Name: Elfriede Jelinek
Year Won: 2004
Read: Greed
Original Language: German
Reason: "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"
About: Greed follows a policeman's investigation of a murder, as well as the life of a woman he seduces.
What I liked: My god does this have voice. Every sentence is brimming with a strong, sure, intense voice. If you want a book that is basically "fuck the patriarchy" written large, this is it. Page after page after page of "fuck the patriarchy".
What I Disliked: One of the problems I often have with super voice-y novels is that, even under the best of circumstances, the voice can start to wear after a point. What, for 500 words, is an interesting peak into someone else's mind, after 5k starts feeling almost painful.
That's even more true when the voice is as aggressive and angry as the voice that Jelinek uses.
To make things maybe even harder to read, almost none of the story is told in anything other than voice. There are virtually no passages in which, say, the protagonist engages in dialogue or action or describes things. Instead it's all, "One has to know the secret of how to get a good grip on women. One doesn't absolutely have to be a doctor in order to slit people open, but it would be better if one were, if one wants to find the serpent in the stomach, which once led us astray, the evil one, where else it should be:" Like, I get the desire for voice, but c'mon. Balance it with something else at least occasionally for variety!
Should it have won a Nobel: This is the kind of thing the Nobel committee likes, so sure.
Next Up: "Death, Etc." by Harold Pinter
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