorge's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

peterp3's review against another edition

3.5

Interesting and well-written in parts, but not fully rounded. The start is a bit shaky - the author doesn’t have a good feel for the scenery or the dialogue of Victorian London. But it gets better once he gets to Burma, where the author has personal experience. But in the end, the story doesn’t really hang together because I didn’t really get WHY Caroll wanted a piano in his fort in the first place. Did he ever play it himself?

maya_moksha's review against another edition

3.0

I  enjoyed the writing style of this meandering journey. 

However, important to note, many of the offshoot storylines will remain open. Plus, the ending is reminiscent to being in English class, writing a great story, and your teacher gives a 2 minute pencils down warning, so you suddenly have your main character wake up from the dream. Thus, while this ending is different from a dream, the story is over abruptly and with so much lost potential.

I agree with other reviews, that it would be a good book club choice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Animal death, Child death, Gun violence, and Medical trauma

kelbi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book should have been firmly edited. It is way too long unless the reader wishes to know an enormous amount about 19th century Burma

jason_pym's review against another edition

3.0

I'm sure this will irritate the author, but it's great Somerset Maugham meets Heart of Darkness stuff. The only negative is the ending: Very abrupt and unresolved - no romance with Khin Myo, Carroll dissappears, sudden death of the piano tuner. Unsatisfying, and out of pace with the rest of the book.

theveryslowreader's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0