Jelinek's Greed

Critical Mass has a review of Elfriede Jelinek’s Greed as part of their “What to Read This Summer” series (which, BTW, is totally backing up my belief that summer reading shouldn’t be limited to craptastic books like The Manny).

To me, Jelinek is one of the most controversy-causing Nobel recipients of all-time. For every one of her books, half the readers love it, the other half deem it worthless. Which is a sign of a good writer. Someone who provokes, forces readers to feel something, to react strongly, etc. There’s nothing worse than a book that’s just a book, a book that’s fine, yet unspectacular.

Same thing goes for slush submissions. Give me a piece of garbage any day over a book that’s just OK, that keeps me reading because it’s not bad enough to laugh at, or good enough to keep me hooked.