Customer Reviews

Maestro (A&R Classics)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Peter Goldsworthy makes an amazing debut to the novel platform. This has to be the best book written by an Australian ever.

Firstly, and most importantly - the characters. Keller, the Maestro, left me breathless and still does on re-readings. His seemingly drunken ramblings on the Nazi era and on the vulgarity of human nature ring with a startlingly frank and horrible truth - "It WOULD be funny, if so much did not depend on it" he says of a 'carrols by candle light riot' news headline.

Paul Crabbe, our aspiring pianist, is an excellent portralyal of the teenage years, and J.K. Rowling would do well to consider this (her 'teenage-angst' Harry is simple and sickeningly obvious - give teenagers the credit Goldsworthy does!). The arragance that comes with intellect, especially in the teenage years, is well conveyed in Maestro and Paul's relationship with Rosie treated perfectly by Goldsworthy (are you listening to this, JKR?!?!).

I enjoyed this book particularly because i'm an aspiring concert classical guitarist. Goldsworthy seems to command a perfect understanding of what its like to aspire to something so difficult. The book's final sentence is poetic and beautiful, and gets the issue in one. He even shows an impecable knowledge of classical music that makes this book much less irritating than say 'Asturias' or 'the Mozart Maulers'(which was very pretentious).

Keller's theories on music are brilliant and Goldsworthy deserves credit: "the best music is neither beautiful nor ugly. Like the world, it is infinitly complex. Full of nuance. Rich beyond any reduction"

I don't usually like to qoute texts for an amazon review, and the fact that i've done so twice for this says something about the beautiful writting. Goldsworthy writes poetically, witout the self-indulgence of a poet. The descriptions of Darwin, Adeleide, music, life, and- especially - Kellar's study, are amazing.

Writting of this quality alone would get a 5/5. But Goldsworthy goes the next step - he edits. One would expect a writer with such beauty at his fingertips to indulge in endless ramblings, descriptions of flowers, etc etc. Not so Goldsworthy. The book is trim and fast paced: at little more than 100 pages, it can easily be read in a sitting. This excellent structural craftsmenship and narrative flare make Maestro not just an excellent read, but a work of high art.

Bravo, Maestro.

When you open this book, you will smell the north of Australia. Through carefully constructed set pieces Peter Goldsworthy paints a picture of love and of coming of age.

The language floats indistincly between prose and poetry, unfettered by either. " Can I know that mine was a foolish, innocent world, a world of delustion and feeling and ridiculous dreams - a world of music - and still love it? Endlessly, effortlessly."

Maestro may not be a undying masterpiece... But it is a masterpiece.

Prior to this excellent work, Peter Goldsworthy was most known in Australia as a poet. With his first novel, Maestro, he brings a poet's love of words, their economy, and what one can achieve by underplaying and sensitively using words, rather than serving up a stodgy porridge of a tome. Maestro is a short novel, (almost a novella), but it makes up for in excellence what some may feel it lacks in words, for Goldsworthy has a respect for words. He also tells a poignant coming-of-age story with both understanding and insight. The narrative voice is never so intrusive that we feel that our contempt for the young arrogant Paul is being orchestrated by the author. Similarly we are led to develop a respect for the Maestro Eduard Keller, after our initial suspicions that he may be merely an aging dipsomaniac in a town (Darwin, capital of Australia's Northern Territory), where alcohol consumption is higher than in any other Australian capital city. Goldsworthy paints his minor characters well, from Paul's parents who exist as partners in opposition, to the sexual predatory, DJ,Rick Whitely. Maestro is a rich novel, allowing the reader to continually revisit it, and never be disappointed. It is difficult to praise this work too highly and any review will inevitably be lacking. Quite simply, and as last words, buy it, read it, and love the pleasure in reading a finely crafted work of literature!

