Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating, but not captivating
Review: The PIANO TUNER is an exploration of exotic locales and a personal awakening undertaken by a shy, reticent, middle aged man whose profession, piano tuning, perfectly matches his personality. The setting moves from sedate London drawing rooms to a part of the world where time is measured by seasonal change. The slow, languid pace of the book which seems to bother some reviewers is the only way this character and his experiences can be depicted. I found the book often fascinating, learning about the piano tuner's trade, the Burmese culture, and what others have critically referred to as the author's travelogue-like descriptions of Burma. But I was seldom captivated. At times I was even conscious of the writing style or the dialogue, something that seldom happens when I'm reading a truly great book. This is an ambitious book in scope and creativity. What it lacks most, as pointed out by one reviewer, is passion. That said, it is definitely worth reading; and I look forward to the next offering by this talented young author.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprise Delight
Review: Looking for a change of pace in my reading I picked up this book along with two or three others at my local library. I became engrossed in another book while this one languished on my bedside table. When I finished the other book I thought before returning this volume to the library I'd read a few pages just to see whether I might wish to renew it. I was quickly captivated by this fine young writer's introduction to what is surely an unusual and intriguing story. The last three days I've been wandering across the Far East with the piano tuner. We know, of course, that the real journey being taken by the piano tuner is toward a deeper understanding of himself and his place in the world. His journey, like every mythical hero's journey takes him to exotic locales where he encounters colorful, enigmatic characters. But despite the fascinating story, it is the internal process of the piano tuner that holds our attention. As other reviewers have suggested, one must decide for oneself what is truth within this journey. We know for sure only one thing, that the piano tuner gave himself completely to the process. That his choices may have been foolish, or his understanding incomplete, only make the piano tuner more like the rest of us perfectly imperfect human beings. I recall visiting my wife's family home and sitting one morning going through old family albums stacked on a bookshelf in the den. When we got to the last album at the bottom of the stack, we discovered photos of people my wife didn't recognize. We took the album downstairs and asked her mother. She didn't know who the people were either. We dream our dreams, spin our fantasies and create the lives we live. In the end no one will know how we came to the decisions we made. A hundred years from now they won't even remember we were here. That makes our journey no less compelling as we pursue it. Like the piano tuner we do our best to open to experience and to make sense of it. It was a delight to take this journey with Daniel Mason.
Rating: 
Summary: Listen to a story....
Review: Remember when you were a child and someone would read you a story over a period of time? You couldn't wait to see what happened next. THE PIANO TUNER was like that for me. I'm not usually a big fan of the British Imperial novel or slow paced descriptive narrative but this book was entrancing. The author's prose style as well as the lightly sketched characters make this feel at times like a fairy tale. The poignancy comes when the multiple ambitions of those in power intrude on the lives of every day people. This book reminded me a lot of COLD MOUNTAIN in its effortless portraiture and lyrical use of language. It's amazing what Mr. Mason has managed to convey in the simple tale of a man summoned to tune a piano.
Rating:
Summary: The Piano Tuner
Review: I am much puzzles as to why The Piano Tuner has not been widely reviewed - and positively. A first novel by Daniel Mason, currently a medical student who has done medical research in Burma, it is an intriguing story of two major figures; their characters and especially their motivations are most subtly put before us in the setting of Burma in the late 1880's when the British and the Russians were playing "the Great Game" for domination in southern Asia. Abundant auditory imagery is no surprise since Edgar Drake, the English piano tuner, is one character, and the other is a shadowy military doctor who has a mysterious political use for classical music played on an Erard piano. But visual imagery may be even more tantalizing and suggestive since the work opens and closes with the image of a Burmese woman with a parasol walking toward the setting sun and disappearing in the distance. The novel would do great credit even to a well-credentialed writer.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting yet slow
Review: The story of a piano tuner venturing out of London into the depths of the British Empire during the late 19th century on official service of British War Office caught my attention and fancy. Although I found the book interesting overall, I always felt as if I were waiting for something bigger to happen and was let down with the often uneven tempo of the book. A good read, yes, but certainly not a barnburner.
Rating: 
Summary: When will I ever learn not to...
Review: fall for the hype on paperback covers! This book was SO slow and boring, but I kept thinking "It just has to get better!" (My sentiments about "Atonement" also.) How wrong I was! I never "connected" with any of the main characters, and I found all the historical stuff about Burma tedious and confusing. Why the piano tuner felt so impacted by the place just never came through to me. Be sure to read "The Life of Pi"--now that is a book!
Rating:
Summary: REVIEW HYPE MORE BOTHERSOME THAN BOOK'S SHORTCOMINGS
Review: Mechanically, Mason keeps his writing Lego-block simple and I admire the fact that he doesn't try to wade into literary waters he is most obviously not ready to swim.. Unfortunately this makes for tedious reading at times, especially for someone like me who loves the tap-dancing prose of a Salman Rushdie or John Irving. In fact on more than one occasion I felt like I was reading someone's high school creative writing paper. But Mason has obviously done his homework and so what he lacks in lyrical aptitude he at least makes up for in imparting a rich history of 19th century Burma along with everything you ever wanted to know about an Erand piano but were afraid to ask. The stylistic shortcomings of the book don't bother me nearly so much as the review hype on the back cover -- I seriously wonder whether these critics actually ever read the book they have been assigned or if instead some grunt intern doesn't just hand them a one-page summary of the book after which the reviewer reaches down to the bottom of his/her velvet-adjective-sack and like fairy dust, sprinkles a few choice (completely arbitrary) descriptive words onto the back of the dust jacket. I say this because 'seductive' (NY Times), 'gripping' (USA Today), 'profound' (The New Yorker), 'luminous' (LA Times), this book is NOT. It's a quiet, well-researched book; the meat-and-potato prose follows a boring English piano-tuner-chap, one, who having spent his whole life 'tuning' pianos scattered throughout the parlors of London, has also managed to 'tune out' the great big world he now beholds in astonished wonder. Not surprisingly, he is reluctant to go back to the wife and fog he has left behind -- or to use a pun: back to the same old tune. All in all a pretty good first book by a talanted young man but the book is certainly not of the caliber the reviewers would have us believe.
