As I read through this delightful summary of Franz Kafka's life and work, I was struck by the fact that both the Czech writer and the cartoonist R. Crumb have the same anguished yearning for determined young women. Curiously, these all have the strong legs, broad beams, and statuesque torsos of Crumb's fantasy women from Zap Comix to today. Perhaps, Crumb and Kafka have more in common than meets the eye.

They are all there: Gregor Samsa's sister, the luscious Milena Jesenska, the Advocate's "nurse" Leni, Olga and Frieda from THE CASTLE, and the ravishing Dora Diamant. These women are all more durable than both Kafka and Crumb, who are wispy and likely to blow away in the next puff of wind. (I recommend that you see the excellent film documentary of the cartoonist's life, called, appropriately, CRUMB.)

When one concentrates on the women in Kafka's life and work, the result is curiously enlightening. "None of his female characters seems to have her own existence," writes David Zane Mairowitz, "but is spawned in his imagination in order to distract 'K' or 'Joseph K,' to tempt and ensnare him. Kafka's sexual terror is put to the test time after time, yet these same women provide something more.... The outcome of these relationships is rarely 'intimate' (Leni being an exception) and has more to do with power than personal feelings. Kafka's talent would mostly SUGGEST erotic encounter, rather than indulging his characters in that act which he found 'repellent and perfectly useless.'"

Perhaps Mairowitz and Crumb do not provide a measured and scholarly study of the writer, but within a mere 175 pages they have done more to rekindle my interest in Kafka than anything else I have ever read about him. This book is a perfect gem and a work of art in its own right.

As a longtime reader of Kafka, I found this book to be an unqualified delight, for it not only reviews his life and work with pinpoint concision, but also portrays it in evocative visual detail. The narrative by Mairowitz is sharp and insightful, with a zesty peppering of invective against pedants and philistines, while Crumb's gloomy pen drawings take the reader's eye into the heart of Prague and into the mind and imagination of its most anxious and self-conscious denizen. It is especially delightful to track down the original photographs that Crumb used for his models, for example in the book Franz Kafka: Pictures of a Life by Klaus Wagenbach, and then to see how he animates the figure of Kafka, presenting him now as an ordinary person in ordinary life (such as exercising by the window or chewing each bite of food more than ten times), now as a cartoon caricature in his own nightmares (zapped out and fleeing a succubus), now as an idealized figure in his fantasies (the healthy workman, the contented farmer). He also contrives to make the characters of Kafka's fiction resemble the author, but only slightly and appropriately. The loves of Kafka's life, especially Milena, emerge from their photographs as sexy, desirable women, then their images echo through his works. Crumb's portrayals of the stories and novels are not mere impressions, but careful and useful illustrations, since some scenes and particulars in Kafka are not easy to visualize, for example the machine in the story "In the Penal Colony." And, of course, Crumb is absolutely fastidious in basing his drawings on historical materials, so that we can see streets, buildings and dress, including uniforms, just as they were at the time. The presentation of Kafka's works necessarily reduce them to their storyline or plot and cannot do justice to his elaborate narratives, yet even here Mairowitz fixes on a crucial scene or a characteristic twist, which Crumb then illustrates in all its demonic glory. All in all, the book is a total pleasure, as perfect as it could be.

Only one quibble. I would not want a person to look at it first, before reading Kafka. It is much more suitable as a summing up, a personal vision and inspired collaboration of two mad devotees of Kafka. Read Kafka first, a lot of Kafka, then buy this book to sharpen your vision. It's a work of art, comparable to the Expressionism of Kafka's time.

Mairowitz writes a lucid intorduction to the work of the great writer but the real treasure here is the copious artwork by R. Crumb. It's almost like he was born to illustrate Kafka. This is a fully satisfying three-dimensional consideration of the author, his times, and his postumous fame. *Not* just a comic book. Highly recommended, and not just for Kafka or Crumb fans, but anyone who loves writing and comedy.

This is a great collection of short stories by Rudy v.b. Rucker and his math-embedded writing style. If you are not a collector looking for '57th' and are just interested in the stories, see Gnarl!, a recent (Apr 2000) collection of Rucker's short stories which include many from '57th.'

This is my favorite collection of stories of ANY genre. The book desperately needs to be reprinted.

This fabulous book of short stories is a must have for all those who are true Rucker fans. 57th Franz Kafka contains dozens of short stories most of which were originally published in various Sci-Fi magazines at some point in the 70's or 80's. For fans of "Master of Space and Time", this book contains numerous stories about the same two main characters. I found this book of the similar integrity as "White Light". For those who did not like the 'ware series that much, this (as well as White Light) may be more your speed. Some of the short stories involve complicated mathematical concepts (big suprise!) or familar fables such as a revisitation of Flatland! If you can locate this book, I would HIGHLY recommend getting it.

