Maestro Peter Goldsworthy Ebook
Peter Goldsworthy’s Darwin. In Maestro, the setting, vibrantly alive, is a character in its own right. Darwin circa 1967 may seem an unlikely place for literary inspiration, but Peter Goldsworthy’s, Maestro, with its exotic setting and the emotions he attaches to it, is an irresistible combination. Music infuses the story and it is at a piano lesson, that the teenage Paul Crabbe, a recent arrival from the south, encounters the maestro, a refugee from Vienna with a shady past. I hoped to experience Peter Goldsworthy’s Darwin.
Peter Goldsworthy has 29 books on Goodreads with 4114 ratings. Peter Goldsworthy’s most popular book is Maestro. The Kiss has 8 ratings and 2 reviews. Brenda said: Well, this was totally different to what I thought it would be! A short story, free from NetGalley f.
In Maestro, the setting, vibrantly alive, is a character in its own right. Darwin circa 1967 may seem an unlikely place for literary inspiration, but Peter Goldsworthy’s, Maestro, with its exotic setting and the emotions he attaches to it, is an irresistible combination. Music infuses the story and it is at a piano lesson, that the teenage Paul Crabbe, a recent arrival from the south, encounters the maestro, a refugee from Vienna with a shady past. I hoped to experience Darwin the way his protagonist, Paul, experiences it. There’s a risk involved in seeking out novel settings and the locations within because they may not be real and if they are real, may disappoint. Writers usually get the detail correct through research, but unless they have lived, even temporarily, in a place they write about, their pages are not imbued with the warm rain and wet earth smearing itself with greenness, like Goldsworthy’s prose is.
Like the Crabbes, the Goldsworthy family moved to Darwin in 1966. Would the written Darwin mismatch the real thing or would I understand why Paul loved the tropical hothouse blooms where everything grew larger than life as I walked the streets of this lush and isolated town, a mix or orient and outback, a port to where immigrants drifted as a place of refuge. Visiting a novel’s setting can be disorientating and laden with a ‘where am I’ aura. The heavy embrace of Darwin’s scent laden air strikes the minute the plane doors open and there’s no mistaking, this is the tropics. Ominous black clouds loom on the horizon and thunder rumbles away in the background waiting for that almighty moment when rain clouds burst, releasing moist compost air, sweet and sour, just as Goldsworthy describes.
Dreambox Softcam Installeren more. Some novels can be transported to different cities without affecting the overall story, but some narrative locations are inherent in the story and should the action be moved, the story would be different. Maestro, published in 1989, amusing, wise and enormously entertaining, sweeps effortlessly into 1960s Darwin, a tropical backdrop that becomes its own character. There’s nothing insipid about Darwin and the two seasons, the wet and the dry, provide a dramatic backdrop to even the most bland of locations, a 1960s designed, form matched to function, school. Darwin High School, where Paul took refuge in the music room from bullies, still overlooks Mindil Beach and Darwin Harbour from the headland of Bullocky Point.
Not as isolated as it was in the 60s, it now forms part of East Point Reserve a beautiful place for walking where you may spot red-tailed black cockatoos and wallabies and, depending on the season, witness magnificent sunsets or spectacular lightening displays. The Botanical Gardens, where Keller arrives drunk during a concert arranged by the Crabbes, are now a heavenly brew of monsoon vine forest, coastal dunes, mangroves, woodlands and plants that have survived cyclones, wildfires and World War 2. Concerts continue to be held in the amphitheatre. The Swan, the fictional crumbling pub where the maestro, Keller, lives in his darkened room above the bar, shuttered against bright sunlight and the noisy locals below, is surely based on the colonial style Victoria, a heritage listed pub built with local stone in 1890. Before Cyclone Tracey hit in 1974, pictures show a large weatherboard accommodation annex, perhaps the inspiration for Keller’s room in the warren of crumbling weatherboard where Paul took his music instruction. Bougainvillea has grown in the courtyard since 1890, but sadly, although the monsoons of beer remain, I’m told the bougainvillea has been removed since my visit.
Writers capture fleeting moments and no location remains intact forever. But the geography of the setting, the place on the map, its droughts, flooding rains and distant horizons do largely stay the same within the Australian landscape.
Our literature often has a complicated, complex relationship with landscape, seeing it as menacing, a place from which we are often estranged. The young Paul’s enthusiastic embrace of Darwin, isolated at the Top End, with Asia to the north and the vast outback to the south, is so infectious, as a setting it becomes a must see. What a great read!
And I see in some reviews that this has been on the Australian school syllabus, at least in the past, if not presently. Not in my day - because it hadn't been written - but if I had read this as a teenager I think it would have easily got 5 stars from me.
I read Maestro for its Darwin location, and for me, the setting is one of two things about this book that absolutely shone. Having lived in Darwin for a few years myself, albeit much later than this story is set, I was instant What a great read! And I see in some reviews that this has been on the Australian school syllabus, at least in the past, if not presently. Not in my day - because it hadn't been written - but if I had read this as a teenager I think it would have easily got 5 stars from me. I read Maestro for its Darwin location, and for me, the setting is one of two things about this book that absolutely shone. Gta Vice City Ultimate Trainer Pizzadox Download there.
Having lived in Darwin for a few years myself, albeit much later than this story is set, I was instantly transported there. “Even our garden lawn—most domesticated of foliage—needed mowing again almost as soon as it was done like some lush, green five o’clock shadow.” I can almost feel the midges nipping at my bare ankles. There are one or two other quotes I really liked that pinpointed the tropical location so accurately for me (should be visible below).
EDIT: Forgot to mention - a book set in Darwin with not one mention, not even an allusion to, crocodiles! The other thing of course, was the wonderful relationship between gruff piano teacher, Eduard Keller - the Maestro - and Paul Crabbe, teenage would-be prodigy. At the start, Paul is the type of kid who is 100% confident in his talent, because it's always been nurtured by his musical parents and he's probably never really received the kind of constructive criticism needed to grow and excel. Keller changes all that. He won't even let Paul play for him for the first few weeks of lessons, or consultations, as he calls them. Keller is so sparing with praise that Paul eventually learns that the rare words of approval are worth every moment of his frustration with being taken back to endless scales and practising the childrens' version of concert pieces.
Movie equivalents might be Dead Poets Society, or To Sir With Love, or Goodbye Mr Chips - you get the picture. It's a short book, but underneath all this there is still room for a sad sub-story about Keller's wartime experiences in Europe.
Is he a war criminal, as Paul initially only half-jokingly suspects? Could he in fact actually be Jewish? And why do people from his past think he is dead? This is one that I will probably re-read in the future.
I will never again doubt the decisions of the Australian high school English syllabus. Time after time I have riddled it with doubt and skepticism and time after time it has proven e wrong. Maestro, though absurd in its opening pages, certainly fills readers with a longing by the end of the book. Adults, a longing for lost childhoods, children, a longing to not lose what precious time we have, and above all, a longing to have a mentor able to rival the genius of Keller. This book teaches its reade I will never again doubt the decisions of the Australian high school English syllabus.
Time after time I have riddled it with doubt and skepticism and time after time it has proven e wrong. Maestro, though absurd in its opening pages, certainly fills readers with a longing by the end of the book. Adults, a longing for lost childhoods, children, a longing to not lose what precious time we have, and above all, a longing to have a mentor able to rival the genius of Keller. This book teaches its readers a very important lesson of our own mortality. It draws our attention from the silliness of childhood and youth, and ultimately warning us about our own vulnerability.
A human's mortality is not something faced willingly by everyone, but it is a question we will all face, and though we all try to leave with a mark on this earth, the ultimate truth us that most of us won't, Even geniuses like Keller weren't able to, so what makes us qualified? Peter Goldsworthy grew up in various Australian country towns, finishing his schooling in Darwin. After graduating in medicine from the University of Adelaide in 1974, he worked for many years in alcohol and drug rehabiiltation. Since then, he has divided his time equally between writing and general practice. He has won major literary awards across a range of genres: poetry, short story, the novel Peter Goldsworthy grew up in various Australian country towns, finishing his schooling in Darwin.
After graduating in medicine from the University of Adelaide in 1974, he worked for many years in alcohol and drug rehabiiltation. Since then, he has divided his time equally between writing and general practice. He has won major literary awards across a range of genres: poetry, short story, the novel, in opera, and most recently in theatre.