The Metamorphosis and Other Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)

Rating:
Summary: More than just "The Metamorphosis"
Review: As someone who had only read "The Metamorphosis," I found this collection of Kafka's works to be very refreshing. Since I had not enjoyed reading "The Metamorphosis" in high school I was skeptical about reading other works by Kafka. I was pleasantly surprised when I read "In the Penal Colony", "A Country Doctor", and "A Report to an Academy." These works were assigned as part of a college class I had, and I found that they were not only very personally thought provoking, but they inspired a lot of insightful in-class discussion. I would recommend this collection to anyone who has not yet read any of Kafka's works, or who have only read The Metamorphosis.

Rating:
Summary: The nightmare of life
Review: Kafka knew so well how to make us feel trapped, estranged and lonely like the characters in his stories. He struggled with anxiety and feelings of inferiority in his own life, and his writing expresses the passive realization that life is a dark and confusing nightmare where we in no way are masters of our destinies. This volume contains five stories, of which the Metamorphosis is the longest and by far the most elaborate and substantial work. A young travelling salesman, Gregor Samsa, wakes up one morning and realizes that he has been transformed into a giant bug. Having been the provider for his elderly parents and his adolescent sister, he is now forced to crawl around in his room all day, hiding his hideous self from the sister who brings him food, unable to communicate and barred from the world outside. It is a story about being dehumanized and alienated, of being useless and unwanted, of becoming a burden to oneself as well as to others. Kafka is such a phenomenal writer that the mere absurdity of the plot is completely overshadowed by the vivid and somehow realistic descriptions of the emotional and behavioral responses of Gregor and his family to the unreal situation. It is as if Kafka is telling us that this circumstance is no more strange or hopeless than the predicaments faced by the average family. Among the other stories, I found the short "Report to an Academy" particularly compelling. It is the report of a captured ape who has renounced its apehood and become like a human to avoid confinement in the zoo. The ape chose to become a human not because he admired humans in any way, but because it was the only way to escape an unbearable situation. In other words, it is a story about assimilation and accomodation, about the necessity to abandon all individual traits and pre-dispositions to fit in and assure respectability, in short, selling out. Assimilation was of course the order of the day in the late Habsburg Empire, but it may be Kafka's individuality as much as his minority identity which shines through in this short masterpiece. Although not all the stories are of the same quality and contain the same universal insight, the Metamorphosis alone is worth five stars and a strong recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: A great bargain
Review: Ok, this book is short ... just 88 pages but, what a great price! Like so much of kafka's other writings, these stories are surreal, almost like nightmares. The Metamorphasis has much in common with kafka's novel "The Trial" in that the main character, a low level white collar worker, wakes up one morning and finds his life has changed. In "The Trial," he wakes up to discover he is under arrest. In "The Metamorphasis," he discovers he has turned into an insect. The reaction of his family is the main thrust of the story and is probably based upon Kafka's own autobiographical insecurities. Another truly surreal story is "A Country Doctor." Like in a bad dream, many disturbing events occur and reality changes and becomes distorted. The nightmarish mood Kafka creates is masterful. To be sure, these stories are often hard to truly understand but they are woth reading and pondering. For a rock bottom price, treat yourself to some excellent and very challenging literature.