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An Equal Music

3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 · rating details · 4,202 ratings · 356 reviews

The author of the international bestseller A Suitable Boy returns with a powerful and deeply romantic tale of two gifted musicians.Michael Holme is a violinist, a member of the successful Maggiore Quartet.He has long been haunted, though, by memories of the pianist he loved and left ten years earlier, Julia McNicholl.Now Julia, married and the mother of a small child, unex...more

Paperback, 383 pages

Published May 2nd 2000 by Vintage (first published May 4th 1999)

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Jul 08, 2007 Rachel Stern added it Recommends it for: Anyone

Shelves: justread

I was surprised by how much i loved this book. It's blow off your travelling companions and curl up in your youth hostel until you finish it good. It's finish it and then wish you hadn't so you could read it again for the first time good. The tension in the love story is addictive. But what I loved most was the way Seth writes about music. the way he integrates music into the lives of the characters (all professional musicians) is more than convincing, it's intoxicating.

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Apr 18, 2008 Julia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008-list, reread

The smell of rosin on a bow, the satisfaction of slow scales played with a partner, the sleepy somnolence of working a piece through in your head just before sleep - I miss these things. I forget them too. Viktor Seth lent them back to me this week.

I’ve read An Equal Music before, quickly. This read, with bed rest time to spin through, I read it page by page, at half tempo. It was delicious. Seth recreates the world of a violinist in a string quartet, bringing in the human element of chamber mu...more

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Dec 18, 2008 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Dive into the heart and mind of a obsessive, melancoly, melodramatic violinist who can't let go of the love of his life, a person who he had ditched out on. But seriously, this is a beautifully written book about love and music and loving music. I am not a professional musician, I played piano when I was young, but not that well, and to the reviews I've seen that found classical music oriented parts of the book to difficult or too obscure or too distracting, so as to be suitable only for those w...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Indiabookstore rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I first met Vikram Seth and later heard him speak at the Hay Festival in Trivandrum two years ago, I knew I would appreciate his written word as much as I was enthralled by the spoken ones. Having randomly chosen to read his work, ‘An Equal Music’, from the rest of the more famous lot, I find myself not just appreciative, but moved beyond words at the sheer beauty of the finely crafted story of music, love and loss.

Set mainly in London and Vienna, among the musical legacy of Mozart, Schuber...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Joseph Christoff rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 08, 2013 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century-fiction-general

By contrast with the overly-long mega-epic A Suitable Boy, An Equal Music is the equivalent of a Prelude in comparison to a Concert - just long enough to tell the story, not hindered by multiple side-plots and non-essential characters, and not trying to be big and sweeping. It's a romantic, nostalgic, bitter little tale of lost love, missed chances, and what might have beens, as two musicians once deeply in love stumble across one another's path again years later, only to find that things have c...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Dora Okeyo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I love Classical Music and when I picked this book- the size of it almost blew me away. I haven't read A Suitable Boy and a friend recommended him-so I thought why not?
"An Equal Music" reminds me of how much music can touch people's soul- and it follows the love, friendship and understanding between Michael and Julia. Michael left her ten years ago in Vienna- and now he plays in a Quartet and they meet again, but she's deaf. However Julia is still able to play the Piano beautifully and she can...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book marked not only my passage into Vikram Seth's novels, but also my adventure into classical music. The classical references (going beyond music) are subtle but very well-researched.

Overall, 'An Equal Music' was beautiful, and interesting, gripping - it did not take me long to finish it, though the book left me thinking over it for a long time. It depicts the life of Michael (and particularly, his run-in with Julia, a fellow musician he met in Vienna and fell in love with) through 'snap...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Bradley Turner rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a love story of sorts depicting a ménage à trois between violinist Michael, pianist and old flame, Julia, and classical music (especially Romantic). There's a bit more to it in characterization and personification, but suffice it to say that music is a demanding and jealous lover.

