The Piano Teacher
Friday, September 28th, 2007 @ 03:31
by Elfriede Jelinek (1981)
A somewhat failed musical prodigy, the strict and rigid Erika Kohut taught piano at the prestigious Vienna Conservatory during the day and trawls the porn districts by night. Living (and still sleeping in one bed) with her domineering mother, who’s “old enough to be her grandmother”, her life has been congenitally forced along her Mother’s ideal.
Mother knows nothing about music, but she forces her child into its yoke. A fair if vindictive rivalry develops between mother and daughter, for the child soon realizes that she has outgrown her mother with regard o mucis. The daughter is the mother’s idol, and Mother demands only a tiny tribute: Erika’s life. Mother wants to utilize the child’s life herself.
Tightly bound and sexually-repressed Erika, likewise repulsed by her femaleness, harbours extreme fetishes and self-multilation. In this volatile love-hate relationship with her mother, enters Walter Klemmer, her youthful, ladies’ man student. Boasting her lack of feelings and yet timidly aware of her cluelessness, she attempts to wrench her life out of her mother’s through the younger student. Within this foreign area that’s unmanned by her “inquisitioner and executioner”, she pitilessly down-spirals, exposed in her impotent state.
The novel is divided into two parts, written in fierce (some would say, agonizing) prose, with at times all-capitalisation emphasis mimicking harsh staccatos.
Sang Guru Piano
Penerjermah: Arpani Harun
Penyunting: Ayu Utami
Penerbit: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia
ISBN: 9799100410
Harga: Rp 34.000
This version is translated directly to Indonesian from the original German version. Like the English version, it retains the vehement, incisive prose , but, I would perhaps say, with richer nuances.
December 19th, 2007 21:19
Wah, gw ga pernah selesai baca ini. Terlalu bikin pusing. Hehehe, kata teman gw, pengarangnya menyeramkan. ^^;