About the Author:  Daniel Mason

Critical Commentary and Review

adventure, but ultimately a story of disillusionment – Edgar's and ours. Mason delivers a timely critique of the self-justifying nature of military action, but he also develops an equally troubling contrapuntal theme about the dangers of quixotic rogues and "misplaced munificence." In these troubled times, it's a tune you can't get out of your head. — Christian Science Monitor

 

The novel falters a bit midway, when Edgar finally reaches the man and his piano. The real Carroll is brilliant, but not as charismatic as in the stories people tell of him. Indeed, there are moments when he seems almost sinister, and we see that he might be the master manipulator his detractors say he is. These are things with which Edgar must wrestle, but for a while the novel is a little less wonderful because of it.

 

Another quibble: Mason relates some conversations by running several characters' spoken sentences together in one paragraph, without punctuation to set their voices apart. It's confusing and annoying.

That said, this is an impressive first novel by a young writer who must have a place in his heart for adventure and knows how to tell a story.— USA Today

More relevant for these modern times, perhaps, is to read The Piano Tuner as an allegory of the expat in Asia. Piano-tuner Edgar Drake is the middle manager sent out by Head Office to troubleshoot a technical problem. At once provincial and open-minded, he is seduced and overwhelmed by the new experiences and sensations, not least the sensuality of the place

and people, finding that his personal growth ends up in conflict with his morals and marital responsibilities. He passes considerable time in an existentialist and ultimately fatal daze, not unlike the more modern expat protagonist in Charles Foran's House on Fire. —Asian Review of Books

 

Drake is besotted with Mae Lwin and is in no rush to return home. He's looking for something, but he doesn't know what it is, as he confesses in a letter to his wife: "Strangely, since I left Mandalay, I have seen more than I could have imagined and have understood more of what I have seen, but at the same time this incompleteness grows more acute. Each day I am here, I await an answer, like a salve, or water that satisfies thirst." He tells her he will return home "when an emptiness is filled."

History interrupts his reverie, and suddenly, a novel that has lost all sense of time speeds up to a dramatic, action-packed conclusion. At that point,

we realize how much we have been drawn into Drake's perception. We have floated, dreamlike, over the lush landscape with him, and now we, too, are forced to grapple with harsh realities.

Many questions remain at the end -- what was real and what did Drake let himself believe, what is the importance of truth? The questions are not holes in the story left by an inattentive author. Rather, they are profound existential questions, delicious to ponder long after the last page is turned.

"The Piano Tuner" is a haunting, passionate story of empire and individualism that couldn't be more timely as our country moves toward war. In our day, as in Drake and Carroll's, the idea that one can wage peace is still a tough sell. — San Francisco Gate

Other Suggested Reading

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad—The story reflects the physical and psychological shock Conrad himself experienced in 1890, when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. The narrator, Marlow, describes a journey he took on an African river. Assigned by an ivory company to take command of a cargo boat stranded in the interior, Marlow makes his way through the treacherous forest, witnessing the brutalization of the natives by white traders and hearing tantalizing stories of a Mr. Kurtz, the company's most successful representative. He reaches Kurtz's compound in a remote outpost only to see a row of human heads mounted on poles. In this alien context, unbound by the strictures of his own culture, Kurtz has exchanged his soul for a bloody sovereignty, but a mortal illness is bringing his reign of terror to a close. As Marlow transports him downriver, Kurtz delivers an arrogant and empty explanation of his deeds as a visionary quest. To the narrator Kurtz's dying words, "The horror! The horror!" represent despair at the encounter with human depravity--the heart of darkness.

 

The Glass Palace by Amitov Ghosh—Set primarily in Burma, Malaya, and India, this work spans from 1885, when the British sent the King of Burma into exile, to the present. While it does offer brief glimpses into the history of the region, it is more the tale of a family and how historical events influenced real lives.

 

The Servants of the Map by Andrea Barrett—In these complex yet ravishing tales of scientific pursuits stoked by loneliness and desire, Barrett ponders the spiritual toll associated with exile from home and loved ones, and conflicts between the passion for learning and the demands of love and family life. In the brilliantly subtle title story, Max, a shy English surveyor with a passion for botany, toughs it out in the dangerous and glorious Himalayas as part of the remarkable Grand Trigonometrical Survey of India,

bitterly missing his wife and children even as he realizes that this is the life for him.

 

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster—Novel by E.M. Forster published in 1924. Considered one of the author's finest works, the novel examines racism and colonialism as well as the need to maintain both ties to the earth and a cerebral life of the imagination. The book portrays the relationship between the British and the Indians in India and the tensions that arise when a visiting Englishwoman, Adela Quested, accuses a well-respected Indian man, Dr. Aziz, of attacking her during an outing. Aziz has many defenders, including the compassionate Cecil Fielding, the principal of the local college. During the trial Adela hesitates on the witness stand and then withdraws the charges. Aziz and Fielding go their separate ways, but two years later they have a tentative reunion. As they ride through the jungles, an outcrop of rocks forces them to separate paths, symbolizing the racial politics that caused a breach in their friendship.