Somehow I missed Franz Kafka in all of my literary adventures. I had never heard of him before then I heard Henry Rollins mention him in a spoken word act a while ago. I meant to look him up after that, but forgot about it. I got back home the other day and my roommate happened to have a book of Kafka short stories on her bookshelf, so I snagged it. I'm not sure I have my head wrapped all the way around it yet, but I must definitely get more. The Metamorphosis is a twisted story and I've never read anything like it before. Does anybody have any recommendations on what else of his is really good?
Yeah, I have read the Metamorphosis too, I like his short stories, especially In The Penal Colony and A Country Doctor. Haven't read The Castle or The Trial though, I have to get around to do it sometime.
Same as you. We learned about Kafka in school, but I have never read something from him. But I want to retrieve it. Though, the most popular books from him are, like apekatt said, The Castle and The Trial. Try to look for it, but of course, doesn´t mean that the most popular is also the best
The Penal Colony was definitely twisted. Country Doctor was strange, I'm not sure how else to describe it. Both were very good though.
The Trial is a lot like other Kafka stories ... it's about a man caught up in circumstances that he has no control over. I loved the writing, but the story made me feel frustrated and uneasy. Albert Camus did that to me, too.
The Trial is about a man, Josef K., who is charged with some serious crime, but the cops won't specify the charges. Eventually Josef K. is found guilty, and these same cops take him for a walk down an alley and plunge a knife in his chest. A couple of surrealistic films have been made based on the novel. The Orson Wells version (1962) starring Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Elsa Martinelli and Romi Schneider is good: there are scenes of walking through fog at night, sexual liasons in a deserted library, slums in an unnamed European city, hushed courtrooms full of shabbily dressed citizens who dare not speak, judges on the take, lawyers on the make, and so forth. In other words, it's a lot like real life. "The dog, though he would like to please, does not understand. My case is similar." -- Leonard Cohen
No thanks. I already had some. LOL. I had to read him for supernatural lit, boy was that course NOT what I'd been hoping!
I was bored at school one day, so I sneaked out of class and went to the school library, where I started reading America or The Man Who Disappeared as it is also called. I have completely forgot it, I should pick it up again. But, I read somewhere Kafka never finished it?
I like writers that use compression as a literary style. Kafka does that- and his surrealism, as a few other posters have mentioned. I'm going to re-read him because I'm looking for paradox in western literature: Chekhov, Brecht, and Kafka (I seem to remember) exercise paradox as a literary theme. Anyway, everything by Kafka is bound to be good- most his short stories are very short, and I recommend you get the Complete Stories compilation and kill it.
i don't care for kafka's writing style but he has great concepts. my girlfriend loves kafka but i could never get too deep. i read metamorphosis and a few other things, never could hold my attention for long.
