The group met on Wednesday 18th May at the Old Punchbowl in Warwick. Thanks again to Angie and her team for making the group so welcome.
Frances was away in Cornwall, so this review of “An Equal Music” does not reflect absolutely all of the comments made at the meeting.
Many of the group found this a difficult read and not everyone finished it. Seth’s earlier novel, “A Suitable Boy” was set in post partition India, and although very long, was extremely readable, very atmospheric and historically accurate. “An Equal Music” by contrast is set in the UK with European chamber music as its central theme. Frances’ father came from this world, sharing the single mindedness of musicians searching for perfection and their love of their rare and often priceless instruments (My father 
never let his violin out of his sight – it came on holiday or in the car with us if we went away for the weekend. We went to complete strangers’ houses to play music wherever we were and total strangers came to us for musical evenings in the living room.) For outsiders (ie the vast majority of people) this world must seem bemusing to say the least. To spend so much time and effort searching for a lost recording – equally important to Michael as his search for his lost love, Julia, probably seems bizarre. Music aficionados have lauded Seth for his descriptions and knowledge of European music and the writing is skilful and often poetic and beautiful. The chapters are short, which means it is an easy book to pick up and put down. It has had great reviews, so perhaps we didn’t do it justice.
We are due to meet again on Wenesday 15th June at 6.00 in the Punchbowl. The next book on our list is “One Day” by David Nicholls. This is a very popular book group choice. It has received rave reviews, particularly from well known authors such as Tony Parsons, Nick Hornby and Marian Keyes who all say they wish they had written it! Something to look forward to.
