Take a photo of a barcode or cover
theanitaalvarez 's review for:
The Piano Tuner
by Daniel Mason
Real rating: 2.5 stars.
While this book is beautifully written, I had some problems with the way in which events were represented. The story is about a man, the titular piano tuner, who is sent to Burma to tune a piano. In his trip he learns about the different culture and how music can bring peace to a colonized country. Because yes, the whole thing is set during the Victorian Age with the whole expansion of frontiers and so on as a background.
But the thing is that it’s all pretty much like the Disney-Park version of colonization. The major who asked for the piano is supposed to be the good guy, the one who wants to bring peace to the Shan people they are colonizing. We’re supposed to see the rest of the English military as proud and mean. They’re there to bring their “culture” to the natives, while Major Carroll is meant to be seen as a good guy, as he wants to use music in order to unite the cultures. He respects the Shan in a way no other occidental man has ever done and so on.
And to bring on the cliché storm, there’s also a mysterious and attractive Asian woman, Khin Myo. She’s educated and polite, and the piano tuner, Edgar Drake, seems fascinated by her. Because… colonized women are exotic and sexy, I guess. Or at least that’s the way they’re seen in colonialist fiction.
It was really hard to me to connect with the protagonist, piano-tuner, Edgar Drake. At some points in the novel I only wanted to raise my eyes to heaven and cry a little. The descriptions he makes are Othering, at the very best. Everything is “exotic”, “pure” and so on. Through his eyes we were supposed to see that Shan culture is just as good as the British one (which very much true), but with the way they were portrayed, I think it failed a little. Presenting natives as good and innocent is paternalistic and condescending. The only instance when we get to meet some sort of Shan revolutionary hero is very much watered-down and he’s again shown as mysterious and exotic. That’s not the best way to show that we’re all humans and the same.
On the good side, I guess that the investigation behind the novel was decent. Mason really seemed to know his stuff about piano making and tuning. However, whenever Edgar began talking about pianos, it seemed as if he was quoting an encyclopedia. And most of the times, it didn’t add anything to the plot. There’s a letter that she writes so the British Military are treated to a class about the history of the piano and the Erards in particular. And we, the readers, are treated to a lecture that describes a lot of useless information. Yes, I know that it’s supposed to give context or show an aspect of Edgar’s character, but it was useless (unless the objective was showing how boring Edgar really was or how much research the author did).
The ending felt a little too abrupt to me. We have about three hundred pages of novel, and everything ends in about ten. All that building up for something big to happen for nothing! Seriously, this was the most disappointing part of the book.
By the way, at some points the book reminded me about Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. But, while that book is disturbing in many levels (or maybe it’s just my trauma for overanalyzing this book in class), The Piano Tuner is only repetitive and paternalistic. We’re treated to another watered down version of colonization.
While this book is beautifully written, I had some problems with the way in which events were represented. The story is about a man, the titular piano tuner, who is sent to Burma to tune a piano. In his trip he learns about the different culture and how music can bring peace to a colonized country. Because yes, the whole thing is set during the Victorian Age with the whole expansion of frontiers and so on as a background.
But the thing is that it’s all pretty much like the Disney-Park version of colonization. The major who asked for the piano is supposed to be the good guy, the one who wants to bring peace to the Shan people they are colonizing. We’re supposed to see the rest of the English military as proud and mean. They’re there to bring their “culture” to the natives, while Major Carroll is meant to be seen as a good guy, as he wants to use music in order to unite the cultures. He respects the Shan in a way no other occidental man has ever done and so on.
And to bring on the cliché storm, there’s also a mysterious and attractive Asian woman, Khin Myo. She’s educated and polite, and the piano tuner, Edgar Drake, seems fascinated by her. Because… colonized women are exotic and sexy, I guess. Or at least that’s the way they’re seen in colonialist fiction.
It was really hard to me to connect with the protagonist, piano-tuner, Edgar Drake. At some points in the novel I only wanted to raise my eyes to heaven and cry a little. The descriptions he makes are Othering, at the very best. Everything is “exotic”, “pure” and so on. Through his eyes we were supposed to see that Shan culture is just as good as the British one (which very much true), but with the way they were portrayed, I think it failed a little. Presenting natives as good and innocent is paternalistic and condescending. The only instance when we get to meet some sort of Shan revolutionary hero is very much watered-down and he’s again shown as mysterious and exotic. That’s not the best way to show that we’re all humans and the same.
On the good side, I guess that the investigation behind the novel was decent. Mason really seemed to know his stuff about piano making and tuning. However, whenever Edgar began talking about pianos, it seemed as if he was quoting an encyclopedia. And most of the times, it didn’t add anything to the plot. There’s a letter that she writes so the British Military are treated to a class about the history of the piano and the Erards in particular. And we, the readers, are treated to a lecture that describes a lot of useless information. Yes, I know that it’s supposed to give context or show an aspect of Edgar’s character, but it was useless (unless the objective was showing how boring Edgar really was or how much research the author did).
The ending felt a little too abrupt to me. We have about three hundred pages of novel, and everything ends in about ten. All that building up for something big to happen for nothing! Seriously, this was the most disappointing part of the book.
By the way, at some points the book reminded me about Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. But, while that book is disturbing in many levels (or maybe it’s just my trauma for overanalyzing this book in class), The Piano Tuner is only repetitive and paternalistic. We’re treated to another watered down version of colonization.