A fantastic book to study, especially for those with a musical background/interest. It follows Paul from mid-teenager until about 25-30. He learns music in Darwin from the 'Maestro', Eduard Keller, now a small-time music teacher after leaving Vienna at the end of World War II. The book is cleverly constructed and easy to read.

This book touched close to my heart. I too, like the central character Paul, have played the piano since I was very young. To fully understand this book, you must listen to the music in it, especially the sad, emotive music that Keller can not stand due to his Plato's originally theory that the beautiful can tell lies. Everything in the book seems to play some significance. Even the bar at which Keller lives above because of its name - The Swan (plays a big role in the Wagner's Ring Cycle).

The story lines in the book are terrific. Keller knows that Paul's piano playing is lacking something, and yet "that small something may as well of been everything".

I recommend this book to anyone.

The far-north Australian town of Darwin used to be, more or less literally, at the end of the world. Cut off from normal communication by road for the three or four months of the annual wet season, Darwin used to go into a winter hibernation unlike anything known to North Americans or Europeans. This is the tropical setting of a fine novel by the writer Peter Goldsworthy.

I used to think that Darwin was the sort of place in which anything might happen. With its transient population of seasonal workers and government servants on 2-year postings, its tropical growing season which can transform a vacant block into a jungle-like garden in under two years, it is not your typical Australian town. So it is the perfect setting in some ways for a meeting of minds, a crossing of roads, which require a certain fecundity of spirit to infuse them. This is a story about mentorship, about discovery, about the old world and the new. It is a short novel, but an extremely satisfactory one.

While the writing itself isn't bad, the selfish and arrogant protagonist makes for a frustrating book. Readers are privy to Paul's lifelong transformation of an ignorant, voyeuristic teenager into an aimless adult who, by his own doing, ultimately achieves nothing. You continue reading in the hope of a dramatic turn around in his attitude towards himself and those around him only to discover there isn't one. The most interesting part of the story is that of Herr Keller, Paul's piano teacher, but because of Paul's inability to consider anything outside himself and his own piano playing, Keller's journey is dismissed until the final pages.
In short, unbearably annoying and solely about failure. I only hope to deter any poor soul contemplating buying this book.

I read this book in Year 12 at high school. What I liked about it is the pursuit of higher achievement and the reality that life has its share of victories and disappointments. The fact that the book has a slightly pessimistic ending should not be taken as a negative. The truth of life is that there are endeavours we would have all liked to have enjoyed greater interest and success in, and this book allows for the presentation of the good and bad that is featured in a lifetime. The fact that he has a wandering eye approaching mid-life may only mean that he THINKS his life could be better; an oversight a person can sometimes fall into during stages of frustration.

Nicholas R.W. Henning - Australian Author
Author of: Boomerang Baseball and The American Dream: From Perth to Sacramento

Thousands of novels are published every year, and the vast majority wind up remaindered and pulped. Not this one! This book is well-nigh unforgettable, a unique coming-of-age story that happens in two utterly different worlds.

The first world is a typical high-school, where the young (14yo?) protagonist does all the usual high-school things.

The second world is the rarified world of search for musical excellence. Our young hero lives in Darwin, and the only decent piano teacher in Darwin happens to be an Austrian refugee who once was one of the best concert pianists in the world.

To say anything more would spoil the story, so I won't. I'll just say that you may not enjoy this book if classical music bores you stiff. It's a fascinating tale of the growing relation between master and pupil.

Very well-written, and highly recommended!!

-----------Further thought----------------
This could be made into a wonderful film.

I read Maestro for my Year 11 Related English class and it is one of those rare books that is greatly enhanced once studied. Many people feel unsatisfied by the ending and think the book was altogether too short, but that is the very skill of Goldsworthy. His writing is beautifully crisp; there is not a superfluous word in the entire novel. His writing is rich with symbolism. While the book explores many themes, Paul's journey from callow arrogance to painful recognition of his own mediocrity affected me the most. This is one of the most refreshing Australian novels I have ever read.