An Equal Music reads like a classical work of music. It's compact, lyrical, and precise. I've always had great regard for poet/novelists, one of my favorites being Hermann Hesse. The great thing about having a poet write a novel is that it's going to be of high quality. The diction is astounding, and the flow and structure is generally impeccable. Because the poet is forced to pack so much meaning in so few words, the novelist automatically carries that sense of importance into his work as well.
Vikram Seth's work is well-crafted and beautiful until the last movement where he and his character implodes in an orgy of sentiment and excess. Up until that point, the tempo is well established and much like his main character Michael, Seth is giving a virtuoso performance. Although with an understanding that the book is from Michael, the extremely talented but delicate and unstable musician's point of view, having the book degenerate exactly when Michael does is not very gratifying to the reader. The last part of the book rambles and loses much of its focus. One thing I will say is that Herman Hesse, even more so than Vikram Seth, does ramble and repeat himself in quite a few of his prolific works. However, everything excluding these trouble spots are divine.
Although some reviewers call Michael selfish and a completely unsympathetic character, I don't think that's the case. He's clearly bipolar, as are all of the other musicians in the book. They don't become world-class at their craft by acting normal. Imagine how difficult it is to be normal when your entire life is devoted so completely to one thing and it defines you. One point that Seth makes is that Michael cannot separate his life from his music. All of his emotions and identity are intertwined with music and lost when his music is lost.
I love how Seth portrays the successful musician's life. He gets the balance (or imbalance) of the characters very well. The interaction between Michael and his quartetmates are vivid and just a joy to read. I'd have to say that I didn't care for the Michael-Julia romantic relationship so much, even though it is the base of this novel. The thing is, I find Julia very hard to sympathize with as a character. She's just as selfish as Michael, if even more so. Michael's more extreme, but Julia's not exactly well-balanced herself.
The only thing I can say about Seth is that his writing is perhaps a bit too clever. He's very good at his craft, but the novel is almost impossible to get through without some rudimentary background in music (Not that a music-hater would actually pick up this novel). Seth clearly thinks about every word carefully and places it just so in his novel. The main shocker in this novel is done well and neatly. The only thing I didn't enjoy about this singularly good piece of work is a vague sense of elitism, or Seth thumbing his nose at people who aren't up to his musical standards. Other than that, structuring the first part of the book more loosely or the last part more tightly would have created a truly wonderful book.
It would seem that Vikram Seth wrote this book partially for himself and his own love of music. I completely support that and appreciate all of the heavy research that undoubtedly went into this project. Just by the care that he put into the words, you get a sense of how important music is for him. It's always been a bit of an obsession of mine, but I love artists who really respect what they do and put in bucketloads of effort. I look forward to reading Seth's gargantuan work, A Suitable Boy, sometime in the future.
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