The story and the prose progress in their own masterful and entrancing way, starting rather simply and generically (as per convention), and gradually spilling forth resplendent and mysterious poetic unravelling...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Aban (Aby) rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is my second reading of this book and I think I enjoyed it as much as the initial reading. The book revolves around the loves of an English violinist, Michael Holme: his love of music, the string quartet of which he is a member,the old and rare violin on loan to him, and his passion for Julia, a gifted and beautiful pianist whom he'd known when they were studying a decade ago in Vienna. The novel traces Michael's feelings and turmoil, both over Julia and over his music.

The author, Vikram S...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Kailash rated it 1 of 5 stars

I have never gone as low and as fast in my opinion of a book as with 'An Equal Music'. After the first 25 pages, I felt that I'd stumbled on to something incredible (no doubt helped by the very simple writing, which was a refreshing change from Salman Rushdie's tediousness); but after a 100 pages it became clear that it was incredible, just the wrong type - incredibly bad.

The story is about a violinist who is reunited with his lost love after 10 years. She has re-married and has a child, yet see...more I have never gone as low and as fast in my opinion of a book as with 'An Equal Music'. After the first 25 pages, I felt that I'd stumbled on to something incredible (no doubt helped by the very simple writing, which was a refreshing change from Salman Rushdie's tediousness); but after a 100 pages it became clear that it was incredible, just the wrong type - incredibly bad.

The story is about a violinist who is reunited with his lost love after 10 years. She has re-married and has a child, yet sees nothing wrong in getting involved with him again, with remarkably little wooing from him. They have fun for a while and then she leaves him again. I know I make it sound crass, but that really is the story. There's a lot of musical stuff involved, as both of them are musicians, but that is incidental to the story.

For a book that presumes to talk about emotions and sensibilities, it is remarkably devoid of sentiment and feeling. That's the first problem. The other problem with this book, an ostentatiously realistic novel, is that it is not grounded in reality. There is no semblance of consistency, logic, even common sense to either the story, the narrative, or the characters. The narrative progresses at such a slow pace that even a snail would get tired following it. There's no thread of consistency or even a shred of believability about the protagonists' actions. Its as if they don't think at all; and all their actions and words are based on whims! The lead character is so contradictory that one gets the feeling that 4 or 5 diametrically opposite personalities have been squeezed into one. All this is very bad. What pushes it to infuriatingly bad, is that the two protagonists living in a very real world with very real problems, are so far removed from reality. It is hard to feel anything but contempt and strong loathing for them. As if that weren't bad enough, these inconsistent characters show an appalling lack of moral strength as well.

And the last straw? The writing becomes more and more pretentious as the story progresses. As if, at the beginning the writer wasn't sure about his abilities and as the book became longer he realized that he has suddenly become a good writer. To paraphrase a very apt quote - 'Its not the quantity of pages written, but the quality on the pages, that makes a good writer'.

The praise for this book was led by the Daily Telegraph - "The finest novel about music ever written in English". I will counter that verdict with mine - "A most infuriating book with the worst conceived and realized characters that I've ever come across in any book".(less)

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Mar 23, 2012 Mahendra Palsule rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Mahendra by: Amit

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Music, such music, is a sufficient gift. Why ask for happiness; why hope not to grieve? It is enough, it is to be blessed enough, to live from day to day and to hear such music - not too much, or the soul could not sustain it - from time to time.

