The Weaver Reads reviewed The Complete Stories by Franz Kafka (Schocken Kafka Library)
Goodreads Review of the Complete Stories
4 stars
First and foremost, Kafka is hard. Kafka’s style is really tough, and finding any kind of meaning in them can be tough. That may very well be the point. Nearly all of his writing feels distant and almost analytical, like a lawyer’s brief. This is odd, given that all of his stories are written in the first person. However, doing so allows him to pull out the surreality of everyday life. Undoubtedly, his writings are a literary forerunner to German expressionism.
Secondly, Kafka is FUNNY. But, the writing doesn’t always appear to be in the moment. It’s only upon stepping back can we find humor in Gregor Samsa’s first preoccupation after waking up as a giant beetle: “I’m late for work!” The reason his stories are funny are because we can see ourselves in all of them. In “Preparations for a Wedding in the Country,” the narrator hallucinates the possibility …
First and foremost, Kafka is hard. Kafka’s style is really tough, and finding any kind of meaning in them can be tough. That may very well be the point. Nearly all of his writing feels distant and almost analytical, like a lawyer’s brief. This is odd, given that all of his stories are written in the first person. However, doing so allows him to pull out the surreality of everyday life. Undoubtedly, his writings are a literary forerunner to German expressionism.
Secondly, Kafka is FUNNY. But, the writing doesn’t always appear to be in the moment. It’s only upon stepping back can we find humor in Gregor Samsa’s first preoccupation after waking up as a giant beetle: “I’m late for work!” The reason his stories are funny are because we can see ourselves in all of them. In “Preparations for a Wedding in the Country,” the narrator hallucinates the possibility of his friend murdering him on the streets of Prague. Which of us have not also had this thought that a friend we walked with late at night? His “as if” statements add to the hilarity. In the same story, he describes (and i paraphrase here) a man “moving his arms up and down, as if lifting a heavy load.” In “the Metamorphoses,” he describes a man “backing away, as if being repelled by pressure from an invisible force.” These statements add to the mental imagery, and the absurdity of it all.
In “In the Penal Colony,” we learn that the sentenced man does not know the sentence he has been given, nor that he has been sentenced at all. I can’t help but laugh. This is so real. Moreover, he only committed the most minor offense, but he is being given the gravest of all possible punishments. Doesn’t life feel a lot like this? We slip up and are slammed directly across the face with the weight of a kiloton of bricks. He also have to find the need to defend ourselves and account for every action. In his shorter story, “On the Tram,” he writes in legalistic language that he cannot justify why he is on the platform. But, this too I can relate to. Who of us can justify our own existence? But we always feel like we have to, and it’s never enough.
Kafka seems to be permanently on trial by the society around him, which i suppose is why he wrote his first novel, The Trial. Yet, the reason why it became so popular is because it resounds with all of us.
Kafka seems to very much be a tortured guy, and he’s a lot like all of us moderns. Perhaps he is THE writer who understands the 20th (and early 21st) century condition. And for that alone he is worth reading.
This is a book to come back to later. The first reading will never be enough.
