Daniel Mason: The Piano Tuner

By GERALDINE WHITFORD

Set in 1886 in the midst of the Anglo-Burmese wars, this novel embarks on a startling cultural and historical exploration, far removed from 20th-century experience.

The story begins with the British War Office's invitation to Edgar Drake, a piano tuner, to travel to Mae Lwin, in east Burma, to tune an Erard grand piano owned by Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll. Because of his alliances with native princes, Carroll is crucial to the British occupation of that area - which explains the War Office's willingness to accede to his request for a grand piano and its follow-up tuning and repair.

Living quietly in London with his wife Katherine, earning his living from tuning Erard grand pianos, Drake has little interest in the machinations of British military policy in Burma. But he loves music and is irresistibly drawn to meet a military man who cannot live in the jungle without music.

Thus he impatiently begins his adventure.

From fog-bound London, Drake travels by steamship and train to the heart of the Shan state of Burma, where his real adventures begin. These include, of course, the piano tuning and witnessing Carroll's surgery, both described in gorgeous detail.

Although the plot is linear and much of it has the structure of a travel journey, this is no ordinary travel story. Burma is a country of warring princedoms under British occupation, and Mason intersperses Drake's journey with meticulously researched historical accounts of Anglo-Burmese relations. Mason, a biology graduate, spent a year studying malaria on the Thailand-Myanmar border. He brings a scientist's attention to detail as well as a reverence for the country and period. Throughout Drake's journey, Mason weaves a pattern of meandering detours: participation in a tiger hunt with tragic consequences, a visit to Burmese street theatre called pwe, a short history of the Erard piano.

The novel also shimmers with the physical grandeur, sounds and smells of Burma. Even the foods, spices, plants and birds come under Mason's razor-sharp eye. Because of such detail, most of the book moves at a leisurely pace.

The characterisation is fairly shallow and Carroll remains an enigmatic and somewhat unsatisfactory character. Though expertly crafted, the description of a grand piano being transported by elephant through Burmese jungles defies credibility. Despite these flaws, Mason tells his story beautifully and with authority. When needed, its pace accelerates to an ending that is stark and riveting and does justice to this immensely enjoyable book.

* Picador, $49.95

* Geraldine Whitford is an Auckland reviewer.