Rating: 
Summary: A minor exercise
Review: Vikram Seth on a bad day is better than almost anyone else on a good day -- but I admit I was disappointed in this book. After the almost hallucinatory lyrics of THE GOLDEN GATE, and the sweeping, hypnotic world of A SUITABLE BOY, I was prepared to be dazzled by AN EQUAL MUSIC. Despite the beautiful language, the book left me cold. I saw a review somewhere that described this book as "BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY for intellectuals," and that's more or less how I saw it. Any Seth fan needs to buy this book anyway, to encourage him and give him as much financial support as he needs to get the next book done!
Rating: 
Summary: The John Donne quote is the only good thing about the book!!
Review: A tepid love story. Naive writing, absurdly simplistic at times. I cringed at some of the sentences. A third-tier writer faking it. My only question-how did this get past editors??
Rating: 
Summary: A perfect read.
Review: I was overwhelmed by this book. Completely prepared to be disappointed, I am in awe of this work. Vikram Seth has managed to create a compelling and complete world in this book. The musical references are fascinating even to the musically ignorant (this reader) and the main character, Michael, is a carefully thought-out character. I sincerely believe that Vikram Seth is one of the most versatile and perhaps most verbally-nimble writer of our times and "An Equal Music" is perhaps his best work yet.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointing work that had promising content.
Review: I loved "A SUITABLE BOY" and am disappointed in this drawn out love story, though I enjoyed the music bits.No one seems to have commented on the style. The use of present tense throughout the novel becomes tedious. At first it gave a sense of immediacy but it could not be sustained.A pity
Rating:
Summary: Boring, boring, boring
Review: Very disappointing. I forced myself to finish this because I know Seth can do better and because I kept hoping something would happen. The characters are lifeless and tedious. As a music-lover--especially a string quartet-lover--I really wanted to like this book. Sorry.
Rating: 
Summary: Enchantingly staid after A suitable Boy
Review: After a hiatus Seth is back in an impressive rendition of love, music and the fusion and interplay between the two. Good combination. The book obviously astounds one with its lustrous knowledge about western classical music as Seth himself states "music to me is dearer than speech." A book about love, loss, mystifying pain, frustration, joy and then love regained. Michael, the narrator, and the depressed violinist leads a nonexistent life till he spots Julia in a London bus. It is a book where Julia sees herself as one with her music except that the only music she can hear is in her mind. Slowly secret visits, candid lies and sly deceit takes over for their amour. Michael thinks he has found happiness again-when he is in her blissful company and Julia finds solace and a companion for her music. Seth proves to be versatile, once again, in his mastery over the musical world and creates a saga full of melody and melancholy. Full of angst. Full of pain. Full of life's little emotions. In a well-arranged classy book Michael who leads a morbid life with his monosyllabic relationship with his father and cat and aunty and his most loved Mrs. Formby, his relationship with his flowery and "delicious" student and his depressing relationship with himself all make him a robotic-nonexistent person living with his obsession over his "borrowed" violin and his activities with his quartet. It is a darn good book. Its like this. It follows a pattern. Over hyped. After the stellar success of A Suitable Boy-this book, you see, just had to be a success. It just couldn't be any other way. Even if the theme or the main content was ordinary and funnily enough basic the publishers have to make it look like a dancing queen of all the other pouts of literature that have been trickling slowly encompassing the Indian subcontinent when it comes to writing in Englished. It is like a psychological blob that has been fixated in the minds of us audiences who just obliviously become the naive scapegoats to be bludgeoned by the "astounding" books. It flows through the continuum flux of overrated books. The book albeit, much sought out for is very staid. Very metered. It comes from the mind of a literary superstar who stands at the pinnacle of his achievements. He's a smart bloke with a musical ear. Probably he ought to give his pen a rest and switch on his CD player and simply be blithely carried in the musical metronomic reverie of Schubert or Mozart or whoever. Meanwhile, I'll read this book on a bus journey. And just let it be.
Rating: 
Summary: He can do better!
Review: I rushed to order this book and was disappointed ! It does not come close to his "magnum opus" "The Suitable Boy". But to give him credit it is hard to follow up on a book like that. The language and style were his alright but the book lacked the feeling, depth and spontaneity of The Suitable Boy.I think he would do much better with the the setting & feel in a novel set in India .That was the charm and beauty of his earlier work . The characters just do not seem to come alive. I still look forward to his new works though!!!
Rating:
Summary: A Musical Soiree
Review: Vikram Seth has done it again! His new novel is smooth as silk and goes down well, especially the parts about music-making. I think it's great when Indian writers write about subjects other than India and Indians and readers who like this book might also want to take a look at Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya's extraordinary debut novel, The Gabriel Club, set in Budapest and Vienna, and available from Amazon UK (amazon.co.uk). ADITYA CHAUHAN
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece you will remember for years
Review: I liked this much more than A suitable boy. Seth finally shows fiction the prose he is capable of and his wonderful ability to create the world of artists, far away from political noise and other distractions of the modern world. Its a delight to read about the musicians, all of whom are brilliantly characterized and the lives they all come from to come and sit together to make music. This is a much better book than Ground Beneath Her Feet. Sure footed and lyrical in its gentle observations.
Rating:
Summary: An Equal Novel
Review: Question: What happens when a poorly cat, an elderly twosome, a love triangle and a string quartet intertwine on the wheel of one of this century's most readable storyspinsters? While An Equal Music is consciously as different from A Suitable Boy as possible, its norm of enjoyability is high and the standard deviation of its readability far less extreme than the latter's. Answer: Ten of a myriad good reasons to read 'An Equal Music'.
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