Re: GG and The Last Puritan...and The Maestro

[Kate Clunies-Ross <goldbergs@TALK21.COM>]

Anne Marble wrote  (re literary characters resembling Glenn Gould) :

> A really nifty book about a Glenn Gouldian character is the
> award-winning Canadian children's book "The Maestro" by
> Tim Wynne-Jones. This character is _not_ named Glenn Gould,
> but he obviously is GG. Tim Wynne-Jones rocks. :->

Well. I'm sorry if all this has been discussed before on F-minor, but I
myself  have only recently read this book.


It is, in my opinion, a marvellous book for readers of any age. One of its
strengths is that it is totally unsentimental in its depiction of a troubled
and abused youngster facing a rather hard and uncaring world; nothing is
seen through rose-tinted glasses in this book!  Adults (even sympathetic
ones, unlike his brutal bully of a father) do not go out of their way to
help the kid. This is even true of the strange Gouldian character that he
meets, Nathaniel  Orlando Gow;  this solitary and difficult man seems
reluctant to help the boy, and hardly even treats him  as a youngster.  But
his encounter with this strange man ultimately  _does_  change and inspire
the boy, in a very positive way.
In an acceptance speech following an award given to him for "The Maestro",
which you can read at

http://rs6000.nshpl.library.ns.ca/child_lit/wynjones.htm

Tim Wynne-Jones describes the genesis of the book, and his fascination with
the real Gould. ( It appears that originally the character was to be named
openly as Gould, until it  was pointed out that the lawyers of Gould's
Estate might take a less-than-happy interest in this) So the name was
changed; but the fictionalised result is still very obviously Gould. Yes, it
details all the so-called eccentricities, and describes an obvious
difficulty the character has relateing to other human beings. Yet for all
this I feel that the portrait is drawn with a certain affection. And, to me
at least, it brings out clearly a great and wonderful attribute that Glenn
Gould had :  the power to help people, and affect their lives in a positive
way, without apparently trying to do this, or even necessarily being aware
of it.  I am not just thinking of his music, either, (he was aware of how
his music could help people, and  possibly regarded this kind of thing as
the greatest compliment that could be paid to him; see John Roberts
introduction to "The Art of Glenn Gould", for example, for a description of
the sort of letter written to him by people whio were  depressed or even
suicidal  until their lives were touched by his music) because I think that
to some people,the "Idea of  Glenn Gould" has achieved a sort of mythic
status that influences their lives in a positive manner...even if it is not
easy to describe in a rational way!  Wynne-Jones'  "Maestro"  certainly
seems to exert this  kind of influence, even after his death. Sure, the kid
in the book wants something material of  the Maestro's, and is even prepared
to tell a  whopping lie to try to achieve this, but ultimately the man's
legacy is not so concrete; it is more that he has given hope to the boy, a
sense that things can be better, a sense that  even if the world is
impersonal, there are some great and marvellous things to experience out
there if we only look.

What do other people think of this book, and of using a  'real'  person like
Gould as a fictionalised character?

Kate