An excellent article in the New York Times today about Elfriede Jelinek, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Jelinek is an Austrian novelist and playwright, a feminist, and a harsh critic of the right-wingers in Austria who have political power these days. I'm eager to read her work, particularly her novel Women as Lovers, and I've ordered it through inter-library loan. The Minuteman Library Network system, with nearly a hundred libraries, includes less than a handful of her novels. It's hard to imagine why exactly she was selected for the prize; the decision usually has its political aspects. However, she is the first woman to win since 1993.