Elfriede Jelinek, the Austrian writer, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, an excellent choice! She's barely known here -- her work has long been out of print, and hard to find -- it wasn't even available on ABEbooks or Alibris, but I managed to track it down last year at the Vancouver Public Library -- they had Lust, Wonderful Wonderful Times and The Piano Teacher. Her prose style is distinct: alternately bristly and hymnlike, it's hard to get to the heart of and fully grasp. Her subject matter centers on violence, sexuality, women and a profound disgust with modern society. It is great, fearless, deep and scandalous stuff, and I am very happy she has won this award, not because of the award itself, which has certainly highlighted some also-rans, but because of the wider audience she will now gain. Well done, Nobel Committee. They've posted a biography here.

LINK | 7:07 PM | TB

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .