The Piano Tuner

The Piano Tuner- Mason
Audio performance by Simon Vance
4 stars

Music, to create harmony, must investigate discord. Plutarch
(Epigram at the beginning of the novel)

I hardly know what to think about this book, although I know I liked it.

The story builds slowly. It is an intense character study of the piano tuner, Edgar Drake, as he is pulled away from his securely routine London life. It is 1886, a time of British expansion into Burma. An eccentric army surgeon in an isolated outpost of the Burmese highlands has a piano in need of tuning. The unlikely Edgar Drake is tapped to perform this patriotic duty.

Mason pulls Edgar out of his narrow existence and exposes his character to other races and widely divergent ethnic art and music. His show more relationship to Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll adds observational and scientific descriptions to Edgar's increasing infatuation with the exotic setting. Edgar’s internal meditations make up most of the philosophical dreamlike atmosphere of the book. It becomes more and more mysterious and surreal when Edgar finally reaches the remote Mai Lwin where he meets the Surgeon Major and finally tunes the incongruous piano.

In the end this was a melancholy story. The writing was wonderful. It made me think. I wanted to reread many of the passages over and over. There’s a message, of course. Edgar and his Surgeon Major are attempting to create peace among warring factions with modern medicine and soul stirring music. The British Army is interested in subduing and sublimating the indigenous population. It doesn’t end well. show less

Edgar Drake, a reserved piano tuner from London, has been given a curious assignment by the British government. He has been hand picked to repair an ancient grand piano belonging to Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll. Carroll, stationed in the jungles of Burma, refuses to work without the ancient piano in working order. As Edgar journeys to the Surgeon-Major he learns the man is polarizing. In some circles Carroll is a legend and is toasted as a hero; almost a god. While in other places Edgar Drake has been warned not to talk about the Surgeon-Major at all. Not one word. Everywhere Drake goes everyone knows Anthony Carroll for better or worse. [As an aside, there is a such a build-up in The Piano Tuner to meeting the man himself; it is 165 show more pages before Drake even arrives in Carroll's Mae Lwin village.]
The jungles of Burma are a far cry from the damp and stodgy London Drake is used to. Before he arrives in Mae Lwin to meet Carrol, he is taken on a tiger hunt. He sees the cruelty of the culture first hand. It was interesting to witness the personal transformation of this quiet Londoner. By the time he reaches Mae Lwin he has fallen in love. His quest doesn't seem to be about a piano anymore. show less

Published in 2002, The Piano Tuner is historical fiction that follows the 1886 journey of Edgar Drake, a London piano tuner, who is commissioned by the British War Office to travel to the remote village of Mae Lwin in Burma (now Myanmar) to tune a rare Erard piano belonging to eccentric British Army Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll. Mason meticulously recreates the period, incorporating real historical events and figures. The book explores the complex relationship between the British Empire and the local populations, especially the tensions between colonial control and cultural (mis)understanding.

The novel criticizes British imperialism in Burma through Drake's evolving perspective. He begins as a reserved, methodical craftsman but show more gradually opens himself to new experiences, eventually becoming so enchanted with Burma's people, landscapes, and cultures that he finds it difficult to leave. Carroll uses Western music to connect with local people, believing it can transcend cultural differences and facilitate peace. It is particularly effective at portraying the military’s preference for the use of force versus Carroll’s desire for diplomatic persuasion.

Mason's prose is lyrical in its attention to sensory detail. His descriptions of Burma's landscapes, sounds, and cultures create a vivid, immersive reading experience. He integrates information that may not be well known (particularly in the western world) regarding the history and culture of the region, and especially the Shan resistance, without overwhelming the story. He also provides a glimpse into medical knowledge of the era and piano tuning techniques, which I found fascinating.

It is a “literary” historical fiction that is deliberate in its pacing and probably will not hold much appeal to those who want lots of action (until the ending, which provides plenty.) I really enjoy this type of slow-burn, and it seems appropriate to a story of cultural immersion. It will appeal to those who value ambiguous storylines, with plenty of room for an individual reader’s interpretation. show less

In October 1886, about a year after the British invaded and took over the lower region of Burma, a shy and modest piano tuner Edgar Drake received a strange request from the British War Office. The Crown had requested of his immediate service in repairing an Erard grand piano thousands of miles away, its soundboard swollen and miserably out of tune. He was to leave his wife and his quiet life in London to travel to the jungles of Burma; settled deep in a country that was almost too dangerous for a civilian deprived of any military training. The piano belonged to one Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll who had requested the piano 30 some years earlier and threatened to resign from service had the acquisition not granted by the Crown. The show more irreplaceable doctor, whose eccentric peace-making strategies comprised of poetry, medicine and music, despite much disapproval and jeering from contemporaries, had mitigated tension in Burma and brought a tentative quiet to the south Shan states.
Though the request for piano repair in war states was strange and incredulous, the premise of the debut novel is tantalizing enough to elicit interest to move on as Edgar Drake embarked on his journey to the Far East. The first part of the novel detailed his journey through Europe, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, India, then into Burma - but still that was not it as Drake had to venture into the jungle, almost in dugout, from Rangoon to the distant fort of Mae Lwin. The encounter with officers whom he had always mistrusted, Burmese, bandits, and soothsayers further intensify the suspense of what Drake might expect at his destination, and accentuate his thirst for the damaged piano.

