Greed

By: Elfriede Jelinek, Martin Chalmers - translator

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

Greed is the story of Kurt Janisch, an ambitious but frustrated country policeman, and the lonely women he seduces. It is a thriller set amid the mountains and small towns of southern Austria, where the investigation of a dead girl's body in a lake leads to the discovery of more than a single crime.

In her signature style, Jelinek chronicles the exploitative nature of relations between men and women, and the cruelties of everyday life.

©2007 Elfriede Jelinek (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[O]riginal and provocative." (Booklist)

painful, cynical, stagnant reality

this author is such a good writer that even though her books depress the hell out of me, I will still read her.

Her voice that she writes with is very intelligent and playful, and profound. but the cynical view she has towards human relationships is painful. I gave up on this book halfway through, because of the merciless cynicism and lack of any decency in the characters, but the prose was so well written that I had to come back and finish it.

Not a good one for an audiobook

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I listen to my books while doing something else, but this book is not made for that. The story is written in an unusual way, that requires high concentration while listening. I was lost just after few sentences, it did get better later on but I still believe this book is made for reading not listening.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Surprise surprise, it's a story about greed - specifically about very, very greedy people doing bad things trying to accumulate the wealth other, weaker people have collected. It's heavy, dark and sad story really. I stopped listening after one hour, having no intention to finish this book any more.

Brilliant icy displeasure with everything

It’s a cold book and narration has harsh and almost mechanical undertones. Audible wouldn’t let me return it , so I listened to quite a bit riding on stationary bike for which the author would really hate me if she knew. Trust me. Did get better than first couple of chapters. The narrator is incredibly superior to all her dehumanized characters and their vividly pointless stupid lives. It’s brilliant but seems more reductively negative than satirical.