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Slanging match: rein GOLD, by Elfriede Jelinek, reviewed

20 March 2021

9:00 AM

20 March 2021

9:00 AM

rein GOLD Elfriede Jelinek, translated by Gitta Honegger

Fitzcarraldo Editions, pp.200, 12.99

I’ve tried hard to think of someone I dislike enough to recommend this novel to, but have failed. Elfriede Jelinek is Austria’s leading contemporary literary figure, and to open rein GOLDat random is to get the impression that she is the successor to Thomas Bernhard — page after page without a single paragraph indentation, a general ranting tone, maddening repetitiveness, and cult status.

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