Metamorphosis and Other Stories

The Metaphormosis - a tiny tale The field lay sparkling in the sun. The cold night had covered it with a white blanket which the grass was now reluctant to shed. The distant sun did not mind the ground’s slumber. It gazed benevolently down to the field and saw shimmers of its big bright self refl......more

This very famous story by Kafka strikes me as a literary Rorschach test: everyone seems to see something different in it. Some people treat it like an elaborate metaphor, as where other seem to think it should be read quite literally – as the story of a poor man who one day woke up turned into a gia......more

See my review of the Schocken Kafka Library edition: [URL not allowed]......more

Nothing demands meticulous attention more than Kafka's prose. He weaved the false thread of inner lives of his characters in a way that is as ridiculous and surreal as it possibly can be. They try to make sense, but alas, it is the world Kafka had woven and hence, absurdity reigns triumphantly. The e......more

Here's Kafka with the best thing anyone's ever said about literature:We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be like the axe for th......more