This is one of those books that you will either love or hate. Written by award winning author, , this novel is often slotted into the crime genre but it is really a fictional tale that uses a main plot to make extensive commentary about social problems. Well, that should suffice as warning to readers who are hoping for a light read. That's right; the book is heavy reading, not just because of the writing style but also because of the author's take on a number of topics.

The story itself is a bit elusive. Sure, it is set in the far off countryside where a rather creepy man, Kurt, is abusing women and using them for his own gains. He needs money and he gets these material gains by deceiving women. As it happens, he ends up killing a young woman and folks start looking for the disturbed man in their midst.

I am probably painting a quaint picture of the novel by giving such a concise summary. That doesn't suffice as ample warning for anyone hoping to read this novel. Like I mentioned earlier, any eager reader must be in the right frame of mind before diving in. Firstly, I don't think something was lost somewhere in the translation. I am not commenting on the translator's capabilities; rather, I believe that Jelinek's particular style of writing was a hard one to adapt. Most folks found the lengthy descriptions coupled with somewhat outdated sentence structures to be tiring. Let's put it this way: this is a book you probably wouldn't read on the plane or subway.

Secondly, the themes covered in the novel unnerved a lot of folks. Admittedly, the author is very forceful about her view on certain topics, namely property ownership, consumerist culture and gender norms. For most of us, we'll walk away from this book thinking that Jelinek is an extremely cynical person and that she has something against an optimistic view on life. Having said that, her commentary does make interesting reading and thus, if you are not annoyed by the various social commentaries scattered within the book, do check it out.