1 | A 1999 novel by Vikram Seth, ''An Equal Music'' follows the story of an English violinist, Michael, who is a member of a string quartet. Ten years ago as a student in Vienna, he and a pianist called Julia fell in love, but adverse circumstances and a misunderstanding separated them. |
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3 | Now he meets her again, although she is married with a son, and is also suffering hearing loss. This meeting sparks a journey which proves tumultuous, both regarding their musical careers and their love for each other. |
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5 | Together with violinist Philippe Honoré, Seth produced a CD of all the music mentioned or featured in the novel, including Music/FranzSchubert's ''Trout Quintet'' and Music/RalphVaughanWilliams' ''The Lark Ascending''. |
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8 | !!This novel contains examples of the following: |
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10 | * AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Julia, although Michael was to blame. |
11 | * AntiHero: The protagonist (and narrator) is a deeply flawed individual. |
12 | * {{Auction}}: Piers bids recklessly for a violin, but perhaps fortunately for him, he loses. |
13 | * BettyAndVeronica: Julia has the calm and grounded James, and the moody AntiHero (and narrator) Michael. |
14 | * BroodingBoyGentleGirl: This was the situation in Vienna; it ended tragically. |
15 | * DeadpanSnarker: Several characters qualify, but Michael most of all. |
16 | * DerailingLoveInterests: The love interest being derailed is [[spoiler:''the narrator.'']] |
17 | * DespairEventHorizon: Michael spends a long time on the edge of this, unable to move, after [[spoiler:Julia breaks up with him.]] |
18 | * DidNotGetTheGirl: Michael loses Julia, and this affects the closest thing he does have to a relationship (a TeacherStudentRomance that is purely physical on his part due to him still being hung up on Julia ten years hence. |
19 | %% TheDitherer: Julia has shades of the Empathic Fence Sitter type. |
20 | * DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Brilliant musician Julia [[Music/LudwigVanBeethoven going deaf]]. |
21 | %% FirstPersonSmartass: Sometimes. |
22 | * FoodSlap: An enraged Piers doles out the "drink thrown in face" (over head, to be precise) variant in response to an acquaintance/overly opinionated professional music critic who made very obnoxious comments about music. Even better, after receiving a snippy "Fuck you!", the critic in question continues to {{troll}} Piers till he snaps and makes with the [[{{Pun}} punch.]] |
23 | * InternalReveal: Quite a dramatic and tragic one, involving a letter from [[spoiler:Julia to her husband. Michael doesn't take it well.]] |
24 | * LoveAtFirstSight: Julia and Michael's relationship is described as such. |
25 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: Michael, would it really have hurt to keep Julia's secret, to leave that letter alone, or to keep to yourself that you read it? Although from a certain point of view, perhaps it was all for the best... |
26 | * NostalgicNarrator: Michael becomes this for the flashbacks. |
27 | * TheOneThatGotAway: Julia is this for the protagonist. [[spoiler:Twice.]] |
28 | * PrecisionFStrike: [[BilingualBonus In French, no less;]] at one point, Michael's violin student [[TeacherStudentRomance and sometimes lover]] Virginie gets fed up with him during a phone conversation and hangs up with a snap of "''Va te faire foutre!''" (Literally "Go fuck yourself", but used idiomatically to mean "Fuck you".) Another occurs near the end when Michael tells the woman who has [[RunningGag repeatedly mistaken his number for that of the London Bait Company]] that she "can do whatever [she] fucking well like[s]". |
29 | * ReclusiveArtist: InUniverse, Julia becomes one. |
30 | * SecondLove: James for Julia. |
31 | * StalkerWithACrush: Michael gradually degenerates into this. |
32 | * SympatheticAdulterer: Julia qualifies. |
33 | * TakeThat: Violist Helen, the only woman in the string quartet, remarks that "In the ''Quartetto Italiano'', the woman was serially married to all three of the men." |
34 | * TeacherStudentRomance: As Michael and his French violin pupil Virginie. |
35 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Michael and Julia come close to giving them to each other toward the end. |
36 | * TrueCompanions: The novel is largely about the bond between four musicians performing as a string quartet. |
37 | * UnexpectedInheritance: Mrs. Formby's final letter. |
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