Maestro
Maestro (1989) by Peter Goldsworthy notes
Warning!! Most of this stuff didn’t come from my English teacher. A lot of it happened when I just started thinking about the novel and what it might mean, so please don’t blame me if your English teacher thinks its wrong or whatever. If you have any questions about what I mean about anything I’ve written, inbox or call me if you want.
Synopsis: The story of, among other things, a teenage boy (Paul Crabbe) living in Darwin from the late 1960s onwards and his relationship with his mysterious Austrian piano teacher (Eduard Keller).
Characters: Paul Crabbe. Paul is the protagonist of Maestro and the narrator. He narrates the novel retrospectively (see Techniques) as an adult. On a basic level, Paul is a fifteen year old boy with a gift for playing the piano. He is very talented, and never tires of hearing other people, particularly his parents, shower him with praise. However, this state of mind whereby he is a flawless piano player is changed when he meets Herr Eduard Keller (Herr is the German word for “mister”, see Explanations). For the first time in his musical career, Paul has met his match. Keller is critical of him, almost painfully so, and is the only person, aside from the future Paul, who can recognise the sheer arrogance that is at the base of Paul’s character. The story follows Paul’s development as a piano player, but also his development as a human being. His schoolyard escapades as well as his relationships with the other characters in his life are also explored; however, some things remain common to all of the aspects of Paul’s life, namely, Paul’s naivety. Throughout his adolescent life, Paul is plagued by a lack of understanding of many abstract concepts. One such concept is beauty. Paul has augmented ideas about beauty, and fails to realise that beauty is an infinitely complex concept which cannot be harboured in the way that he wants to hold onto it forever. An example of this is when he goes out
Warning!! Most of this stuff didn’t come from my English teacher. A lot of it happened when I just started thinking about the novel and what it might mean, so please don’t blame me if your English teacher thinks its wrong or whatever. If you have any questions about what I mean about anything I’ve written, inbox or call me if you want.
Synopsis: The story of, among other things, a teenage boy (Paul Crabbe) living in Darwin from the late 1960s onwards and his relationship with his mysterious Austrian piano teacher (Eduard Keller).
Characters: Paul Crabbe. Paul is the protagonist of Maestro and the narrator. He narrates the novel retrospectively (see Techniques) as an adult. On a basic level, Paul is a fifteen year old boy with a gift for playing the piano. He is very talented, and never tires of hearing other people, particularly his parents, shower him with praise. However, this state of mind whereby he is a flawless piano player is changed when he meets Herr Eduard Keller (Herr is the German word for “mister”, see Explanations). For the first time in his musical career, Paul has met his match. Keller is critical of him, almost painfully so, and is the only person, aside from the future Paul, who can recognise the sheer arrogance that is at the base of Paul’s character. The story follows Paul’s development as a piano player, but also his development as a human being. His schoolyard escapades as well as his relationships with the other characters in his life are also explored; however, some things remain common to all of the aspects of Paul’s life, namely, Paul’s naivety. Throughout his adolescent life, Paul is plagued by a lack of understanding of many abstract concepts. One such concept is beauty. Paul has augmented ideas about beauty, and fails to realise that beauty is an infinitely complex concept which cannot be harboured in the way that he wants to hold onto it forever. An example of this is when he goes out