America can understand France
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I read this book in March, 2005. This was the book I enjoyed most over the past year. The author is an American who really knows France (where I live). And he loves music and pianos. He makes friends with a piano restorer and, with this as his point of departure, he takes us gently and with wit through the history of the piano - its invention, its makers, improvements, and great music written for the instrument. This is all against the background of the beautiful city of Paris and the character of the French. At a time when there have been 'misunderstandings' between his country and mine, how wonderful it is to read about an American's adventures in this wonderful, civilised country in 'old Europe'!
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Fascinating
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This is a wonderful book, a leisurely amble through the streets of Paris - you can almost smell the coffee. It gives a fascinating glimpse into the world of pianos with lots of factual information on how pianos are made and tuned. It is a gentle book and at the end you just lean back and sigh. I wish he would write some more.
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