zoolmcg 's review for:

The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek

2.75

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

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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.