A review by meenakshisankar
An Equal Music by Vikram Seth

5.0

I am a big fan of Vikram Seth, and this book was intoxicatingly beautiful. Michael Holme, a restless classical violinist who is a member of a quartet, re-encounters his long-lost love Julia. She is a concert pianist, and is now a wife and mother. She is going deaf slowly. They used to be together as students of music in Vienna a decade ago. Each page is a symphony of sorts and the melody of his writing spoke to my heart, mind, body and soul. I was deeply affected by some of the descriptions of the romance between them, and the pain of letting go. I was thinking about some of the lines for days together, sinking in the indescribably beauty. I have no understanding of classical western music, but even to me the descriptions of the music and the process of making the music was so incredibly stimulating, and that is certainly terrific writing. I was intrigued by the title of the book after I read it, and found out that Seth had chosen it from the works of John Donne, a poet and a cleric in the sixteenth century. This is the passage and it was stunningly written –

Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening into the house and gate of heaven, to enter into that gate and dwell in that house, where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light; no noise nor silence, but one equal music; no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession; no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity; in the habitations of thy glory and dominion, world without end.

No wonder it inspired such a magnificent book.