Rating:
Summary: Elegant blend of history, myth, music and imagination.
Review: Was Edgar Drake a hapless foil? Was he really mixed up in espionage, codes and a plot against his own government? The reader must decide. Nonetheless the reader's trip from England to Burma is an exotic, engaging one. Edgar, a devout piano tuner, is summoned by the military to make an arduous trip to Burma to tune an Erard, an instrument that is to the piano what the Stradivarius is to the violin. He's honored that his reputation is so sterling that he willingly undertakes the mysterious journey in what he believes is in service to his queen, leaving behind a loving wife to whom he is equally devoted. The story takes place in the 1800s. Britain, as a colonialist country, has laid claim to portions of India and Burma and is fighting multiple (Burmese) regional princes who are not about to willingly give up their country or their way of life. As Edgar travels by train and boat, he's fascinated by his novel surroundings. Rather than passing judgment on the different food and customs and beliefs he encounters, Edgar is smitten. Finally, he meets the mysterious Surgeon-Major Anthony J. Carroll, who is so important to the English that they would accede to the unusual request for both the Erard and a piano tuner who must put it right because of the piano's own perilous trip, Burma's humidity, plus having been through a full on military attack by an enemy! Enter a beautiful woman. She is intelligent, attentive to Edgar, escorts him about the mountainous environs where Carroll is in charge, introduces him to the local flora and lore. What the mysterious Khin Myo's relationship is to Carroll is speculative but her importance is obvious and she is omnipresent. Carroll appears to be the antithesis of the British conqueror and introduces a fascinated Edgar to the small medical clinic he has founded where he assists the local people as best he can using both meager supplies of western medicine, as well as blends of herbs from the local area. Carroll is an avid scientist and social scientist. He has studied malaria, for example, although he has no archives to search or modern day medical journals, he's surmised that it is a mosquito that bears the disease. The good doctor is also well schooled in local myth and lore and uses his ample negotiating skills to make peace with the local warlords. He's convinced he can bring about peace without firepower. Music is also a preferred tool to his anticipated peaceful outcome. Edgar is fascinated and Carroll completely wins him over. However, over time the doctor seems to elevate Edgar's role from piano tuner to one involved in bringing about peace to the area. Edgar is perceptively unwilling to return to England and the western ways. This proves his undoing. The beautiful Khin Myo's allure is fundamental to Edgar's remaining with the Shan people. The relationship remains chaste but promising? Then everything falls apart and Edgar is accused of being the doctor's accomplice in betraying his country. To describe the plot more is to spoil the journey for the reader. The author is impressive in his storytelling, although parts of the tale are slow moving...perhaps intentionally. Especially in the descriptions of Edgar's journey to Burma. Nonetheless his research into the country, its history, its music, its lore is certainly evident. Finally, the descriptions of the Erard, of the tools of piano tuning, as well as the painstaking process in tuning a piano are just as impressive!
Rating:
Summary: correction to negative review
Review: Despite what one of the reviews says, the author does use contractions in characters' speech. I direct you to pages 99-101 and 50-52, which I picked at random. Contractions undoubtedly occur throughout the book. This is not _True Grit._ Also, the ship's captain is referring, on page 51, to the army officers as "bores." On page 52, when he uses the term "an extraordinary lot" he's referring to the other passengers.
Rating:
Summary: Magical, fascinating, dazzling!
Review: Please read this book slowly, take your time. Savour every minute of reading and every single page of the book! In 1886 the piano tuner Edgar Drake is summoned to a remote military outpost in the Shan States to tune an 1840 Erard piano. The piano to be tuned belongs to the somewhat eccentric Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll. Carroll was granted the piano itself as well as to have it tuned by a specialist by the British War Office, because his efforts of bringing peace to that region have proven invaluable to the British Crown. During this fabulously narrated tale the reader is taken on Drake's journey to Burma, via France, the coasts of Africa, Bombay, Allahabad and Benares to the Bay of Bengal and finally to the fictional place of Mae Lwin. The author has found a marvellous way to depict Drake's 5,000 mile-journey to Mae Lwin, the wonders of nature, the way of life in the colonies as well as the mysteries of human nature. Besides dwelling on beauty he points out the differences between Burman and English culture and in a subtle, yet very impressive way the intrusion of the colonial masters into the spirits and lives of their colonial subjects (e.g. setting up military headquarters right next to a pagoda). The coaction between the characters of Edgar Drake, Dr. Anthony Carroll and Khin Myo is stunning and exceptional. The story of the "Man with one story" as well as the little poem about the lotus-eaters have captivated me. I didn't want to finish this book. If I had been in Mae Lwin, I wouldn't have wanted to leave it either. I can nearly guarantee you that you will become a lotus-eater too, once you have started reading this book (you will understand this reference then as well). Result: 5 stars are more than justified for this astonishing debut-novel of such a young man!
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