Women as Lovers

Elfriede Jelinek. Just can't seem to finish it. It seems interesting, but I just cannot focus on it long enough. Anyone else with this problem? Or is it just me...

Her books look so dour, and the reviews are so scathing, that I haven't tackled them, but a perverse bit of me wants to have a go for that very reason.

Read it a couple of years ago and it felt unrewarding. I have almost completely forgotten it now so can say no more.

It is dour fer sure tho.

Maybe I should just give up gracefully...

I've read two of hers and thought they were great - The Piano Teacher and Wonderful, Wonderful Times. Had a look over Women as Lovers and it looked like it was pretty aggressively formatted to put a huge barrier before the reader, right? All her stuff is like that to some extent though. I don't know, once I lock into the tide of her rage I can get pretty into it, but I can't imagine getting much out of her stuff if you're not kinda goth, you know?

Her big one, Children of the Dead, is still being translated I guess - I am eager to read it.

The Piano Teacher is great. And I agree, Women as Lovers is "aggressively formatted". I guess I should just own up to being a lightweight...

I should be starting The Piano Teacher later this week.

Also got Greed out of the library. LRB has a nice piece on her from late last year until it gets to discussing the book, preferring to rubbish the translation (there is a letter on a later issue from Serpent's Tail that defends it (but then they would do that)).