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A review by tbr_the_unconquered
An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
2.0
I would like you to imagine a beautifully carved vessel. By a vessel, I do not mean the seafaring kind but one that can hold something in it. Your vessel is an object of craftsmanship. When you glance at it, you see the evidence of all that is great about hand carved elegance. Walking around the vessel you come across the world's finest carvings built into it. Examples abound ranging from Victorian to Chinese, Indian to Italian. You can't take your eyes off it but still something nags at the back of your mind about this whole object. You keep looking but it is flawless at first look. Then you look at the most important part of the vessel : inside. What has been troubling you all this while hits you then for the vessel doesn't have a bottom. It is just a shell and serves no other purpose ! This is the closest I can approximate to how this book made me feel.
It talks of a love story between Michael and Julia, both of them musicians whose affair begins in Vienna. The story then goes through the pangs of love and loss and how broken hearts are mended. The descriptions of London, Venice and Vienna are breathtaking and quite brilliantly etched. But when it comes to storytelling, this book fails big time. Within the first half of the book, I quite realised that this tale will be a waste of time. After a point, whenever the narrative of the tale came up I felt like I was reading someone's grocery list ! The love story lacks life, coherence and a soul. It is a damp squib.
Read it if you want a poetic description of a few major cities of Europe. Beyond it, it's just lifeless words in here. To sum up, it wouldn't hurt much to give this one a miss.
It talks of a love story between Michael and Julia, both of them musicians whose affair begins in Vienna. The story then goes through the pangs of love and loss and how broken hearts are mended. The descriptions of London, Venice and Vienna are breathtaking and quite brilliantly etched. But when it comes to storytelling, this book fails big time. Within the first half of the book, I quite realised that this tale will be a waste of time. After a point, whenever the narrative of the tale came up I felt like I was reading someone's grocery list ! The love story lacks life, coherence and a soul. It is a damp squib.
Read it if you want a poetic description of a few major cities of Europe. Beyond it, it's just lifeless words in here. To sum up, it wouldn't hurt much to give this one a miss.