‘Misleading, of course. As always.’ This shows his rejection of his first impressions; his thoughts. Goldsworthy uses syntax in his use of shorter sentences to emphasise the effect of what we are reading. Also, the ‘As always’ sentence uses alliteration. This adds to the effect of the short sentence, making it more interesting to read.
In Maestro, Keller is portrayed as a drunk, having a ‘boozer’s incandescent glow. His pitted, sun-coarsened skin – a cheap, ruined leather. And the eyes: an old man’s moist, wobbling jellies.’ When Keller is described as having a boozer’s incandescent glow, we can see that this is a satirical metaphor and also the use of the word ‘boozer’s’ is colloquialism. When the eyes are described, it is perhaps giving us a bit of a window to his soul. The ‘wobbling jellies’ (which are describing Keller’s eyes) is a metaphor, saying his eyes are wobbling jellies. This makes the paragraph a little more humorous to read.
‘But then … the suit: white linen, freshly pressed. And – absurdly, in that climate – the stiff collar and tie.’ – The ellipses at the start are used to pause and represents some reflection. It also shows that Herr Keller is a man of contrast which enhances his enigmatic qualities. Having Herr Keller wear a white suit makes a contradiction to the way he looks. The dashes used in the sentence show a slight continuous train of thought as he reflects on the white suit.
‘I stood behind my mother outside his room at the Swan,’ – The Swan is a connected metaphor which enhances our image of Keller by going on to say Paul was perched is on a wooden balcony overlooking a beer garden; making it abundantly clear that the setting for the scene was a local pub.
The dashes in the next few lines also show a continuous train of thought as he remembers tiny details of the hotel and little snippets of information on the type of people in the front bar and the garden. Most of the people there are drunk; some are more drunk than others. We know this because of the whistles from the over-drunk people coming from downstairs. “Whistles living far beyond their sexual means” again emphasising the sense that we are in a lower class environment beneath the status of the visitors (Paul and his mother). Also, in this paragraph, Goldsworthy describes the hotel as ‘a warren of crumbling weatherboard, overgrown with bougainvillea’. Here we see the use of personification, the crumbling weatherboard. The use of this literary device adds emphasis on the setting of the scene, aging the property (the pub).
Further on in the second-last paragraph on this first page, the German accent delivered by Keller gives us a sense of character. It characterises him and it makes us want to know a bit more about Herr Keller. From reading the dialect, we can probably understand that he is a German. We find out later in the book that he is from Austria.
Paul talks about it being ‘too tempting – to slip into comic-book parody.’ He is talking about Keller’s broad accent but we know that Keller is more than a comic book character.
Then, in the last paragraph of the first page, we see Paul talking about what he thinks would improve how he could portray this first impression of Keller. He thinks that maybe if he were a better dramatist then he could perhaps capture it. Then he disagrees with himself and goes on to say that if he ‘were more the musician’ he could perhaps use his ear to notate the way Keller talks but then says that it would be “too hard work”. Paul (as narrator) feels perhaps he might have to single out every word Keller says and find its pitch centre and then notate it from that.
At the top of page four, Paul describes to us, the way Herr Keller’s room looked. It ‘was large, but somehow shrunken, diminished by the presence of the two pianos.’ The word ‘diminished’ is a musical term which fits very appropriately in this context of Herr Keller’s room. It means to be made smaller and is, in this case, by the two pianos. One of these pianos was a Wertheim upright piano; the Wertheim’s are an Australian produced piano. They were produced from 1908 to 1935. The other was a Bösendorfer grand piano. The Bösendorfer was a Viennese firm founded in 1828 by Ignaz Bösendorfer (the first that Paul has ever seen in his life).
‘Those pianos filled the available space like two planets, or perhaps a planet and its smaller moon.’ This implies that the grand piano was a very large piano taking up a lot of space in the room. The upright piano didn’t take up as much of the room because it was considerably smaller. In this sentence, we can also see the use of a simile, saying that the pianos are like two planets or a planet and its smaller moon. This gives us a glimpse of imagery for how big the pianos are, and more importantly, the importance each played in the novel.
‘He pointed at the stool. I sat.’ Here, Goldsworthy has used another really short sentence. An observation could be made that it was a controlled command. It also could be said that it was a very sharp movement and Paul sat straight away.
When Paul starts talking about ‘the sound of February, of deepest, darkest, Wet’ we know he is talking about the monsoon season. He over-exaggerates the Wet with a capital letter because of the monsoon when it is always raining. This topic diversion shows us Paul’s desire to distance himself from the being overawed by Keller.
Keller picks up on the diversion and incorporates a discussion on “heat” into his recognition that the situation is uncomfortable and that this is a good thing – it helps to “maintain alertness”.
On the top of page five, we return to discussion of the mother also responding to the heat: ‘The sweat was beginning to gather, the droplets aggregating into larger drops, heavy as mercury.’ After Keller had only recently mentioned that ‘A little discomfort is necessary to maintain alertness,’ this was a good time for Goldsworthy to have put in the part about the mother. It adds a bit of humour to what we are reading. While still talking about the sweat, it was beginning to gather, alliteration here is used, also adding to the effect of the humour here and as if that wasn’t enough, Goldsworthy comments on the size of the sweat drops, first starting as little ones, but getting bigger becoming as heavy as mercury, mercury being nearly the hottest planet in the solar system.
While Paul and Keller are staring at each other, Paul gives a brief description of Keller’s height. He uses many descriptions to give us a sense of Keller’s height – short, migrant-height, European-height” and just to add to all the different heights, Paul adds ‘Wop-height’ a degenerative term perhaps used to emphasise Paul’s discomfort with the situation and an attempt to feel himself perhaps towering over this authoritarian but obviously short man. While still on the topic of describing Keller, he talks about a pince-nez placed on Keller’s nose. A pince-nez is a style of spectacle most commonly found in earlier European times.
Compounding Paul’s opening description of Keller’s skin as “cheap ruined leather”, a metaphor is used when Paul says ‘If his face was coarse leather, his hands were fashioned from the finest calf: each wrinkle, each dimple carefully hand-tooled.’;
In the next paragraph, there is an introduction to a humorous part coming up but you need to have read it before. Paul disbelieves that Keller can have pianists hands because they are too unfunctional and decorative. He even is missing his little finger which he believes makes it impossible to play but then later on in the book, Keller plays Paul a fast sequence of tenths with just the remaining fingers, once again proving his dominance over Paul’s misconceptions.
This is my analysis of the first three pages of Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy. I have critically analysed it from the first line to the end trying not to leave anything out. Thank you for listening.