I recently finished The Piano Tuner a novel by Daniel Mason. The idea of the book is much more intriguing than the actual work. The basic story is that Edgar Drake, the piano tuner, is commissioned in 1886 by the British military to travel to Burma to tune the piano of an eccentric doctor/captain/diplomat stationed there. The book is very descriptive and the subtlety of the writing is quite beautiful. My only real complaint is that the book doesn't seem fully realized. At the point that Mason ends the novel, I was just beginning to get interested. I was frustrated by the ending which seemed, to me, to be the easy way out for the author. Not unlike the hastily written last paragraph of my senior term paper. Obviously, I understand. I just expect published authors to do better. I will admit that the book has made me contemplate one question at length...Can an extraordinary experience that occurs in your super-ordinary life change you to the degree that you are unrecognizable to yourself or others?
(On a completely immature note...when I was searching Amazon.com for the picture above, I just typed "piano tuner" into the search bar. This was the second listing in the results. I had no idea such a genre even existed. I am so naive. If I had known, Christmas shopping would have been much easier last year.)
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