Reviews

The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason

rojo25's review against another edition

5.0

I don’t know why I read this book but, it is one of the finest books I’ve read. Beautiful story of a piano tuner who leaves his wife in 1886 to tune a piano in Burma. Sounds dull but it isn’t. The journey and the man’s experience and how he puts them in words is just brilliant. It’s about music, sound, medicine, humanity, botany, nature and war. It’s just remarkable.

edwardsw's review against another edition

sad slow-paced

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

luckypluto's review against another edition

2.0

I did not enjoy this book. I did not like the writing style, nor the unusual grammar and orthography in which the novel is written. It has many moments of rapid dialogue or internal thoughts that are formatted without paragraphs or even periods, making them hard to follow and understand. It has trouble deciding between past and present tense, and feels as though it ought to have been written in the first person. Even the font in which the text is set is difficult to read. The book meanders, like the numerous rivers on which it is set, and for most of its pages seems to be going nowhere. It has echoes of both Heart of Darkness and The Quiet American but resolves into neither. There are a lot of passages about the history of Burma that did not interest me; in fact, they made me groan. I am loathe to use the word “pretentious”, as that word is overused, but I found this book to be pretentious. I feel bad saying this, because the author obviously did a ton of research, and clearly has an affinity for Burma, its history, and its people, but the only reason I bothered to finish this book is because it was selected by my book club.

All that said, the ending is pretty good. The problem is that the story, which for most of the novel is going nowhere in particular, only gets exciting in the last 30 pages or so. The ending is enough to raise my rating from one star to two, but I can't give a better rating to a book that makes its readers slog through 280 pages of the literary equivalent of mud for 30 pages of excitement.

bookalina0987's review against another edition

2.0

So-so. I loved the location and the scenery descriptions but was overall disappointed with the ending.

abstract_amber77's review against another edition

1.0

This story is very detailed and slow moving, and doesn't pick up until close to the end. The book was so unimpressive that I don't even remember how it ended, and I only read it six months ago. The only reason I finished reading it is because it was a selection for my book club.

lizziec106's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

I wanted to love it, but I ended up only liking it. It wasn’t bad, but it was missing some development that could have made it great. 

avalydia's review against another edition

3.0

I started this book on January 1st, and I had an incredibly hard time getting into it - in fact, I think it precipitated the reading slump I've been in all year. It didn't help that it was a gift from a work colleague whose opinion I value, so I would feel guilty for not reading it, and then I would avoid reading it, feel more guilty, etc.

I don't think I touched it for a few months, and then I picked it back up again because I knew I needed to finish it. Slowly, I worked my way through, and gradually it got more interesting. Then, around the halfway point, I was hooked, and I read the rest in just a couple more sittings.

That said, it's hard to describe how I feel about this book. I don't think I would read it again. The writing was fine, good even. The main character was fine, the setting was interesting, and there was a lot of intrigue towards the end. But the whole ~white man goes on a journey to a foreign land, admires the locals/loses himself and of course

Spoiler

falls in love with an "exotic" woman

~ plot is so overdone, and such a white male thing to write.

Another main character, the doctor, Anthony Carroll, was built up as this almost mythical man and then fell flat (to me, anyway). Khin Myo was just there

Spoiler

to cause ~sensual~ tension, not to actually have thoughts and dreams of her own

.

Overall, it was fine, and towards the end very riveting, but it's not going to make my favorites list.

kkop12's review against another edition

2.0

Sadly I have to give this one 2 stars. It's really a 2.5 for me, but they don't offer 1/2 stars on goodreads. I just didn't really enjoy it. I found it to be BORING. Some of the imagery was nice when the author described the village, but it was way to drawn out and wordy (I felt like if I hadn't skimmed the part about tuning the piano, I might in fact be able to tune one on my own). Just not a fan. And the ending…really?

rhodaj's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

ellensears's review against another edition

5.0

REALLY GOOD LOTTA PLOT TWISTS NICE ONE MASON