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Rating: 
Summary: Off-course, of course.
Review: DIARIES of FRANZ KAFKAJuly 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?)
Rating:
Summary: Off-course, of course.
Review: 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?)
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful.
Review: I Loved reading this book. I hope not to offend others who don't share my opinion in this, but I found the beginning to be a bit slow to get my attention. But as I kept with it, I was completely taken by Kafka, in a much more personal way than I have been in reading his books and short stories. He comes across so sensitive and loveable, even with all his faults. There's a paragraph in there about how he respects the maid [I think] and so when he finds her to ask for his heat to be raised, he doesn't ask her to raise it because she is in the middle of washing a floor and thought she might not want him to see her in such a way. That just made me want to fly back in time and tell him what a sweet, kind man he was, and how he shouldn't have been so hard on himself.
I'm sure that men aren't looking for that in a book, but I'm sure there's something in there for you too!
He just comes across as such a darling...the translation is terrific, and really brings out the beauty of his writing. The beginnings and snippets of the stories are also great; unfortunately you want to know how they end, but you aren't afforded that luxury!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful.
Review: I Loved reading this book. I hope not to offend others who don't share my opinion in this, but I found the beginning to be a bit slow to get my attention. But as I kept with it, I was completely taken by Kafka, in a much more personal way than I have been in reading his books and short stories. He comes across so sensitive and loveable, even with all his faults. There's a paragraph in there about how he respects the maid [I think] and so when he finds her to ask for his heat to be raised, he doesn't ask her to raise it because she is in the middle of washing a floor and thought she might not want him to see her in such a way. That just made me want to fly back in time and tell him what a sweet, kind man he was, and how he shouldn't have been so hard on himself.
I'm sure that men aren't looking for that in a book, but I'm sure there's something in there for you too!
He just comes across as such a darling...the translation is terrific, and really brings out the beauty of his writing. The beginnings and snippets of the stories are also great; unfortunately you want to know how they end, but you aren't afforded that luxury!
Rating:
Summary: An invaluable resource for anyone studying Kafka.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Genius at work
Review: Kafka was the kind of unique genius who could not help expressing that genius in every line he wrote. These diaries contain not only the record of much of his daily anxiety but also many of his brilliant poetic perceptions of the world and of his own mind. There is an uncanny beauty in this work which reminds of the phrase of Emerson crossing Boston Common ' glad to the brink of fear' Kafka in a diary entry spoke of ' writing as prayer ' and it is clear too that Kafka was most alive, and most praying when writing .
This work is most highly recommended especially for those who are able to bear the torments and fears involved in the life of creation of one of world literature's great geniuses at work.
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