Ah, The Wilderness (from the Yeleneck Collection)

Author: Elfriede Jelinek
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: This book consists of three interwoven, entangled, and mutually referenced comic-style novellas, which can be referred to as the "Wilderness Trilogy." It can also be seen as a distorted love story with the tragic fate of the handsome and strong young logger Erich as the "subtle thread." The work exposes the faces of cunning, hypocritical, and selfish politicians and big capitalists, curses the vile behavior of so-called "nature conservationists" who are exploited, and emphasizes that what needs to be protected is not the humanized nature but the primal wilderness, the awe-inspiring natural state. The book also thoroughly denounces many ugly aspects of Austrian and German history and reality. Elfriede Jelinek's straightforward, authentic, and hatred-for-evil personality, along with her unparalleled linguistic imagination, are fully reflected and demonstrated in the book. The Swiss newspaper "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" highly praises the author as "a language artist who enjoys experimentation" and an outstanding prose master. Compared to her, many female writers are no better than students still in the learning process.