The Piano Teacher, a book that was made into a movie, one that had received so many rave reviews over the years, a book that was part of the 1001 Book List, written by a Nobel Prize laureate, Elfriede Jelinek. These were definitely compelling reasons to peruse the book and I decided to plunge straight into it. Maybe it was the hype surrounding the book, maybe my own expectations were quite high, but in the end the book just left me feeling cold and unmoved.
The protogonist, Erika, as the title suggests is a Piano teacher in Vienna, living with her over-ambitious mother, a mother who delights in dreaming and pushing her daughter ahead, while being resigned to her own failure. The mother-daughter pair are involved in a constant love-hate battle. Erika resents the thought of being burdened by her mother and yet she is most comfortable in her mother's presence. The story, or whatever there is of it, trudges along rather slowly, much to the annoyance of the reader, trundling along with Erika and her lustful adventures with her student, Walter.
The Piano Teacher is a translated work, but surprisingly the language is very powerful and resonates well with the character of Erika. Unfortuantely, even the beauty of language is soon lost on the reader, because language alone cannot make up for lacks of a good story or structure in the background.There is no direct speech anywhere in the book, which is quite unusual for a work of fiction. Erika, being the central character, is depicted as a selfish, lustful with her petty whims and fancies, atypical of most books. The love affair between Erika and her student Walter, transfused with music, in the backdrop of Vienna would have charmed the reader but their lustful consorting only leaves one feeling disgusted.
The Piano Teacher, lacking the vitality of a contemporary collection or the beauty of a classic can be safely tossed aside.
Book Rating - 2/5
Interesting books part of the 1001 Books List that you may want to read:-
The God of Small Things - Arundhathi Roy
Sadly this book has been a letdown but I hope to have some interesting review coming up shortly about Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby.
