The Piano Tuner: A Novel
by Daniel Mason
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1399)
Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
Those who aren't passive readers expecting everyhing to be explained.
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Read in March, 2003
I must begin this review with a caveat: I cannot write about The Piano Tuner in an unbiased fashion, because I love it more than words can describe. I have read it at least 3 times, and each time I am completely drawn in to the world of Edgar Drake, and 19th century colonial Burma. If I were forced to choose a favorite book, this would be one of the contenders. No novel before or since has spoken to me quite as much as this one has.
The Piano Tuner is the the story of Edgar Drake, a London ...more
The Piano Tuner is the the story of Edgar Drake, a London ...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to Srgause by:
Becca-Book Club
I am impressed by this book on so many different levels I don't know where to start. The fact that the author was in the middle of pursuing a medical degree while he wrote this (and another one) is mind boggling to me. That there is so much good about this book makes me even more stunned.
You can easily imagine this book as movie while you read. One of those old fashioned black and whites with easy dialogue and handsome old-world actors.
Mr. Mason switches voices almost as seemlessly as we...more
You can easily imagine this book as movie while you read. One of those old fashioned black and whites with easy dialogue and handsome old-world actors.
Mr. Mason switches voices almost as seemlessly as we...more
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Read in July, 2008
I was going through a box of books that a friend was giving away, and I came across this novel. I was attracted by the title, so I took it home to read.
The pros: There is a bit of history on the technical aspects of the development of piano-making that I found fascinating, and I enjoyed the details about the actual process of repairing and tuning a piano, though anyone not interested in pianos would probably skip that, much like I did most of the boring Burmese history. Also, there are ...more
The pros: There is a bit of history on the technical aspects of the development of piano-making that I found fascinating, and I enjoyed the details about the actual process of repairing and tuning a piano, though anyone not interested in pianos would probably skip that, much like I did most of the boring Burmese history. Also, there are ...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone interested in the history of the british in burma
Set in 19th century Burma, the British Army tries to keep a surgeon and Major, who has successfully negotiated and maintained peace in his outpost through creative and non-violent means, happy by fulfilling his request for an 1840 Erand grand piano. Months after its arrival, it becomes horribly out of tune, and the captain, Anthony Carrol, requests the services of a piano tuner.
In the late 1800s, travel to Burma took even longer than my 25 hour ordeal (I know! Instead, it took about a month ...more
In the late 1800s, travel to Burma took even longer than my 25 hour ordeal (I know! Instead, it took about a month ...more
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Read in August, 2008
I'm normally a fantasy reader, but I stumbled upon this book in a library and was interested. So, I took it home.
Set in the time of the Anglo-Burmese conflicts, this book is about a piano tuner (of course) from London named Edgar Drake who is commissioned to tune an Erard piano in the jungles of Burma. The owner of the piano, Surgeon Major Carroll, demands it be tuned. Not willing to deny a most important figure, the British army accepts. And so Drake makes his journey, encountering intrigui...more
Set in the time of the Anglo-Burmese conflicts, this book is about a piano tuner (of course) from London named Edgar Drake who is commissioned to tune an Erard piano in the jungles of Burma. The owner of the piano, Surgeon Major Carroll, demands it be tuned. Not willing to deny a most important figure, the British army accepts. And so Drake makes his journey, encountering intrigui...more
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Read in March, 2008
This book left me with mixed feelings. The prose were beautifully written, and the descriptions portrayed in the book were graphic, and well developed. I have always loved books set in this era, and this one delivers -- not only in the portrayl of the era itself, but also in the descriptions of the land, the society, and the culture of Burma. The main story line is one I also found interesting -- I can't imagine moving a piano across a city without modern conveyances -- but through a jungle b...more
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Read in June, 2007
"Edgar Drake lives a quiet life in late 19th-century London as a tuner of rare pianos. When he's summoned to Burma to repair the instrument of an eccentric major, Anthony Carroll, Edgar bids his wife good-bye and begins the months-long journey east. The first half of the book details his trip, and while Mason's descriptions of the steamships and trains of Europe and India are entertaining, the narrative tends to drag; Edgar is the only real character readers have met, and any conflicts he m...more
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Read in September, 2007
Wow - I just finished this and was pleasantly surprised to find that I like it so much. It was far from a can't-put-it-down book, as evident by the fact that it took me over a week to finish it. (I devour books by nature.) The beginning definitely felt slow, but I can see now how it was all essential to the building up of the character.
Perhaps my favorite part is in the author's notes at the back. His story of his own adventures in these foreign lands, with half a sentence alluding to th...more
Perhaps my favorite part is in the author's notes at the back. His story of his own adventures in these foreign lands, with half a sentence alluding to th...more
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The The Piano Tuner is a novel about British colonial rule in 19th century Burma and a really nice untuned Erard Piano. Edmund Drake's journey from sophisticated London to end of the world uncivilized Burma is a long path across many pages. Unfortunately, I got bored in many of the descriptive stretches. It wasn't until the last quarter of the book that I truely began to embrace the novel. What I enjoyed most is Mason's treatment of the piano. To me the Heart of Darkness aspect of th...more
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Read in March, 2007
The Piano Tuner did not impress me initially. Something about the era in which it takes place seemed to make the author stilted in his descriptions, or somehow overly formal. Set in the 1880's, it follows the story of a piano tuner summoned by the British Empire to travel to Burma to repair the piano of an eccentric Doctor and leader of a fort deep in the jungle.
The author, Daniel Mason, was apparently some sort of med school student stationed somewhere in Burma (Myanmar now, I guess) while...more
The author, Daniel Mason, was apparently some sort of med school student stationed somewhere in Burma (Myanmar now, I guess) while...more
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Read in April, 2004
In many ways I found this book similar to Graham Greene's _The Quiet American_: Both take place in Southeast Asia as Europeans begin to colonize the region; the culture and the people of the region are examined, as well as the impact of the colonizers on the people. _The Piano Tuner_ has a beautiful, exotic tone, and while there were some parts that felt a little "long" to me, it was still a pleasure to read.
Edgar Drake is a London piano tuner, who is commissioned by the Royal Army...more
Edgar Drake is a London piano tuner, who is commissioned by the Royal Army...more
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I was shocked by how poorly written this book was. Maybe I'm missing something. I admit that I abandoned it somewhere just past the halfway point, but it was a bit like leaving a baseball game when a team is up 15 to nil. There wasn't a lot of chance for redemption here. This book read to me exactly like a puppet show, where each voice, and each emotion was just a undisguised projection of the voice of the author. Its as if the characters open their mouths and the exact same voice comes out of e...more
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Read in April, 2005
The Piano Tuner takes place within the jungles of Burma in 1886. The British War Office requests that Edgar Drake, a piano tuner, repair the Erard grand piano of an 'important' surgeon-major stationed there. The book is actually divided two. During the first book Edgar prepares for and makes his journey to Burma. This book is filled with stories of meeting with British officials, reading the official history documents of the British in Burma, Edgar's letters to his wife as he travels and the sto...more
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Read in September, 2007
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was incredibly engaging, and I loved how immersed I was in another culture and time. As much as I enjoyed reading it, I finished it feeling a little bit like I missed something. As much attention was spent on the atmosphere and physical descriptions of the people, I was a little surprised that there wasn't more leading information about what was really happening. I finished the book feeling like the ending was totally out of left field, and had to think...more
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Read in July, 2008
Being a pianist, I especially enjoyed this book. I loved the references to various preludes by Bach and the Haydn Sonata Op 50 in D Major (Youtube it!). When I finished the book, I found my WTC (Well-Tempered Clavier) and played Bach's Prelude #4, referenced on p. 248 in the novel. I think I will always remember it. I was a little disappointed in the ending, although, it added to the mysteriousness of the story and the haunting qualities throughout (Please don't let my disappointment keep you...more
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I listened to this as an audiobook on a long car journey recently and found it well-written and very enlightening about the colonial history of Burma and the mysterious Shan wars. The protagonist is a British piano tuner who is hired to tune a grand piano belonging to an eccentric military surgeon living in a remote corner of Burma. It speaks eloquently of the military/colonial mindset when confronting fourth-world cultures that fight back. It is also a mystical book. Its conclusion leaves me un...more
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Read in April, 2008
It is rare that I stop reading a book before the end. Usually I will read the whole thing and then come to the conclusion that it was a bad book, didn't need to read the book, etc.
I didn't need that long for this one. I have never taken so long to read 100 pages in my entire life. There is just no way that I can recommend this to someone, sorry. It reads like one of those books we hated in high school, and plods along like some 17th century English aristocrat who had to write something t...more
I didn't need that long for this one. I have never taken so long to read 100 pages in my entire life. There is just no way that I can recommend this to someone, sorry. It reads like one of those books we hated in high school, and plods along like some 17th century English aristocrat who had to write something t...more
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Read in June, 2007
Edgar Drake is a mild mannered man who is dedicated to his craft and his wife. He receives an unexpected request from the British military to travel to the jungles of Burma and tune a piano. Most of the novel is intriguing full of travel, music, and exotic sights. I felt the novel faltered once Drake reaches the piano and the controversial Carroll, an officer keeping peace with unconventional methods.
Pet peeve: The author has several characters' spoken sentences together in one paragraph,...more
Pet peeve: The author has several characters' spoken sentences together in one paragraph,...more
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Read in December, 2006
A confused and weak plot, lost in a fog of unnecessary pseudo-poetic verbosity. Ok - I have to confess that from the point where I read the words something about the main protagonist lying on his back and floating gently *upstream*, I realised that I was unlikely to be able to read the rest of the book and not want to kill the author with my bare hands.
There are admittedly some examples of beautifully turned prose in this book as well; in places it is quite evocative. If however you're looki...more
There are admittedly some examples of beautifully turned prose in this book as well; in places it is quite evocative. If however you're looki...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.49 (1104 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.48 (1010 ratings) number of reviews: 183popular shelves
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