Greed: An Arranged Marriage Dark Billionaire Romance (A Sinful Empire Book 1)

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Another interesting thing, while I was reading the book, I thought the style reminded me a lot of a book I read by another German author, Crossing the Sierra Gredos by Peter Handke. He was the 2019 Nobel Prize winner. He also was a controversial choice due to his politics (again you can see all that on Wiki). Imagine my surprise when I see that Jelinek said when she won the prize that it should have gone to Handke! She also caused controversy by not attending the ceremony when she won the prize but she sent a video acceptance speech – she’s agoraphobic. We only learn the names of a few of them, and even when those characters are featured she often prefers to describe them in much more general terms -- 'the man', 'the woman'; Janisch is often also featured in his role (of Gendarm) rather than personal identity. To break it down as simply as possible, there is a cop, Kurt Janisch, married, who mostly goes by the name of 'the Country Policeman', who likes to play around with the woman of his town, until a body turns up in a lake leading to a murder investigation. But all this is kept to a minimum, and Greed is in no way to be classed as a crime/mystery/thriller, if anything it's a dark sexual satire. Jelinek has no interest in plot development, instead, the novel's main function is to flesh it out with the divisions between men and women. They are on completely different wavelengths, the women are in love with the country policeman, whereas he blatantly only does what he does with property in mind. There are other aspects of greed, with that of banks, businesses, and phone companies 'hot for our voices', and also the church. One might easily dismiss the novel and Jelinek's presentation as banal, but there's something to be said for this kind of crude critical depiction of present-day reality.

Greed Books - Goodreads

The original German edition of Greed comes with a descriptive subtitle, presenting it as: Ein Unterhaltungsroman -- an 'entertainment-novel' --, suggesting a light, diverting read; of course, Jelinek's novel is anything but. despre inimile femeilor: "Adesea inimile femeilor sunt senine si incapatoare, asa incat ai si loc de intors in ele, in caz ca vrei sa pleci."

Janisch is a Gendarm (as opposed to policeman -- Polizist), as Austrian law enforcement outside most larger urban areas was handled by the Gendarmerie (until 2005, when it was absorbed by the police); Chalmers translates Gendarm as 'country policeman'.]

Hierarchy: The Whitewashing of Indigenous Before Maslow’s Hierarchy: The Whitewashing of Indigenous

Greed is the story of Kurt Janisch, an ambitious but frustrated country policeman, and the lonely women he seduces. It is a thriller set amid the mountains and small towns of southern Austria, where the investigation of a dead girl's body in a lake leads to the discovery of more than a single crime. In In incheiere va las cu cateva citate despre lucruri interesante/de retinut (Doamne fereste!). Este important sa avem rabdare si sa le citim pe toate, pentru ca sunt foarte distractive: The narrative swirls more than it proceeds, Jelinek taking in a great deal surrounding the limited plot -- yet often without going into many of what would seem the more obvious details, speaking more in generalities. Ernst and his family already have their own house -- but it's not quite theirs: they entered into an agreement with the old woman who owns it, allowing her to remain in the house until she dies -- which they had imagined would happen very soon.

Los enunciados de la "novela amena" parecen escupidos de una máquina de acuñar frases hechas. Jelinek no pretende narrar, ordena sus juegos verbales alrededor de un argumento trivial, dejándose llevar por el valor asociativo de las palabras. No obstante, entre retruécano y alfilerazo cuaja una especie de cuento de hadas al revés. (...) Comentarios jocosos como éste, no sólo eximen a la autora de cualquier responsabilidad con sus enunciados, sino que privan al lector de todo margen de pensamiento propio. Tarde o temprano, la lectura asistida, inevitablemente, deriva en aburrimiento." - Cecilia Dreymüller, El País They long seem blind to just how terrible Janisch is -- or are attracted to that uniformed symbol of power from which they naturally expect abuse -- and while that seems ridiculously exaggerated it does allow Jelinek to ultimately present something of a shift. Some of the strongest scenes are the ones with a tighter focus, such as when Gabi's corpse has been found, or when Janisch hits a large stag while driving.)