Ark Audio Book Club #30 The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek

Ark Audio

This month on the Ark Audio Book Club we discussed the Nobel Prize-winning author Elfriede Jelinek’s disturbing 1983 novel of repression desire and violence, The Piano Teacher. The novel tells the story of Erika Kohut, a talented one-time concert pianist in Vienna who, due to a couple of key performance failures (although arguably the cause of these run deeper), has been relegated to a career as a piano teacher for elite students. Erika is in a codependent abusive relationship with her Mother, with whom she lives and shares a bed. Her Mother tries to control as much of Erika’s life as possible; from the clothes she buys and the hours she is allowed to be out of the house, to the complete prohibition on romantic relationships with men. But Erika sneaks out behind her mothers back to engage in acts of pornographic voyeurism, secretly harbouring sadomasochistic desires that, while they wouldn’t make the Marquis de Sade blush, are certainly enough for him to give Erika the time of day. Things begin to escalate as Erika becomes infatuated with one her students, the reasonably talented but ultimately basic (to use contemporary parlance) fuckboy Walter Klemmer. Walters own warped sexuality, albeit warped by patriarchal normativity, suddenly presents Erika with the possibility of making her fantasies part of the all too horrendous reality she had always thought herself above. In the end though, Erika has to deal with the actual pain of the pain she has, until now, only desired. And here to discuss the book are And here to talk about the book scholar of female despair in Literature, Sheri Hellberg, brand new ark volunteer Charlie Cassarino, and as always, the inimitable, Giovanna Alesandro, and your host is Macon Holt You can read Macon's review of the book here http://arkbooks.dk/the-piano-teacher-by-elfriede-jelinek-ark-audio-book-club-review/