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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
Can I really "enjoy" a book with this type of subject matter? I certainly wanted to keep reading and find out what happened....I'll say it's compelling, how about that? If your stomach is turned by almost-American Psycho-level descriptions of brutality, then don't even crack the cover.
Setting aside the graphic, violent subject matter, the book is beautifully written and flows at a concerto pace. It contains what I consider to be the best explanation for self-harm, magnified for fiction's sake. It is also quite sad throughout - the darkest of the dark.
Setting aside the graphic, violent subject matter, the book is beautifully written and flows at a concerto pace. It contains what I consider to be the best explanation for self-harm, magnified for fiction's sake. It is also quite sad throughout - the darkest of the dark.
Pathetic & violent, & I loved it. Men's love is really hatred & contempt. Erika fantasized about violence as a punishment for her life, but really wanted love & validation & an escape. Brought to self-destruction but couldn't destroy herself. Turned home to resume her pathetic life. She couldn't reach excellence but also couldn't reach total destruction. Dreams of masochism but wants sweetness. Dreams of recitals but only teaches. Dreams of destruction, but only turns home. After all, she's a teacher who lives with her mother.
This book was... grotesque, disgusting, utterly vile. I wouldn't recommend this book casually because the reading experience was just that unpleasant. The Piano Teacher entraps you in its misery, its misanthropy, its tale of perversion and abuse, and makes you somehow complicit in the ugliness and malice in the world. Maybe it was masochistic on my part to keep reading, but I think there was something oddly magnetic about this book, despite being full of such grotesqueries. It repels and enthralls in equal measure.
Maybe because I am also listening to a lecture series on the Aesthetics of Art, reading this book made me wonder how this can be Art and the main reason Jelinek won the Nobel Prize in Literature, when beauty is so often seen as prerequisite for Art. There is no pleasure, joy, or moral lesson you can glean from this book; it is not beautiful, but rather, calculatingly foul. It doesn't comfort you; rather it disturbs you, seeking to make you feel disgust and hopelessness. How can this be Art? How can I, after an deeply unpleasant reading experience, still think this was a good book? I'm not sure. There's a certain technical virtuosity in the writing, in the rhythms and structure (Jelinek's training in music has transferred to her writing). It is full of emotion and insight, even if those emotions and insights are unbearable and painful. It is gruesome but somehow manages to avoid becoming something that exists only to shock; the shock is not the aim, but a side effect. There is a searing vividness to it; even though it's set in the real world, Jelinek has created a secondary world as distinctive as any I've ever come across - it feels like a series of paintings, with a color palette of black and grey shot through with orange--the closest I can think of is something like Goya's Black Paintings (especially Saturn Devouring his Son-- transposed to The Piano Teacher we'd call it a study of Mother/Art devouring Erika) if only the subjects were painted more abstractly as geometric parts, deprived of the basic dignity of a recognizable human body.
Lack of dignity, lack of love, lack of hope...there are a lot of things missing from Erika's life, a life full of music but otherwise empty of any beauty or meaning, things we traditionally think music should bring. As Jelinek points out: "....[a]rt is credited with many things, especially an ability to offer solace. Sometimes, of course, art creates the suffering in the first place."
I'm really not sure what to make of this book. I need to mull it over. But it's such a relief to be finished reading it, a weight off my soul. "Thank god!" is what I thought when I turned the last page, I kid you not.
Maybe because I am also listening to a lecture series on the Aesthetics of Art, reading this book made me wonder how this can be Art and the main reason Jelinek won the Nobel Prize in Literature, when beauty is so often seen as prerequisite for Art. There is no pleasure, joy, or moral lesson you can glean from this book; it is not beautiful, but rather, calculatingly foul. It doesn't comfort you; rather it disturbs you, seeking to make you feel disgust and hopelessness. How can this be Art? How can I, after an deeply unpleasant reading experience, still think this was a good book? I'm not sure. There's a certain technical virtuosity in the writing, in the rhythms and structure (Jelinek's training in music has transferred to her writing). It is full of emotion and insight, even if those emotions and insights are unbearable and painful. It is gruesome but somehow manages to avoid becoming something that exists only to shock; the shock is not the aim, but a side effect. There is a searing vividness to it; even though it's set in the real world, Jelinek has created a secondary world as distinctive as any I've ever come across - it feels like a series of paintings, with a color palette of black and grey shot through with orange--the closest I can think of is something like Goya's Black Paintings (especially Saturn Devouring his Son-- transposed to The Piano Teacher we'd call it a study of Mother/Art devouring Erika) if only the subjects were painted more abstractly as geometric parts, deprived of the basic dignity of a recognizable human body.
Lack of dignity, lack of love, lack of hope...there are a lot of things missing from Erika's life, a life full of music but otherwise empty of any beauty or meaning, things we traditionally think music should bring. As Jelinek points out: "....[a]rt is credited with many things, especially an ability to offer solace. Sometimes, of course, art creates the suffering in the first place."
I'm really not sure what to make of this book. I need to mull it over. But it's such a relief to be finished reading it, a weight off my soul. "Thank god!" is what I thought when I turned the last page, I kid you not.
Why is this so hard to read. The writing style is stifling, and doesn't flow. I wanted to like it but I just couldn't enjoy reading it.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Vomit
A book full of petty cruelty and acts of violence, epitomised by a grotesque, almost comic scene in which the repressed heroine details her delight in kicking the ankles of strangers in the scrum of the tram, causing them to yell out in surprise and pain.
Everything is overloaded with imagery, an avalanche of metaphors, like an out of control steam train, a symphony (possibly atonal) of language. These metaphors are sometimes spun out to absurdity and at other times change direction abruptly. It can be exhausting and dizzying, as Jelinek exploits language to sow confusion and depict characters at war with themselves - let alone wider society.
The narrative changes perspective suddenly and without warning, so that the reader has to be careful not to misattribute thoughts and feelings - much as the characters misattribute one another's feelings and misunderstand one another's meanings.
Much of what occurs is disturbing, but everything feels carefully weighed and considered, engineered to produce a precise impression.
Everything is overloaded with imagery, an avalanche of metaphors, like an out of control steam train, a symphony (possibly atonal) of language. These metaphors are sometimes spun out to absurdity and at other times change direction abruptly. It can be exhausting and dizzying, as Jelinek exploits language to sow confusion and depict characters at war with themselves - let alone wider society.
The narrative changes perspective suddenly and without warning, so that the reader has to be careful not to misattribute thoughts and feelings - much as the characters misattribute one another's feelings and misunderstand one another's meanings.
Much of what occurs is disturbing, but everything feels carefully weighed and considered, engineered to produce a precise impression.
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Took me soooo many months to finish this, not the best book for a reading slump 😠the prose was very pretty to read but at times i found it too much and it kinda dragged on a little. Nevertheless, i love Erika she is an incredibly well written character. I think i just enjoyed the film a lot more and was a little disappointed by this book? Mind you i don’t think that’s an issue of the author i think it’s more of an issue with me, would recommend but also would not recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm