Kafka's life was quite an enigma, he didn't become well read until after he had died and it wasn't long after his death that WWII happened and a huge amount of those that knew him ended up dying in camps, so finding out about his life, his relationships and inspiration for writing is a particularly difficult undertaking.  Klaus uses Kafka's surviving diaries and letters to piece together the life of the man who wrote classics like The Metamorphosis and The Trial.   I think he has done a good job, plenty of facts have been included but he manages to make sure the writing doesn't get too dry.

A lot of these classic writers were usually well travelled and had experienced poverty at least once in their lives, Kafka lived his whole life in Prague and had a steady job with an insurance company.  He always wanted to travel but never managed to break away from the grip that Prague had on him.  The one thing that stands out big time about Kafka was his network of friends, so many of them were loyal to him, never taking advantage or giving him a hard time and it was nice that the ladies in his life stuck by him even though they eventually were moved to the side so he could focus on his writing.  It was a tragedy that he died so young, but if he hadn't contracted TB we wouldn't have had the books we love today, he used the pain and imminent death as the driving force behind so many of his books...that and his father.  :-)

I enjoyed this book, plenty of pictures make a great addition to the quotes from his letters and diaries.  Any fan of Kafka would be sure to get something out of this book.

Blog review: wordpress.com/post/felcherman.wordpress.com/2049