This book is not easy reading, due both to the content as well as the density of the writing. The characters are all deplorable, and it was therefore difficult to like this novel.

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Elfriede Jelinek was born in 1946 and is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She is one of the most decorated authors to write in German and was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that, with extraordinary linguistic zeal, reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power". She is considered to be among the most important living playwrights of the German language.

THE PIANO TEACHER was published in 1983 and was the first of Jelinek's novels to be translated to English. The protagonist of the novel is Erika Kohut, a piano teacher in her 30s who lives with and is devoted to her mother. She is also sexually suppressed and finds pleasure by looking at peep shows and porn films and also by hurting herself using a razor. Then a young student enters her life, Walter Klemmer, who wants to conquer Erika's affection. But Erika's masochistic nature makes this a difficult task. She writes Klemmer a letter detailing a long list of perversity that she wants done to her. This disturbs Klemmer and ultimately ends in violence.

This novel was definitely disturbing and without enjoyment. I read this mainly because it is on the list of "1001 books you must read before you die." But I think I could have lived fine without reading this. I didn't really like the subject matter or the writing style of the novel. It was mainly short descriptive sentences with the use of a lot of metaphors. There was little or no dialog in the writing. And the descriptions bordered on the pornographic. I know Jelinek was making a point about women's sexuality and showing that women as well as men have strong sexual desires and fantasies that may not be attainable but this was a little over the top. I'm not sure if Jelinek received her Nobel Prize based partly on this novel but if so, I really must be missing something.

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Fascist people trying to get what they want with no empathy and a lust for a life of selfish desires and control. Loved it. They are not likable and that is what makes it a great novel. It is easier to write about likable people but to get people to care about characters like this takes talent.

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"Jelinek's fragmented style blurs reality and imagination, creating a harsh, expressionistic picture of sexuality," -Scotland on Sunday (review)

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature

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