Structure and style
Typical of a memoir, the text is told in the past tense from
the first person
narrative perspective, as a middle-aged man recounts his time with Eduard
Keller. The title itself points to the centrality of the man in Paul’s
conception of his adult self. The fact that Paul goes to such lengths to disparage his early
teenage behaviour indicates the extent to which he has matured and grown, and
there is a consistent and rueful tone permeating the narrative. Labelling
himself as ‘smug, insufferable’ and ‘invulnerable, immensely content’, Paul aims to redress his
neglect of Keller through admissions of his flaws as a middle-aged man. Through
his confessional voice, we learn that the young Paul is ‘self-satisfied’, ‘a show off’, and that
he knows ‘so much for [his] age…and so little’. The unrelenting
self-deprecation continues to the last page where Paul admits to his own ignorance; he berates
himself for creating in his head ‘a foolish, innocent world, a world of
delusion and feeling and ridiculous dreams’. Still, the reader should commend
the adult Paul for
having the gumption to admit these faults; the book itself becomes the
testament to how sorry he really is.
Opposites abound in the novel and this structural device is
used to expose the shifts that occur to the main character. Paul’s parents fail
to fit into Darwin
society because their social life consists only of mixing with other families
who play music and act. Disparaging Darwin
as ‘the arsehole of the earth’, both Paul’s mother and father contrast
diametrically from the ‘drunken whistles’ that characterise The Swan’s
clientele. Similarly, Adelaide’s
predictability, epitomised by ‘rotary clothes hoists and rose beds and apricot
trees’ is the antithesis to Darwin’s
‘cartoon world’ with its ‘giant, clockwork insects’. This setting is ripe for
Paul’s growth and maturity, a place suitable for expansion of his limited ideas
and influences. Rough Stuff, with its leather jackets, rock music and
beer-swilling members is the opposite of Paul’s ambition as a concert pianist,
but this testing of the boundaries also strikes the reader as an important and
necessary part of learning where one belongs during adolescence. In this way, Maestro
highlights the debate ‘between the world of the sense and the world of the
intellectual’ (as Goldsworthy says of the text in his Introduction). Even
Keller himself is a mass of contradictions and opposing forces. While he is a
sublime pianist who works unflaggingly to improve his and Paul’s standards, he
is also an alcoholic who cannot make sense of the past. Emotion is juxtaposed
against intellect in a never-ending battle of motivators that drive human
behaviour – an opposition we all have in ourselves, and one that we have to
tame.
The chapter divisions are also an intentional strategy by
Goldsworthy to showcase the changes in Paul, and especially his developing maturity. In “Darwin
1967”, Paul begins
as a child who has to be pushed forward to meet Keller. After his initial
unusual lesson with the Maestro, Paul
wants to stay home and not attend classes again. He is similarly reticent at
Darwin High to interact with others, using the Music Room as his ‘lunchtime
sanctuary’. Still, his inability to remain quiet leads to Jimmy Papas’ beating
of him, and it is this, paradoxically, that teaches him how to manoeuvre in
society. The length of this first section of the text suggests the significance
of its effect on his adult personality. As the text progresses, the sections
become shorter – indicating that Paul
is trying to latch onto a past that is quickly disappearing for him.
Utilising musical terms, “Intermezzo” is the awakening of his
sexual maturity. When Paul
realises that the old city of Adelaide
has ceased to hold the same attractions he embarks on a treasure hunt to find
Keller’s past. While researching in Adelaide University Library, he witnesses a
young couple having sex and this ignites his own fantasies.
The next section “1968” is largely concerned with his growth
sexually and socially. Although Paul
utilises Keller’s trademark teaching methods with others, he became
‘increasingly impervious to his criticism’. It is in this section of the text
that Paul becomes
truly independent, not always with positive results.
Only in “Adelaide”
can Paul recognise
Keller’s selflessness and hidden pain – and it is here that the reader notices
Paul’s maturity in recognising others’ troubles.
In “Vienna
1975”, Paul meets
with Henisch, an old colleague of Keller’s and he hears of how Keller was ‘an
artist who had suffered more than any man had a right to suffer’. This small
section of the text shows Paul
that he had been deluded to believe that he could compete on the world stage;
his arrogance and self-satisfaction in Darwin
have prevented him from putting in enough effort to reach his goals.
The last section also shows how Paul is regretting his poor decisions. Alone, he
maintains a vigil by Keller’s bed as he dies; only after this does he suddenly
recognise the old man’s worth. Even though he blames Keller for ‘teaching [him]
self-criticism that would never allow [him] to forget his limits’, he also
becomes a loving husband and father. The ambivalent tone that pervades the end
of the text proves Keller’s earlier dogma to Paul, one that we all need to heed to avoid
life’s pitfalls: ‘Beauty simplifies…The best music is neither beautiful nor
ugly. Like the world [and us], it is infinitely complex’.
General
comments
•
A fiction yet written in the style of a memoir. The experiences of young Paul
in Darwin
and
Vienna are
written by adult Paul, who becomes the narrative voice. His comments
often
begin and end each short episode and are also woven throughout the narrative.
His
comments routinely condemn the attitudes and behaviour of his younger self as
well
as guide the reader reaction to events and characters, for example after
describing
Keller
and his first bizarre music lesson adult Paul says, ‘I find it hard to
understand
how
much I came to love the man, to depend on him’ (p. 13).
At
the start, the comments of adult Paul firmly establishes the memoir style and
conveys
a sense of immediacy for the reader, that the writing is being constructed
almost
at the same time as we read it. ‘Sitting here, setting down these first
memories
of
Keller.‘ (p.13)
The
voice of adult Paul also comments on the conventions of writing itself. For
example,
‘To describe the world is always to simplify its textures, to coarsen the
weave:
to
lose the particular in the general. But as I sit here writing the events of my
childhood
seem
to fall neatly into patterns.’ (p. 15)
•
A Bildungsroman, a novelistic form which concentrates on the spiritual, moral,
psychological,
or social development and growth of the protagonist usually from
childhood
to maturity. (Wikipaedia reference)
•
The epigram. The epigram is meant to focus reader attention to the central idea
of the
narrative.
The relationship between Paul and Keller indicates that the epigram is meant
to
be read ironically. There are in fact many similarities between Austria in the
1930s
and
Australia
in the 1960s.
•
The narrative is built like a piece of music. The narrative is episodic with
different
movements
akin to an extended piece of music. Each short episode is ended by a
diamond
and line denoting a change of scene, time or central idea. This compliments
the
symbolism of music that runs through the novel and the use of musical analogy
to
represent
relationships and the significance of events and themes.
Setting
•
Vivid images: The Swan Hotel (p. 3), weather imagery to describe drinkers in
the front
bar,
the religious imagery used to describe their drinking, Darwin (pp. 9-10, p. 46).
•
Character’s opinions: Father’s opinion; ‘Darwin
was the terminus. A town populated by
men
who had run as far as they could flee. From here there was only one further
escape’
(p. 17). Paul’s mother’s clichéd references to Vienna (p. 45) and Keller’s
cynical
painful references (p. 45).
•
Comparisons: Darwin
is compared to a detention centre.
•
The
use of capitalised tags. This device renders the phrases into a definition
rather
than
a description. Vienna
is ‘The Ballroom of Europe’, ‘The Experimental laboratory
for
the End of the World’.