Plot
An Equal Music is narrated by Michael Holme, a second violinist in a Quartet based in London. It is a nicely woven braid of his love of music and his love of Julia, with whom he studied music in Vienna. He has lost her when he ran away from Vienna to...more

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Jun 01, 2011 Sarah Milne rated it 4 of 5 stars

There are things I loved about this book and things I did not love, but the bottom line is that after finishing it I sat for 15 minutes and just pondered it. That's good. I have read a few reviews stating a disdain for the narrator - he's whinny, he's selfish, he's annoying. Yes, those things are true enough. But I like that Seth didn't make a heroic main character. The fact is that a person going through a failed love affair generally tends to be those things. Argue with that all you wish! I fe...more

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Sep 02, 2010 Barbara Kass rated it 4 of 5 stars

An Equal Music by Vikram Seth ……….I recommend to you a book, which has recently eased my way through a bout of the flu. It is a recent novel by Vikram Seth, entitled An Equal Music . I have never before read such a beautiful piece of fiction about professional musicians, in this case, a young English violinist in a string quartet from the Midlands, living and working in London, Bayswater, in fact. I walked with him though Hyde Park all week.

Around the central love story is a vividly drawn world,...more

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Nov 23, 2009 C. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to C. by: wom

Shelves: started-and-put-aside, 2009

I read almost half of this book yesterday, and was left somewhat perplexed. There was some nice writing about music, but apart from that - nothing. I mean, there was a plot and characters and so on, but so banal! So mundane! Well, ok, so maybe it wasn't completely banal and mundane - love and so on, of course. Deafness. Children and marriage in the wrong places for our brave protagonist. But it was slightly dramatic in such a conventional way! Why?

A good author should be able to make the slightl...more

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Dec 27, 2008 Lisa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I was disappointed in this book. I was looking forward to a novel that had lots of musical detail in it, and it definitely succeeded there, and the writing about playing was excellent. But the prose surrounding the main plot of the novel was extremely self-conscious, overwrought and annoying. I didn't find much to like in the main character (beyond his talents as a musician, which came across) and couldn't seen any reason for this great love that existed between him and Julia.

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 21, 2013 Kristine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, book-groups

You've no doubt previously heard (or yourself expressed) the following sentiment : "Yes, I liked the movie, but the book was so much better." Well, I'd like to turn that sentiment on its head. Although to my knowledge no film version exists of AN EQUAL MUSIC ( the 1999 novel by the award-winning Indian author Vikram Seth) I think a movie version would greatly have enhanced my personal reading experience. Why? Well, I could read the words, but because of my deficient musical memory and/or musical...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Bookguide rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: musicians

As I read the first hundred pages or so of this novel, a smile was never far from my face, and I found myself thinking and dreaming about the characters when I was not actually reading, because it was a beautiful love story with heartbreaking incidents (the bus) and a joyous reunion. Only later on did I start to consider that the affair was adulterous, and that I wouldn't approve in real life. As the story progresses, after the trip to Vienna and Venice, real life starts to encroach upon the dre...more As I read the first hundred pages or so of this novel, a smile was never far from my face, and I found myself thinking and dreaming about the characters when I was not actually reading, because it was a beautiful love story with heartbreaking incidents (the bus) and a joyous reunion. Only later on did I start to consider that the affair was adulterous, and that I wouldn't approve in real life. As the story progresses, after the trip to Vienna and Venice, real life starts to encroach upon the dream, and the romance fades. Other reviewers have commented that this is not for lovers of happy endings, but is this true? 'An Equal Music' is not a romance novel, but it is a novel about love, hope, rediscovering a lost love, accepting change and family, but not necessarily the typical ones in film and romance novels.

There is more than one love story in this book; not only Michael and Julia, Michael and Virginie, but Michael and his instrument, and the last one is the most important. Michael is an outsider, wherever he goes. As a child, though it is not explicitly stated, he must have been an outsider as he was passionate about classical music in a part of the country more interested in brass bands and northern soul, disappointing his parents by not going to university. As an adult, he is a mature student in Vienna, a northerner in London, a working-class boy-made-good in an upper class part of London, a late addition to the Maggiore Quartet, a musician-for-hire. Playing in the quartet is more than a job; it is more like a family, with all the tensions that that can cause. Michael always feels that he doesn't quite belong, and has an insecure tendency to analyse other people's feelings about him. He is always seeking approval, and yet always chooses the wrong gestures of defiance. It is his rebellion which caused him to leave Vienna and Julia, his own self-hate which made him wait so long before trying to contact her after his desertion. Later, his self-destructive tendencies and hyper-critical assessment of his own behaviour and the motives of others are what threaten his happiness. He has fatal flaws: lack of forgiveness of others, lack of forgiveness of himself, and inability to believe that he is worthy of love, all of which lead to the destruction of his relationships.

