Minerva's Matchbook
Pete Townsend started with the idea of an opera, but as he said in an interview, he turned the plot into a "psychological novel". The narrator, Louis Docksteader (an interesting character in his own right - brash, witty and not particularly reliable), is a picture dealer. He represents "outsider" artists, including Paul Jackson, a one-time rock star who suffers a psychological breakdown and lives a reclusive life where he transfers his apocalyptic visions onto paintings. Walter, the protagonist, Louis's godson, is a young musician who can almost physically sense his audience's excitement, and this seems to become a reason to accept great financial success but turn his back on the stage. Louis decides to introduce Paul and Walter in the hope that the shared experience will serve to help the young man interpret and process his obsessive fantasies, the anxieties and fears he cannot shake.
The author also devotes particular attention to the female characters. They are all strong, beautiful and capable women, asserting their place alongside and apart from their chosen ones. And one of them, a young Irish woman who attacked her father at an early age to protect her sister, at one point takes over the narrative to bring order to the many guesses, because the narrator is too exhausted by the myriad unexpected twists.
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford Townsend (b. 1945), known as Pete Townsend, was a celebrated musician, co-founder of De Hoo and the writer of most of the band's songs. With his multifaceted talents, he has not only appeared as a performer, but also as the author of rock operas, famous radio shows, articles, essays, screenplays, and short stories. In the years when rock 'n' roll was developing into a new mature art form, alongside musicians like Bob Dylan, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, he wove philosophical messages into his lyrics in an effort to address everyday issues that young people were passionate about, and to offer answers to a host of pressing questions.
