Wonderful, Wonderful Times

I only became aware and interested in Jelinek after her Nobel win, because to be honest I'd never heard about her beforehand (not many in the U.S. have.) After surviving the black elegance of The Piano Teacher I decided to read this one next, intrigued by the setup and interested in how she would present this material. Overall, it serves as a brutal companion piece to The Piano Teacher; whereas the former is about the morbidity within the instructor, this one explores the sick tendencies inherent in the pupils. The four teenagers who steal, lie, beat, and (in one case) murder are all metaphors for Jelinek's portrait of modern-day Austria as a wasteland full of twisted secrets and a general disreguard for life. One wouldn't think it'd be worthwhile to spend free time exploring such subject matter, but Jelinek's storytelling abilities are so confident enough, her prose so determined enough, and her ability to make sadism blase strong enough, that you leave the novel wondering where the sharp kick in the guts came from. Each of the kids embodies a specific trait that contributes to the gloom following everyone around, and in time all the lust, violence, revenge, and anger permeating the text culminates in a grotesque act repellant in any other book, but in Jelinek's world seems quite fitting. This book is for anyone interested in dense literature unflattering to the human condition. While unsettling, it is also very necessary.

I like to check out Nobel Prize-winning novelists. I even look forward to each October with the hopes of discovering (for myself) a new Isaac B. Singer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Heinrich Boll, Grazia DeLadda, Knut Hamsun, Sinclair Lewis, Jose Saramago, or some other outstanding author. There are some choices that I read who didn't appeal to me but it was still worth the look. Elfriede Jelinek fits in to the latter category for me. I had known that she was a controversial selection when she got the award in 2004. When I looked uo her works, I came across titles like "Lust", "Women as Lovers", "Desire" and others that left me reluctant to go further. However, "Wonderful Wonderful Times" looked more positive; it isn't. It starts out violently and ends even more so and none of it made any sense although the author did her best to give it meaning.I have to admit that I had trouble getting through this book. It is depressing and it focusses on a generation without purpose in modern day Austria. Half way through i thought of limiting the time I was wasting on "Wonderful Wonderful Times". However, I decided to stick with it. As I read more I began to realize that I was getting the author's meaning (I think). In a world that is born out of shameful defeat, what can a successive generation grasp for a foundation to build upon. What standards of ethics and morality exist when an entire country sided with a total absence of ethics and morality in WWII. The result is not a pretty sight to see and the question I had to ask myself was whether to blame or praise the messenger. I chose both, I chose neither.I have searched for many years for a book that brings to life what it must have felt like to return to a homeland that was as disgraced in defeat as was Nazi Germany and its' Axis allies or, to a lesser extent, Imperialist Japan. I have found some that have come close to letting me sense what I had assumed to be the dual depressions of shame and loss. I'm not sure why I felt a need to understand this except to realize that these modern day countries have shown that rehabilitation is achievable in relatively short time. I wanted to understand what the steps of the process were like. Ironically, I think "Wonderful Wonderful Times" has come closer to that theme than just about anything else I've read. However, it gave me a picture darker that what I thought I'd find. Do I blame Jelinek for the reality I was looking for or do I realize that I had already decided what it was I wanted to find irregardless of whether it was the truth or not. I don't know if Jelinek has given us the real truth or just a skewered, angry version of what she thought of as the truth.I found "Wonderful Wonderful Times" to be a hard book to want to keep reading and with a message that I want to be way off-target. I'm not sure if my disappointment rests with the author or with the truth.

I gave this book to my son for one of his Christmas presents. He loved it. He and I shop quite a bit through Amazon as we trust the company 100 percent.

I should ask myselff, how will I present this book. Considering that I have written review (or what stands for those nowadays) of every (almost) book of Elfriede Jelinek here on Amazon, I should try to avoid repetiton of myself and start inventing few new phrases, what one could call - expanding ones vocabulary.Even with my mind having set itself on that kind of track, it is hard not to repeat oneself. Evil tongues out there could say that it cannot be done in any other way since Jelinek writes same story over and over again. And, in a matter of speaking, they are right. Elfriede Jelinek does write same story over and over again. Reasons are numerous (as for argmuneted who can say). Though same they differ, and precisely that kind of differentiation is that tiny piece of intricate weaving which separates lousy writer from superb one. Problem manifest itself when one starts to dig for answers.What is this novel about? It is the novel about degradation. about degradation of every aspect of civilisation that people are so accustomed to. Destruction of old ethics and morale, and iminent sturgle for creation of new order in a crumbling world of post-war Austria. In a world where hate crimes are being done not for hate, they are being done because they can be done, and people who did the are aware of the fact that no one (except, perhaps, the victim) will care.In this novel we are observing something what could be ironically called "summer of love", yet there is no love. Or at least, there is no mere love. We follow the life of brother and sister who are growing intelectualls (in a best manner of Camus L'etranger), yet whose birtright is somewhat lower than they would like. They belong to middle class. Gang of four characters still holds one "depraved" worker and a member of burgeousie (female one). They create a world of their own.Having trouble with identity, they try to create one of their own, complete with ethical system and system of values. Thought they seem in perfect unison, they are falling apart by different desires that propel every one of them on a different path. Chaos and mayhem should eventually occur.Trough the minds of these young people Elfriede Jelinek shows us the decaying state of society which tends to hide its skeletons, having neither will nor power to destroy them or even acknowledge their existence. Rather pessimistic (as in all of hers work), "wonderfull wonderfull times" are, in a way, anti-philosophy, deconstruction of "manners".If you decide to read this one (though I would recommend that you start with some easier and more "gleefull" work of hers), you will embark upon quest of rediscovery of culture, identity and meaning. All in one place.Don't say I didn't warn you :)

Wonderful wonderful book.

A theme we can all relate to.

Great item