Many Austrian authors see social criticism as the main purpose of their literary endeavors. Often this dissatisfaction with current conditions, social structure, and politics finds expression in novels, plays, and poems filled with a peculiarly Austrian Weltschmerz, bitterness, irony, sarcasm, or cynicism. Protest combined with resignation-a nagging feeling that the world is out of joint together with a refusal to embrace new ideologies or advocate possible solutions-are attitudes the reader of Austrian literature will encounter again and again. Another major characteristic of Austrian works is the search for an understanding of the world from an individual perspective, a sense of meaning that has to be found within oneself.

Peter Henisch's work fits this description of Austrian qualities perfectly. This novelist and poet rejects post-World War II materialism and the consumer society on almost every page he writes. At the same time, he is uneasy about utopian strategies for...