An Equal Music - Vikram Seth

Thanks to the glory that is book club, An Equal Music came my way. Over time book club has evolved into a Medusa of sorts. It's turned into a girls night in cum book swap cum drink fest cum sorority cum prenatal class cum slumber party (in my head I can hear Ineffable saying "that's a lot of cum"...). The book swap is a reasonably new advent but has so far come up with winners for me - Sari hooked me onto Gabriel Nix and Tiff put me onto An Equal Music.

Classical music isn't something I've ever really been able to relate to, largely because I didn't give it a chance. A month or so ago I went to a relatively inspiring talk by Benjamin Zander and came away full of good intentions and purpose. This lasted into my forth or fifth cocktail, possibly even slightly into the morning after, at which point I was inspired to do nothing but eat hash browns and hope for death. Now that intention and purpose has been revived and I plan to order something. I just don't know what. Yet. I am actually tempted to get An Equal Music in audio since that may include the music, but I suspect I would be too distracted by the language, because the language was excellent.

I don't particularly want to offer reviews of the books I read as such, just to revel in my enjoyment (or derision) of them. This was a great read - I had to book a meeting room to finish a chapter, it left me so wanting. It inspired me and motivated me. I'm not sure that I would recommend it to everyone, since there was plenty in it that could bore. I would, however, recommend it to anyone who thinks about sound and how it forces emotion, and to anyone who loves language.

Something striking about the book. At the very end there is an author's note where Vikram Seth says that he loves music more than speech. That, I think, is what shaped this story.