Author Daniel Mason, who had spent a year studying malaria on the Thai-Myanmar border, where much was the book was written, delivers an absorbing story of a world in transition, through vicissitude, enlivened through characters who loved music and peace and suffer from warfare with equal intensity. The book delineates the complicated cross-currents of emerging espionage, the British contention with the Limbin Confederacy, the consolidation forces of French forces in Indo-China, and local insurgence that threatened British hold of remote regions.

Though not as rich and layered an epic as The Glass Palace, The Piano Tuner subtlety probes the meaning of identity of homeland. To Edgar Drake, it was his duty to the piano and not the Crown and he what mattered the most was that he could help in the cause of music. While at one point he felt disconcerted at the delay of repair and his hope began to vanished, he also felt like Odysseus who could no longer return home after witnessing all the wonders of a country which he struggled to eke out an inkling of understanding. The Piano Tuner is a memorable tale of one man's journey to self-discovery and passion. show less

"Edgar Drake, Piano Tuner, Erards-a-Speciality, put the letter down on his desk. An 1840 grand is beautiful, he thought, and he folded the letter gently and slid it into his coat pocket. And Burma is far."

This bizarre but well-dreamt tale of a timid piano tuner who is summoned into the service of His Majesty in order to travel to Burma and tune a piano for an enigmatic and eccentric British officer in the Shan States of Burma carries the reader from 19th century London (remarkably changed and yet the same as today), through the Red Sea, past India and into Burma. Once there, he is captivated by the fragile peace, the Doctor's true motives, and the beautiful woman who travels at his side...

For the first 250 pages, this was an excellent show more novel. Mason sets up the trip well - the disorganised piano tuner, his patient wife a little nervous about his departure, the odd visits to the War Office - and then the epic journey on sea and land, punctuated by letters from the Doctor whose piano he will tune. Drake is an odd, timid character, who slowly flowers under the hot Burmese sun. The mix of Carroll, Khin Myo and Drake makes for 100 pages of clever and sensitive dialogue once Drake reaches Mae Lwin. The adventures of getting the piano away on a raft and the various sojourns into the nearby wilderness are funny and richly descriptive respectively.

The end of the book put me right off it - much like The Great Gatsby, the ending felt rushed and tacked on a bit disjointedly. Not dissimilar to Dances with Wolves, once the conversion has happened, the attempts to go back go badly. In addition, we are treated to long passages explaining the historical context, the necessity of which I'm not disputing, but they were fairly dry.

Maybe best to stay away from this one unless you're a big fan of the period? If you've read this and disagree with my half-and-half verdict, I'd be very interested to hear it. show less

I loved this book. I approached it without expectations and, maybe, because of it I was so nicely surprised by its poetic beauty. This is an amazing accomplishment for a first time author. Sometimes a book will come along in which we immerse ourselves so totally as to be taken away into its realm/time/space. I think I read fiction so eagerly in a constant search for this experience, because this feeling is as additive as it is evasive: that primal pleasure of reading.

This is a complex story. Edgar Drake, a middle-aged piano tuner is summoned to go to Colonial British Burma to work on a classic piano in a remote outpost.

…I have seen a world that is different, yet I have not began to understand it. Coming here has created a strange show more feeling of emptiness in me that I didn’t know I had, and I don’t know whether heading into the jungle will fill it, or tear it open further. He writes to his wife once he arrives in Mandalay and series of political events threaten to stop him from finalizing his journey.

That the exotic landscape and its dream like quality would affect Edgar Drake and send him into a journey of self-discovery is the obvious aspect of this story. But that the author manages so skillfully to woven historical and political fragments, music and art into the story’s background, and that the insidious nature of colonialism, with its cultural arrogance, is so well portrayed without becoming contrived; these are the great surprises of this book.

Reading other reviews of this book here on goodreads I became aware of the parallels between it and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, which I have not yet read, but have now added to my wish list. I hope that it will also take me to that place of no-place that this book has taken me. show less

DM writes so well! His depiction of place is stellar. I knew nothing about the historical context of this story and appreciated this way of expanding my knowledge of British colonialism. How I long for — in vain I’m sure — us humans to stop our cruelty towards and subjugation of each other. It becomes so easy for us when we label the targets of our animosity as “other” or “savage” or “primitive” or “terrorist” or whatever label allows us to distance ourselves enough to feel justified and morally righteous about our beliefs and actions. I feel sad and preoccupied with this story.