Editors Reads Verdict
A savage early Jelinek — the targets are Austria's post-war self-deception and the class system that reproduces fascism. Less technically experimental than The Piano Teacher but just as merciless.
What We Loved
- The class analysis is precise and savage — each character embodies a different relationship to Austria's fascist inheritance
- The violence is not gratuitous but diagnostic — it reveals exactly what it is supposed to reveal
- Jelinek's ironic ventriloquism is fully formed
Minor Drawbacks
- Requires some knowledge of Austrian post-war politics for full impact
- The relentlessness of the critique can feel airless
Key Takeaways
- → Post-war Austria constructed an identity as Nazi victim that suppressed its role as enthusiastic participant
- → Class rage in the absence of political outlet turns into random violence
- → The family is the primary transmission mechanism of fascist psychology
| Author | Elfriede Jelinek |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Serpent's Tail |
| Pages | 220 |
| Published | January 1, 1990 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Literary Fiction, Satire |
| Difficulty | Advanced |
| Best For | Readers of The Piano Teacher and Lust ready to explore Jelinek's earlier work, and readers interested in literary engagements with fascism and class. |
Four Young People, One Park
Vienna in the late 1950s. A park at night. Four young people — Rainer and Anna, siblings from a bourgeois family with a former Nazi father; Sophie, the daughter of the wealthy bourgeoisie; Hans, from the workers’ tenements — gather to commit unprovoked violence on strangers. The violence is purposeless to outsiders; to them it is the only honest response to the world they have inherited.
Jelinek’s 1980 novel (translated into English a decade later) diagnoses post-war Austria through these four characters: each embodies a different relationship to the fascist inheritance that Austria refused to examine. The bourgeois family reproduces Nazi psychology while presenting itself as cultured. The working-class Hans is trapped by the class system that fascism promised to dissolve. Sophie performs rebellion from a position of economic security that makes rebellion costless.
The Method of Satire
Jelinek’s technique is that of savage irony — she ventriloquises her characters’ self-justifications at length, then turns the logic inside out. The novel does not describe violence and then condemn it; it shows the internal logic that makes violence feel like authenticity to its perpetrators, and lets that logic condemn itself.
The title is ironic throughout: the wonderful times of post-war economic recovery, the economic miracle that Austria shared with Germany, is shown to be built on the repression of what came before.
Our rating: 4.1/5 — A savage, precise diagnosis of Austria’s fascist inheritance and the class system that perpetuated it.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Wonderful, Wonderful Times" about?
Vienna in the late 1950s: four young people from different classes terrorise random strangers in a park, acting out their rage against an Austria that refuses to acknowledge its Nazi past.
Who should read "Wonderful, Wonderful Times"?
Readers of The Piano Teacher and Lust ready to explore Jelinek's earlier work, and readers interested in literary engagements with fascism and class.
What are the key takeaways from "Wonderful, Wonderful Times"?
Post-war Austria constructed an identity as Nazi victim that suppressed its role as enthusiastic participant Class rage in the absence of political outlet turns into random violence The family is the primary transmission mechanism of fascist psychology
Is "Wonderful, Wonderful Times" worth reading?
A savage early Jelinek — the targets are Austria's post-war self-deception and the class system that reproduces fascism. Less technically experimental than The Piano Teacher but just as merciless.
Ready to Read Wonderful, Wonderful Times?
Check the current price on Amazon.
Check Price on Amazon (paid link)Prices and availability are subject to change. See Amazon for current price.
Review last updated: