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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
dark
medium-paced
dark
tense
The Piano Teacher, a book that was made into a movie, one that had received so many rave reviews over the years, a book that was part of the 1001 Book List, written by a Nobel Prize laureate, Elfriede Jelinek. These were definitely compelling reasons to peruse the book and I decided to plunge straight into it. Maybe it was the hype surrounding the book, maybe my own expectations were quite high, but in the end the book just left me feeling cold and unmoved.
The protogonist, Erika, as the title suggests is a Piano teacher in Vienna, living with her over-ambitious mother, a mother who delights in dreaming and pushing her daughter ahead, while being resigned to her own failure. The mother-daughter pair are involved in a constant love-hate battle. Erika resents the thought of being burdened by her mother and yet she is most comfortable in her mother's presence. The story, or whatever there is of it, trudges along rather slowly, much to the annoyance of the reader, trundling along with Erika and her lustful adventures with her student, Walter....
Read more @ http://suchisbookshelf.blogspot.com/2010/03/piano-teacher-elfriede-jelinek.html
The protogonist, Erika, as the title suggests is a Piano teacher in Vienna, living with her over-ambitious mother, a mother who delights in dreaming and pushing her daughter ahead, while being resigned to her own failure. The mother-daughter pair are involved in a constant love-hate battle. Erika resents the thought of being burdened by her mother and yet she is most comfortable in her mother's presence. The story, or whatever there is of it, trudges along rather slowly, much to the annoyance of the reader, trundling along with Erika and her lustful adventures with her student, Walter....
Read more @ http://suchisbookshelf.blogspot.com/2010/03/piano-teacher-elfriede-jelinek.html
dark
slow-paced
Verstörend und gleichzeitig faszinierend. Das liegt neben der Handlung vor allem an dem bildhaften und irgendwie eigensinnigen Schreibstil. Alles wird kalt und abstoßend und die dadurch erzeugte Distanziertheit der Figuren von sich selbst und voneinander überträgt sich auch auf mich als Leserin. Und obwohl gerade das die Stimmung des Buches so gut einfängt, fand ich es manchmal einfach zu deprimierend um weiterzulesen.
Not sure what to make of this book. Whilst I felt sorry for Erica being bought up in such a stifling relationship and can understand her difficulty to have a proper relationship with other people, I found Walter was not a person I would want to meet. I found the writing style difficult to get along with at times but am glad to have persevered.
After a really powerful and intriguing beginning, this book turned out to be a disappointment for me. It was weird and way too disturbing, and even though I understand that important issues are being talked about here, either I am too dumb for this book or it simply isn't my cup of tea.
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:
Yes
This book had intrigued me for a very long time, especially after learning its 2001 film adaptation was by Haneke. Just glancing at the cover and the blurb, I thought I'd love it, that this was going to be a deconstruction of a misguided woman and her twisted mind, but what I was actually landed with was an extremely boring story with an aimless narrator and needless violence.
The only thing I can think to say about this positively is its exhibition of kink and its dangers. Erika, being repressed and sexually frustrated, turns to these means of peep shows and voyeurism to enact her desires, but in the end, after all the fantasies and the things she's been groomed to believe about sex, she knows deep down it's not what she wants. This to me is almost a cautionary tale: to not seek out the dangerous and the perverse out of curiosity or out of pressure. The focus on the letter that she writes to Klemmer is a perfect example of this - a piece of writing that she knows she doesn't believe in, and yet will lead to the violence later on in the novel.The cause and effect relationship this has to her eventual rape is really very sad. Despite it only being a page and a half that it occurs, the whole ordeal is terrifying from beginning to end. In engaging in kink from the outset, she (although not to be blamed for what happened) sets up the conflict, as the abusive result takes its turn on her.
I can only assume it's the fault of the translator, because I want to have utmost faith in the fact that Jelinek can write well, but this specific edition of this book was one of the most boring slogs I've had to endure for a long time. Needless repetition follows bland description, and I can only pin point one or two circumstances where I was actually engaged to the point where I could label my experience as enjoyment. Scenes that ought to ooze tension and fear end up being skimmable and arduous, including the letter confrontation which should have been one of the greatest turning points in the novel. Writing style is so important for the engagement of a book, and so I can only congratulate myself on having the time and effort to finish the thing and review it; any one else would probably get fifty pages in and discard it.
For this to be an exhibition of female sexuality and freedom, it doesn't resonate with those themes as well as other books I've read tackling the same issues. The blurb's description of her night routines and ten times more compelling than the actual scenes themselves, and so I can only hope it translates to film better than it did on the page.
I have to say I'm thoroughly disappointed with this novel. How on earth it won the Nobel Prize for Literature astounds me, and I can only think that I got an awful translation, or that perhaps in its original German it's one of the best books of the twentieth century. I've been telling people to swerve this one, and I'll reiterate here that I don't recommend it if you're looking for an interesting read.
The only thing I can think to say about this positively is its exhibition of kink and its dangers. Erika, being repressed and sexually frustrated, turns to these means of peep shows and voyeurism to enact her desires, but in the end, after all the fantasies and the things she's been groomed to believe about sex, she knows deep down it's not what she wants. This to me is almost a cautionary tale: to not seek out the dangerous and the perverse out of curiosity or out of pressure. The focus on the letter that she writes to Klemmer is a perfect example of this - a piece of writing that she knows she doesn't believe in, and yet will lead to the violence later on in the novel.
I can only assume it's the fault of the translator, because I want to have utmost faith in the fact that Jelinek can write well, but this specific edition of this book was one of the most boring slogs I've had to endure for a long time. Needless repetition follows bland description, and I can only pin point one or two circumstances where I was actually engaged to the point where I could label my experience as enjoyment. Scenes that ought to ooze tension and fear end up being skimmable and arduous, including the letter confrontation which should have been one of the greatest turning points in the novel. Writing style is so important for the engagement of a book, and so I can only congratulate myself on having the time and effort to finish the thing and review it; any one else would probably get fifty pages in and discard it.
For this to be an exhibition of female sexuality and freedom, it doesn't resonate with those themes as well as other books I've read tackling the same issues. The blurb's description of her night routines and ten times more compelling than the actual scenes themselves, and so I can only hope it translates to film better than it did on the page.
I have to say I'm thoroughly disappointed with this novel. How on earth it won the Nobel Prize for Literature astounds me, and I can only think that I got an awful translation, or that perhaps in its original German it's one of the best books of the twentieth century. I've been telling people to swerve this one, and I'll reiterate here that I don't recommend it if you're looking for an interesting read.
This book was an absolute slog for me. The book has no chapters and practically run-on dawdling paragraphs. There's a deeply revolting undercurrent here, but I felt so distant from these characters and this story that I basically missed it. I don't think I would have finished this one if the author hadn't been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
I think there's meat here about maternal relationships and society and men and music, but I found it too tiring to delve deeply into the issues. Maybe that's a function of my overall feeling of exhaustion with society right now--I'm so completely hopeless about the state of the world that this just felt like more piling on.
I can't in good faith recommend this even though I suspect that if I'd read it at a different time or in a different mood I might have felt differently.
I think there's meat here about maternal relationships and society and men and music, but I found it too tiring to delve deeply into the issues. Maybe that's a function of my overall feeling of exhaustion with society right now--I'm so completely hopeless about the state of the world that this just felt like more piling on.
I can't in good faith recommend this even though I suspect that if I'd read it at a different time or in a different mood I might have felt differently.