An Equal Music

Vikram Seth

ISBN 0-75380-773-4, copyright 1999, 486 pages paperback

7 May 2000

I had actually read this book in early March 2000. It took me into another world, one I am very familiar with. It inspired me to compose a short piano solo piece MAKING MAGIC, for truly music flows out spontaneously with a certain mood.

Vikram Seth writes as if he is a musician. He writes as if he plays the violin. In reality, he is not a musician but has done his research well.

The places he mentions in London - I have been - so it is not difficult to retrace the steps of the main character the violinist and his past undying flame - the pianist. London, Vienna, and Venice. Music is both romantic and personal.

What I enjoyed particularly about the book was the conversation about music. Each piece of music has a life of its own, just as each instrument has a soul. It touches that part of us which we don't usually expose in public or in the first encounter.