Cultural Writing. Drama. Translated from the German by P.J. Blumenthal. "Elfriede Jelinek, who was born in 1946 in Murzzuschlag, Austria, is the most verbally powerful writer in present-day German-language literature. Her works and public statements continue to provoke disparate reactions. In 2004 Jelinek received the Nobel Prize for literature, and this decision also caused considerable controversy within the German-speaking sphere as well as internationally. In 1998, the German writer and director Einar Schleef staged Jelinek's most important drama Sportstuck for the Vienna City Theater. The production of an additional Jelinek piece was interrupted by Schleef's illness. To everyone's surprise, he died shortly thereafter. Subsequently Jelinek ventured to compose three portraits of Schleef, which P. J. Blumenthal has translated for this little volume. They show Jelinek at the height of her powers, with her inimitable, musically overflowing, irony-infected style of exaggeration, and will awaken curiosity about her work, as well as about the figure of Einar Schleef, who still remains completely unknown in the English-speaking world"--Hans-Ulrich Muller-Schwefe.

Works by Elfriede Jelinek include The Piano Teacher (2002), Women as Lovers (1995), Lust (1993), and Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990), all translated by P.J. Blumenthal and published by Serpent's Tail Press. She has received over twenty literary prizes and awards in addition to winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004.