Ultimately, only the person to whom he gives himself without demanding anything in return can give him happiness. Only his violin can save him, and even his relationship with his violin is under threat. The wonderful thing which emerges from this novel is the deep, intense love that a musician can feel both for his instrument and for particular music. Music conveys emotion but also evokes strong emotions, and for people like Julia and Michael with an intense relationship with music, it can be used to delight, as a means of communication, to reward but also as a weapon, capable of destroying a relationship.

The writing was at times beautiful, the descriptions of music, scenery and backgrounds were wonderful. The story didn't go where I expected it to, and perhaps the book was a little long, and there were parts which I considered unnecessary, and some near the end were overly pompous. There were questions unresolved. Who was the mysterious sticky fan? Could it be Vikram Seth himself, a slightly self-conscious enthusiastic follower? Why was Michael so upset about the white dog / cat / stoat? Was there any point in the swimming in the Serpentine, or was it just a background detail? I wonder if I knew more about the art of fugue (either in general or specifically Bach's), I would have recognised the reasons why Vikram Seth structured the book as he did. The numbered sections, for example; did they follow the structure of 'The Art of Fugue'? From the discussions in the novel about alternative order of the music, omitting certain sections, could some of the sections in the novel have been omitted or rearranged at will? I don't know the answer to that, but Seth certainly writes beautifully about a non-Hollywood romance between two insecure people, about musical love, about cruelty and bitterness. A memorable book which makes me look forward to reading 'A Suitable Boy'.(less)

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Jan 05, 2013 Marianne rated it 4 of 5 stars

An Equal Music is the third novel by Indian author Vikram Seth. Michael Holme is a 37-year-old violinist who plays in the Maggiore Quartet. Ten years earlier, he left Venice and his first (and only) love, Julia McNicholl, without explanation, when he found himself unable to cope with his musical mentor’s criticism. Now living in London, he encounters Julia by chance, and tries to re-establish contact. Learning, eventually, that she is now a wife and mother in no way dampens his determination to...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone (especially music lovers)

Recommended to Sarah by: My piano teacher

Shelves: romance, reviewed

I recommend this book for the beautiful descriptions of the musical experience. Written in a very poetical manner, I felt as though the book moved me along and drew me into the complicated mind of the main character.

Following a year in Michael Home's life, a fiddle player in a quartet, 'An Equal Music' presents an intertwining of both music and love. Overall, I believe this is a story of loss and letting go. The story begins with emptiness and ends with emptiness. As Michael rekindles the relat...more

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Apr 24, 2011 Moses Kilolo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I tend to have memories of times during which I read certain books. The best of these belong to the time I spend reading A suitable boy by Vikram Seth. It was immediately followed by Catcher in the Rye and Cervantes' Don Quixote. This period was probably the time I learned to surrender myself to a book. And in reading another work by Vikram Seth, I had my expectations set.

I cannot say I was disappointed, neither can I say I was overly elated. There is a way in which Seth seems to be teaching, a...more

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Feb 26, 2012 Julia rated it 2 of 5 stars

Me thinks one needs to be a professional musician to appreciate this book to the fullest.

The review says this is a story about the love of a woman lost and found and lost again. I found it to be an obsessive and maybe a bit sick kind of love that suffocates and strangles its intended. It is also about 2 musicians and the life of professional performers, one a violinist and the other a pianist.

I gave it 2 stars because it was o.k. I thought the main character, the violinist, to be annoying in hi...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Donquierafaber rated it 3 of 5 stars

On the whole, this read was enjoyable, though the characters did not seem as fully-fleshed nor as memorable as the characters in A Suitable Boy. This was somewhat surprising since there were only two main characters in this book as opposed to a parade of many in ASB. About three-quarters through the way of this book, the prose abruptly changes style. The protagonist becomes introspective and his thoughts are jagged. It seems like he is heading for a break down. He does not, which makes the chang...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Shannon rated it 2 of 5 stars

The writing was quite good, which was probably why I persevered with this one. For this novel to be a success, for me, it needed better character development. Perhaps it was a victim of its first person narration in that we can inevitably get caught up in arguments over how well we can ever really know other people, even those we love. However, I found even the narrator to be lacking in character development. I got little sense of his motivations, and his emotional reactions often left me somewh...more

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Feb 22, 2009 Jean rated it 2 of 5 stars

In An Equal Music I think Vikram Seth, though he is not one himself, tries to write intimately about the life of professional musicians. So the book doesn't ring true for me. The trite personal bantering and lack of professionalism of the Maggiore musicians during their rehearsals seems unlikely for a world-class quartet; as well, their collaboration with Julia, a gifted but nearly deaf pianist. Their performance of the Trout Quintet with Julia may be analogous to a visually impaired brain surge...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Suzanne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked it. Let me state that first. I liked it, but didn't love it. I agree with all the rave reviews that the description of music in this book is absolutely gorgeous, as the description of smell in Süskind's Perfume is incredible. But where the story of Perfume itself gripped me in all its cruel, crazy, and intense strangeness, the story An Equal Music and its idea of grand melancholy, passionate love lost, and interesting themes left me a little disappointed. Michael does often mention he lo...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Yas rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: authors-i-cherish, contemporary-lit, couldnt-finish, library-not-owned, romance, utter-rubbish, reviewed

Brief Synopsis:

So I'll be writing a very brief synopsis on this one. Very brief. Seeing as there is very little tangible or evident plot to speak of in relation to this book of utter rubbish anyways which lead to me giving up on it. Absolute rubbish...

Anyway, it revolves around a violinist player who is obsessed with his violin and music playing in general, and briefly hints at a previous unresolved romance with a fellow musician which didn't work out for whatever reason. Cue the violins....pun...more

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Oct 26, 2009 Lynn rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Lynn by: book group

I couldn't decide on two stars or three. We just discussed this at my (live) book group, and there was lots to say. I thought the main character was someone I wanted to smack because he just couldn't be happy and had to destroy happiness around him. He doesn't "mean to," but the effect is the same. I thought the quartet he was in was much more interesting and well drawn than the main story, a love affair that begins in youth and is reignited.

Seth is such a lyrical writer, and his prose flows be...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Jessica rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This book follows a musician, a violinist. Apparently he found true love in college and then something happened in his violin playing and he ran away from college and left his girlfriend. They lost contact and it is 10 years later and he is playing violin in a quartet. He happens upon his girlfriend and realizes he still loves her. They start a romantic tryst even though she is married and has a child. She is really torn over it.

Here was the thing about this book - he wrote so beautifully about...more

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Dec 25, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookclub

It was interesting to read this for book club almost right after I re-read Anna Karenina.

It was impossible not to compare and contrast the story lines - both of the women in affairs have young sons. Both Anna and Julia struggle with guilt about their affairs, most of the guilt centering around their children rather than their husbands. Julia's guilt makes her end it and then suffer apart from someone she has more of an intimate connection with. Anna's is more complex, because there is a point wh...more

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About Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth is an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist.

During the course of his doctorate studies at Stanford, he did his field work in China and translated Hindi and Chinese poetry into English. He returned to Delhi via Xinjiang and Tibet which led to a travel narrative From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983) which won...more

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Quotes from An Equal Music

“Is it not love that knows how to make smooth things rough and rough things smooth?” — 19 people liked it

“What is the difference between my life and my love? One gets me low, the other lets me go.” — 17 people liked it

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