Line #18 Literature/AnEqualMusic


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.

Context Literature / AnEqualMusic