The Piano Tuner is the story of an unassuming man from London who is commissioned by the British Foreign Office to travel to Burma to tune the piano of an enigmatic army officer living in a remote part of the country. The story of his journey and of his gradual immersion in the culture & beauty of the country is well written, but largely derivative. The author's editor should have told him that The Heart of Darkness had already been written. ( )

While I liked the author's style of writing, the subject was often rather depressing and hard to follow. Sometimes while relaying a conversation there was no break to denote who said what, so you had to read back to check. His descriptions of the area in the book (Thailand, Myanmar) are wonderful - the imagination soars.This is one of those books that demands you focus carefully while reading. No wandering minds or distractions!In the end, I closed the book and wondered if I had wasted my time - I had no real sense of closure.Not my cup of tea. ( )

Really enjoyed this book. I was told that I wouldn't like the second half but I did. ( )

The only book I know of that features a piano tuner as the protagonist. It’s 1886, and an eccentric British Army surgeon in Burma needs his piano turned. The surgeon is so important to the British Army efforts to colonize Burma that Edgar Drake, a piano tuner in London, is recruited to journey to Burma and tune and repair the surgeon’s Erard grand piano.

The novel owes much to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Is the surgeon deep in the jungle of Burma merely an influential doctor, or has he gone native? Is he working in the best interest of the British Empire, or does he have other plans? And why is a piano so important? Drake’s journey is eye-opening as he encounters a culture that he never imagined could exist. He falls under the spell of Burma as well as the eccentric surgeon who has brought him to tune his piano. Of course things get out of hand – Drake has to repair damage to the piano from a bullet.

The writing is good, although at times the author abandons traditional dialogue punctuation in favor of a style that is confusing at best – he would have been well-advised to stick to traditional punctuation at all times.

Here is the climatic moment when Drake finally arrives at the location of the piano:

Edgar climbed out of the boat.
The man looked at him without speaking. The piano tuner’s clothes were still soaked with mud, his hair matted against his forehead. He could feel the dried mud on his face crack as he smiled. There was a long silence and then he slowly raised his hand.
He had thought about this moment for weeks, and about what he would say. The moment called for words fit for History, to be remembered and recorded once the Shan States were finally won and the Empire secured.
“I am Edgar Drake,” he said. “I am here to repair a piano.”

Yes, it seems a little overblown and melodramatic when quoted. I admit that I laughed when I read that passage. The plot is, for the most part, predictable. The ending (which I will not reveal) may be disappointing to some.

And how is the depiction of the actual piano tuning? Spotty. I have had some experience in this area, in the moving, tuning, and repair of pianos. It seems that the Erard grand was transported across Burma without removing the legs – not likely. The piano tuner is called on to perform, and is able to play multiple preludes and fugues from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier without much, if any, preparation. I find that hard to believe for even a professional pianist. The descriptions of the actual tuning of the piano are also not technically accurate, at least not consistent with modern practice. But this is fiction, and we should give the author, whose training is in medicine, the benefit of the doubt.

Overall I give it two and a half stars out of five. It’s a good effort, and where else can you read a book where a piano tuner is the principal character? ( )

I listened to the Audio CD version, narrated by Graeme Malcom.
There was some abridgement in my version, possibly of some of the language that has slowed other readers down in the early stages of this book.

Edgar Drake, a piano tumer in the late nineteenth century, is entrusted with the task of travelling to remote ares of Burma to tune a piano. The piano belongs to Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll, a doctor who appears to be negotiating peace through music.
We join Drake on his journey from England, over land and water, meeting some interesting characters on the way. But it is on arrival at the fort of Mae Lwyn, his destination, that the story begins to gather momentum. As he tunes the piano, events are escalating in the surrounding area and he becomes drawn in unwittingly.
The denouement was a surprise and I'm still not sure if I found it clever or disappointing, it was certainly food for thought.

I found the CD beautiflly evocative of the sights, sounds and smells of Burma, a place I have read little about.
I have a copy of the book on my shelves and may well read it in print form, meanwhile I'll be on the lookout for his recently published "A Far Country". ( )