The METAMORPHOSIS, IN THE PENAL COLONY, AND OTHER STORIES: The Great Short Works of Franz Kafka

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Summary: Uniquely Disturbing
Review: Admittedly, Kafka is not an easy read. The Metamorphosis and In the Penal Colony are the two parts of this book I am most familiar with, and I definitely recommend them to interested readers. Both are strangely imaginative stories, sometimes lacking in action, but more than making up for it in depth. I think Kafka's stories are riveting due to the psychological tension he creates, especially in 'Penal Colony'. That particular short story is also an operetta, which I recently saw. To see it acted out is a uniquely disturbing experience. Read on, but brace yourselves.

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Summary: A Different Style
Review: Frankly, I have only read the Metamorphosis and the Penal Colony. I will admit that both were a bit unusual, but I fell in love with the Penal Colony. It's laconic, but extremely well written (kudos to the translator). Given it's length, I'd suggest it to anyone looking for a shortcut to one of literature's masterpieces. As for the Metamorphosis, I cannot say the same. God only knows (as Kafka cannot tell us) was what he meant with the transformation of Gregor into a cockroach. I found the that story simply bizarre.

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Summary: refreshing
Review: Frankly, I have only read the Metamorphosis and the Penal Colony. I will admit that both were a bit unusual, but I fell in love with the Penal Colony. It's laconic, but extremely well-written (kudos to the translator). Given it's length, I'd suggest it to anyone looking for a shortcut to one of literature's masterpieces. As for the Metamorphosis, I cannot say the same. God only knows (as Kafka cannot tell us) what he meant with the transformation of Gregor into a vermin. I found that story simply bizarre, devoid of any blatant parallel.

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Summary: The Metamorphosis
Review: I am german. I have never read the english translation of "The Metamorphosis" and so I don't know how it is and how it sounds in english. I can only say that it is a really deep, intensive and wonderful story in german language. "Die Verwandlung" has really changed my way of thinking! It is a book like a mirror, you can lay your own feelings in it. Some think it is too dark, i think it is "life and life only".

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Summary: Hard to understand but easy to be in awe.
Review: I picked up this collection of short stories after hearing Kafka's name in history class and seeing the book on the shelf for five dollars at Borders. One of the best five dollars i've ever spent!

I will admit, some of the time I was lost in the stories, if not always, but it's hard not to appreciate Mr. Kafka's monumental writing expertise and style, and the translator as well did an amazing job (although I have no frame of reference, I haven't read any other versions nor do I speak German to read Kafka's originals).

I recommend this to anyone who likes to think deep and can appreciate amazing writing.

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Summary: In The Penal Colony
Review: Kafka's dark sense of reality shines through in this piece in his in The GReat Short Works of Franz Kafka. As he often does, Kafka uses his alter reality as a metaphor for our reality. In The Penal Colony is a peice about a machine that punishes criminals by slowly enraving a script into the criminals body spelling out their crime and eventually killing them. He details the workings of the machine; from it's bed of cotton and bitting felt, to it's harrow, where the sharp needles lie in wait. Holding true to his metaphorical style, the machine represents a broader machine in our reality; the justice system. He subtley equates the the workings of the machine with the processes and workings of our own systems, obviously denouncing their mechanical ways. This is a great peice to introduce Kafka and his styles and should lead you to pick up others of his works.

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Summary: Ahead of its time.
Review: Kafka's writing has a very postmodern feel to it. My favorite story in this collection is the Metamorphisis. If you like abstraction and allegory, then I recommend these stories. If you prefer stories to be easily understood and straitforward then Kafka is probably not the author for you.

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Summary: lurid yet comical
Review: Said plainly, Kafka was one bizarre man. His Contemplation is not much more than various mental wanderings, but The Metamorphosis and In the Penal Colony make for wonderful short stories. Curl up and read THIS on your dark and stormy night! These are really delicious stories.

I've looked into other translations, and I wasn't pleased ... this one seems far superior. Joachim Neugroschel goes for the most basic, uncluttered, uncomplicated way of interpreting Kafka. One would think that this would make the text thin and anemic, but it really makes all the greater impact: "One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin." Other translations seem to wander, and find larger, more complicated ways of saying "agitated dreams" or "monstrous vermin." Even though I wish I knew German, I find this English translation of a very high quality.

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Summary: Stories in search of a point...
Review: This is a splendid initiation into the warped imagination of Franz Kafka. In one swoop the reader gets the infamous Freudian "Metamorphosis" as well as some of Kafka's other macabre short stories.

Perhaps the best of these is "In the Penal Colony." It reads like Michel Foucault's "Discipline And Punish" on acid. It is almost like a satire on what Hegel liked to refer to as the "slaughterhouse of history." The story is at once terrifying and grotesquely comical.

The rest of the stories are typical Kafka; perverse but fascinating. For those who have a morose fascination with ghastly world of this author's literary fantasy, this is an exceptional book to begin with.