Greed

Greed

by ElfriedeJelinek (Author), Martin Chalmers (Translator)

Synopsis

Kurt Janisch is an ambitious, but frustrated country policeman. Things are not going right in his life ? at least not fast enough. But a country policeman gets talking to a lot of people in the line of duty ? particularly women. Lonely, middle-aged women, women with a bit of property perhaps... Matters go from bad to worse: for Kurt Janisch, for the women who fall for him. Someone sees too much, knows too much. Soon there's a body in a lake and a murderer to be caught. A thriller set amid the mountains and small towns of southern Austria, Greed is Elfriede Jelinek's most accessible novel since?The Piano Teacher. But as always Jelinek gives the reader a lot more to think about: the ecological costs of affluence, the inescapable burden and inadequacy of our everyday words, the exploitative nature of relations between men and women, the impossibility of life without relationships. A meditative reflection on ageing, Greed is another chapter in Jelinek?s chronicling of her love/hate relationship with Austria.

$3.36

Save:$16.08 (83%)

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 352
Edition: First Edition First Impression
Publisher: Serpent's Tail
Published: 30 Oct 2006

ISBN 10: 185242902X
ISBN 13: 9781852429027

Media Reviews
?Greed has considerable energy and force. Its moral urgency is beyond doubt? Independent ?The real thrills lie in Jelinek?s droll, penetrating insight? Her challenging words boast a lingering impact; through to its denouement, Greed is ? like the writer herself ? relentless and remoseless? Metro ?Her novels evoke a hyperreality, where authentic experience is eclipsed by the recycled images of the mass media? Financial Times ?For anyone who wants to write or read daredevil, risk-taking prose, it was tremendously encouraging that Elfriede Jelinek won the Nobel prize for literature in 2004? Jelinek seized the novel by its bootstraps and shook it upside down? Her dynamic writing gives a sense of civilization surviving against the odds? Jelinek?s work is brave, adventurous, witty, antagonistic and devastatingly right about the sorriness of human existence, and her contempt is expressed with surprising chirpiness: it?s a wild ride? wonderful, defiant mischief-making? Guardian ?Global ecology, ageing and disturbing late-middle-aged female sexuality eat at the heart of Nobel prizewinner Jelinek?s provocative, mesmerizing, multi-level detective story of murderous evil? Saga Magazine ?[Jelinek] is on uncompromising form? TLS ?The power with Jelinek creates such a claustrophobic, disturbing narrative is impressive? Scotland on Sunday ?An intriguing and, at times, devastating novel? the underlying themes of dominance and submission?really capture the imagination and pervade Jelinek?s colourful blend of poetry and prose? Psychologies ?A powerful psychological thriller from a Nobel Prize-winning author? Red ?Jelinek?s pages pullulate with weird but wonderful lines that only she could have written... [She] is famous for her seriousness, metaphysical, political, ecological. But she is really a comic writer, like Beckett: a joker in the dark... So is it worth it, and is Jelinek worth her Nobel Prize? Yes: for those weird and wonderful lines, and for those jokes in the dark? Literary Review
Author Bio
Elfriede Jelinek was born in Austria in 1946 and grew up in Vienna where she attended the famous Music Conservatory. The leading Austrian writer of her generation, she has been awarded the Heinrich Boell Prize for her contribution to German literature. The film by Michael Haneke of The Piano Teacher won the three main prizes at Cannes in 2001. In 2004, Elfriede Jelinek was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.