Jelinek’s “Women As Lovers”, while being interestingly woven amongst four different characters whose interiority is made singular by the narrative, is chock full of overly pretentious pap. The story follows two different women who approach the issue of their sexuality and the way in which to “get ahead” in a tiny Austrian town whose sole industry is a lingerie factory, where women work as either secretaries or housewives, excluding two female seamstresses (fascinating statements are made regarding the process that a woman must go through to sew her own undergarments within the factory; even men control that intimate aspect of their lives).
Woman A goes through life closely guarding her sexuality, saving it for her boss. She attempts to accelerate her career by using her body. Woman B is impregnated by a forestry worker and is married off and must make a living while her husband works in the forest. Between the two sets of indistinguishable characters, the story is made unclear due to drastic cuts in placement and separation of chapters and a blurred sense of individuality.
It is possible that the translation is poorly done, but given the elitism and snobbery seen in outside research of this author (i.e. English-speaking people who have read more Jelinek in the original German), it is just as dense and difficult to process due to unconventional use of prose.
Like: Arthur Burgess, “A Clockwork Orange”; Tao Lin, “EEEEE EEE EEEE”; Tao Lin, “Bed”; Denis Johnson, “Jesus’ Son, and Other Stories”
17 years ago