I really enjoyed this bio. Unfortunately my copy was very used and progressively fell apart as I neared the end. Would like to buy a decent (whole) copy for keeps.

Kafka lives again through choice selections from his private writings and letters, organized chronologically and put into historical context. This book is a beloved companion on those nights of bleakest despair. As good as Kierkegaard's diaries.

This is the best biography of Kafka available in the English language. It is not a starchy academic biography removed from the living currents of an author's life. Pawel understood all the factors in fin de siecle Prague that combined to produce the century's greatest writer. This biography concentrates on everything that was vital to Kafka's background, from his anguished relationship with his father to his private yearning for the tradition of his ancesstors. That this book has been allowed to go out of print is a shame.

Poor 16 year old Karl is send to America,
because he has been seduced by a maid.
Hardly a reward. In America he finds work
at the Hotel Occidental. At the hotel he
is in charge of one of the 30 elevators.
And hopes to climb to the top of this
new world, however meagre his
startposition seems.

Kafka masterly describes it all
with gallows humor spiked with desperation.
Making it a hilarious read.
The sentences just stand there on the page
and you can hardly do anything but laugh.
E.g.: The kitchen chef told Karl
he had worked in the Golden Goose in Prague.
Karl then told the kitchen chef that
the Golden Goose had been torn down.
And: Karl reasoned that it would have
been insane to turn down a nice
position as piccolo just because he
had finished the first five years
of the Gymnasium school. Here
in America such formal education would
rather be something to be ashamed of.

When people hear the term Kafkan or Kafkaesque,
I guess most people would think of
a dark world,where isolated, guilt-ridden
people face problems that cannot be escaped
or resolved.
Maybe this is also such a story,
but it is also very, very funny.

-Simon

Kafka drives the reader crazy by this epic narration about the adventures of Karl, an adolescent sent to America at the beginning of XX century. While escaping from a stupid love affair Karl is to meet his uncle who will receive him at home and will push him into the secrets of accounting.
Thanks to one of Kafka's eternal "malentendus" Karl is sent to the immigrant's arena and he has to live on his own. Almost penniless, his sole possessions are his battered trunk and an old photography of his parents.
One can't but feel empathy and tenderness for young Karl. Fired by his uncle who was supposed to protect him, Karl has to cope with two drunkards (an Irish and a French) who attempt by all means to abuse of his innocence by promising him a job in the west coast.
Karl then finds a humble place at a big hotel. He is in charge of one of the numerous elevators and works almost sixteen hours a day just to be dismissed due to a new misunderstanding.
At times hilariously, the novel crudely describes the situation of many Europeans who might have dreamed of America as an oasis to later realize they were just joined as a little part of an enormous and unspeakable machine.

Kafka is the most complex writer ive ever read, i enjoyed reading this book.it has exerts from metamorphisis and josephine the singer and short stories, parables and exerpts from his diaries, it is very interesting

If you are, then this book is the perfect introduction. For those of you (like me) whose short-story tastes were formed reading stories based on action-filled plots and scantily-clad women, or at least stunning climaxes (i.e., "The Lottery", "The Necklace", "Witness for the Prosecution") then all I can say is, expand your mind a little and read these stories. If they have any theme at all, it's alienation. Beyond that, it's every man, woman, and unknown creature for him, her, or itself. To this day I think about the protaganist in "The Burrow" and still wonder "what the *hell* was going on?" Kafka exposes the sick, malformed, diseased and twisted through his characters and situations, and by doing so (hopefully) helps purge the same in ourselves.

DIARIES of FRANZ KAFKA

July 21, 1995 Purposely omitted, "the". Thus, an article averted. A catastrophe forestalled. Like my car when it was still moving, i.e., before it stopped moving, just in front of the new school called The New School, where I was taking a crash course--in hopes of preventing a car crash--in Kafka, (the) Diaries of. All by myself--teacher and pupil. I the teacher, I the pupil. And where was Kafka while all this learninhg was/wasn't going on? Sitting in my car, of course, asleep at the wheel, which turned round and round in his hands, like the globe in God's. Will I ever obtain a learner's permit? Will he? (Will He?)

Kafka left instructions with Max Brod to burn all of these journals. Max, however, believed they were too important to be lost and devoted himself to organizing the diaries for publication. Kafka made his entries in a manner convenient for himself: starting at the back, writing upside down, changing journals daily. All of this made the task of organizing them very difficult. Max Brod did a tremendous job and only misjudged the placement of a handful of entries. The diaries themselves contain a lot of things no writer would want seen. They are fragments, drafts, and sketches he worked on during the nights. Most are not very good--as they are. Their value comes in the later, published, incarnations. These writings give us a little insight into the way Franz Kafka worked. Several of the entries are worked and reworked over a period of years. They show subtle shifts in Kafka's insight, perspective, and craftsmanship.

Si le interesa el existencialismo o si le preocupa el sentido de su existencia y lo absurdo de ciertos mecanismos de funcionamiento de la sociedad moderna, este es un libro que debe leer. O quizás, si lee esta obra maestra, empezará a pensar seriamente acerca de estos temas y sobre el individuo, su relación con la sociedad, la burocracia y el poder. Esta obra fué publicada en 1925 (después de la muerte de Kafka, acaecida en 1924) y es considerada por muchos críticos y filósofos como lo mejor escrito por este autor.
La descripción de la soledad y de la enajenación del ser humano, en la sociedad moderna, constituye el núcleo central de todas las obras de Kafka. Por ello se suele decir que elaboró anticipadamente algunos de los temas tratados luego, en forma recurrente, por los existencialistas.
La descripción que hace, en forma detallada y realista, de la existencia del individuo moderno (del ser humano individual) revela con eficacia lo absurdo e irreal de su condición. Desde una perspectiva metafísica, la absurdidad se funda en la ausencia de Dios y en la imposibilidad de aferrar o comprender todo aquello que va más allá de lo racional.
Desde el punto de vista de lo social, la absurdidad deriva del carácter sofocante y controlador de la sociedad moderna frente al individuo. Abrumado por estas complejidades, el ser humano no tiene más alternativa que refugiarse en su pequeña realidad personal, renunciando a toda certidumbre o a respuestas convencionalmente confortantes.

El Proceso
Franz Kafka

La pesadilla de Franz Kafka.

Esta pesadilla, es una interminable sucesión de hechos que rayan en el absurdo y en lo incomprensible. Obra de una mente atormentada por ser tal vez tan consciente de su tiempo, de su humanidad y de los días por venir. Kafka tenia una visión que fue incomprendida en su tiempo. Solo a raíz de los acontecimientos posteriores, se logra un entendimiento más o menos cabal de su obra como escritor y de sus relatos de pesadilla, en la que los personajes se ven envueltos en situaciones que parecen estar fuera de su control. El proceso relata la historia de Joseph K., banquero con un futuro prometedor que un día despierta para encontrarse con dos oficiales del servicio policial que se disponen a informarle que esta sometido por un proceso judicial y que tiene que prepararse para un juicio del cual se le informará la fecha. Nunca sabemos en el relato de que es acusado el señor K. Supongo que se le acusa de ser humano, de vivir, de pertenecer a un mundo en el cual no pidió estar. Pero las mías son meras conjeturas y K se enfrenta al proceso solo y desconcertado y cada vez que avanzamos más en la historia vemos que el proceso se torna más envolvente y que cada personaje esta involucrado de manera directa o indirecta con el proceso del cual se le acusa.

Esto es una verdadera pesadilla y a veces he pensado que Kafka quería relatar lo que se sentía estar atrapado entre sentimientos conflictivos, cuando ni siquiera sabes la naturaleza de esos sentimientos; por ejemplo la relación padre e hijo que en kafka aparece con un vinculo excesivo. La novela bien podría ser la relación padre e hijo, en la que el hijo es muy pequeño para entender de que le acusa el padre y cual es el origen de su castigo.

Es una obra excelente. Se hace un poco pesada, pero vale la pena leerla, y complementar esta leyendo la metamorfosis, en la que la alineación llega a extremos horrendos cuando el ser humano es degradado hasta convertirse en un insecto de características horrendas que resulta una carga para la familia.

Luis Méndez.

Kafka's short stories are amazing. Few authors really harness tragedy like he does. Take "The Penal Colony" for instance. Kafka invents an ultimate devise of capital punishment, making it vile and disgusting, but coaxing the reader to almost rationalize the purpose of it's existence. As you finish the story though, you realize that it's not about an inhumane killing devise, but instead one man's obsession with it, and it's historical purposes. In a sense the story is a bad-mouthed eulogy of that man.

One of Kafka's biggest achievements is his ability to have the reader sympathize with the "bad guy". Few authors can really get a reader emotionally involved with the book.

So take home this book and sit in an under-lighted room as you read it, but be prepared. Soon you will find yourself lost within the words of Franz Kafka.

Kafka can be a difficult figure to approach for some. His presence looms for some readers as foreboding as that strange unapproachable structure in The Castle looms for the character in that book. One way to get around this is to learn a little about Kafka's own life, especially his relationship with his father. And also to learn that his economical & concise way with language he learned as a student of law and his fascination to the point of paranoia with bureaucracies of various kinds he may have picked up in his career as an office worker in an insurance company. Kafka may never become all together human to some readers. To those who share his particular temperament, however, he will seem very human and become a favorite though a kind of quiet one that lurks in the fringes of your bookcase. These stories are a great introduction. Though they are all prose works in some cases they seem to possess qualities more often seen in parables than in twentieth-century prose ie: use of symbols & layers of possible meanings being more evocative(though sparse) than specific. His work is certainly pessimistic, his landscapes are oblique, and chances are you will have your own way of looking at Kafka the more you read(and there are a vast array of ways to interpret his work). One interesting reader, Jean Paul Sartre, characterized Kafka's work as "the impossibility of transcendence". His exaggerated worlds(Swift was one of his own favorite authors) do provide interesting glimpses into that very often written about terrain alienation but few have ever delved into it so deeply. After Kafka you may be lead down one of the more interesting paths in the history of literature which includes Nabokov, Borges, Cortazar, Calvino and many many others.

Kafka was perhaps the greatest writer ever to live and this volume shows it. Every story, even every sketch of an idea that Kafka wrote down comes filled with brilliant emotions and deep meaning conveyed through simple and serious language. Shakespeare has none of the lyrical abilities of Kafka, and Homer could only dream of equaling Kafka's mastery of plot. Kafka out-psychoanalyzed Freud, and wrote circles around Joyce. His stories seem modern even by today's standards, the things that haven't come true yet in his works I believe will eventually, while I don't believe him to be a prophet he certainly had a great understanding of humankind and knew where it was headed.

"A Country Doctor" is in my opinion the greatest short story ever written, a dark dream sequence with all kinds of slimy worms writhing beneath the surreal surface plot, sticking out through the rotted boards that Kafka puts down to allow us to see what we're standing over. "The Judgement," a purely perfect work of psychology, Kafka dipping deeper and hitting more nerves than in any of his other stories, giving us a picture of what it's like to be a genius controlled by a domineering, and a nonunderstanding father. And of course there are the smaller works from "Meditations," little snippets of images that flash through the mind, a kind of literary whispering in the ear while sitting in the dark. "The Burrow," another favorite, perhaps the most claustrophobic work of fiction ever conceived, the darkness of the tunnel affecting your mind for days.

Read this book, in it the greatest treasure a writer ever gave us shines, a golden nugget, hidden deep within a dark pool that seems unswimable. Take the swim, and I garantee that you will find the nugget. Ignoring Kafka is like denying yourself the best there is.

I know Kafka was not American. I know that he wasn't even British and that he didn't speak English. He was Czech. He wrote in German. But "AMERICA" is spelled with a "C". I can't fault Kaca for this mistake. But his editors should have noticed it, I think.

"Amerika" is the German spelling of America, and likewise, Kafka wrote in German. It is not a misspelling, nor an oversight.

It amazes me how Kafka has caught the American spirit so well. Since the end of World War II, Ameirican culture has become increasng hedonistic at the expense of other nations and even our own poor. But that spirit is reflected especially so in the 1990's where we seem to have forgotten what it means to look out for one another, and have lost the meaning of true hospitality and human empathy. Perhaps, Tom Brokaw in his new book, The Greatest Generation, is right; not since our grandparents has the nation cared for it's own in such an unselfish manner. That sense of caring seems to have been lost to us today.

Kafka is certainly a good writer, I think. But there is only one thing I can't understand: This book is not Blue. I have no problem with its color, but I was expecting something blue which would fit nicely on my shelf. It is most probably a minor point. But I think we can say of it: How can we Believe anything in this Book if it lies to us about its Cover?

Definitely not the first Kafka text one should select--but arguably the second or third (behind The Stories and The Trial.) This collection represents the closest Kafka came to helping the reader unlock the impossibilities of interpretation in his fiction. For this reason alone it's worth a look, though there are many wonderful and hilarious moments that rank with the best of K's work.

And to the gentleman from Ontario (review, Oct. 18/99) who fretted over the color of the volume in question (and the publisher's good faith): you haven't been reading your Kafka. On page 35 you'll find the following: "There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie." This volume's (non) color is Kafkaesque in the best sense of the term. EXACT CHANGE should be congratulated on their superior understanding of a masterful writer!

In the last year I have fallen in love with Franz Kafka's writings, starting with "The Trial." His works are the most truthful, soul-searching, endless, funny, and haunting tales ever written. I bought "The Blue Octavo Notebooks" not knowing what to expect. Were these to be second-rate scribblings published only to profit off Kafka's name? Not at all. These journals are as brilliant, if not better, than Kafka's stories. They reveal a complex man who was constantly challenging himself, trying to find the meaning of art, goodness, evil, truth, human nature, the eternal, and life. The entries, many of them only one or two lines, are deep meditations that allow the reader to probe into Kafka's, and the reader's, mind. Even the unfinished story fragments are nuggets of pure genius. The notebooks are intensely mystical, but frighteningly real -- like everything else in the world of Kafka's literature.