The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason

I have just read one of the most interesting novels so far. The 62nd book I’ve read this year is the kind I will remember and chew on for years to come. It was macho in the way of “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Remarque and quirky like Amelie Nothomb’s “The Book of Proper Names” and lyrical like Irène Némirovsky’s “Suite Française.” “The Piano Tuner” by Daniel Mason was short and sweet and said so much.

The most interesting aspect of this novel to me is that Daniel Mason wrote this after spending two years in the jungles of Myanmar (Burma) studying malaria and before beginning medical school in San Francisco. The impetus was hearing a piano playing somewhere on the shores of the Salween River as he made his way by boat.

“The Piano Tuner” is set in Burma at the end of the 1800’s when Britain was in its colonization phase and prior to having control of the whole country, especially the southern Shan states. A Major-Surgeon by the name of Anthony Carroll (reminiscent of Antonio Correlli perhaps?) has set up a clinic in the only British fort in the area and appears to be brokering peace in a non-military fashion that the rest of the army either loves (soldiers) or hates (officers). One of his tools for peace is music (oh dear, this sounds like about four other war novels I’ve read lately) and specifically, piano music. He’s finagled an Erard grand piano into his jungle outpost and now has demanded that the Army supply him with a piano tuner. The finest Erard piano tuner in London is Edgar Drake.

Mr. Drake is commissioned by the army to travel by steamer and train, train and steamer to the jungles of Burma to repair and tune this magnificent instrument and his wife encourages him to go because she sees that this flight out of his own life will add the passion he so desires. The journey is long, arduous and at times perilous and Edgar has never felt more alive. The actual tuning takes relatively little time, but is followed by a bout of malaria, intense scenes of negotiating with the princes in the area for peace, Edgar’s love of a Burmese woman who is already attached to Carroll and then Edgar’s ultimate lack of desire to return home. He is forced to make the return trip when news of an imminent attack on the fort arrives. Unfortunately, Edgar’s wife will never truly know what happens to him since none of the letters he wrote and mailed ever made it out of the country.

“The Piano Tuner” is thoughtful, engaging and thoroughly prone to flights of fancy. The over-arching theme of the story is the fugue, both as a piece of music which Edgar is wont to play and think about; as well as the French origin of the word – flight which Edgar has certainly done by taking flight from his ordinary life. Readers will be enchanted by this exotic fiction based on historical figures and events.

Rating: 4*/5

(listening to the audible.com version on mp3, started 2004/12/01, completed 2004/12/14)

A lush, poetic tale of a man who finds what he loves in Burma. I’m glad I read it.

s’gorgeous, all about home and faraway places and empires and the mechanics of sound and invisibility.