Peter Goldsworthy
Author of Maestro
About the Author
Works by Peter Goldsworthy
Tattered Joys 2 copies
Associated Works
Another English: Anglophone Poems from Around the World (Poets in the World) (2014) — Contributor — 10 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1951-10-12
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Australia
- Birthplace
- Minlaton, South Australia
- Places of residence
- South Australia, Australia
Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia - Education
- University of Adelaide
- Occupations
- essayist
poet
short-story writer
librettist - Relationships
- Goldsworthy, Anna (daughter)
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 29
- Also by
- 10
- Members
- 908
- Popularity
- #28,241
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 19
- ISBNs
- 83
- Languages
- 4
- Favorited
- 1
Described in the Macquarie Anthology of Australian Literature as a classic coming-of-age narrative featuring a gifted and slightly sinister music teacher whose story has dark roots in the Second World War, the novel is a bit of a rarity because it's set in Darwin. There are only nine with Northern Territory settings reviewed on this blog and apart from Jeannie Gunn's We of the Never Never, I can't think of too many more.
The climate is a constant element in the narrative. Here is the schoolboy Paul Crabbe meeting for the first time his enigmatic piano teacher, Herr Eduard Keller.
Maestro, as he comes to be called behind his back, is a stranger to Darwin too, though no longer a newcomer to a city of booze, blow and blasphemy. Paul's curiosity is aroused from the outset by Keller's missing fifth finger, its absence flaunted by a gold ring on the stump. Graceless and awkward, and determined to remain aloof from the crassness that surrounds him, Keller is a hard taskmaster, never satisfied by Paul's best efforts. He refuses, too, to satisfy the boy's curiosity about his Austrian origins, about the sepia photos on the piano, about the numbers tattooed on his arm although he isn't Jewish.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2021/05/08/maestro-by-peter-goldsworthy/… (more)