Paul Johnston’s readable ebook, Why Kafka is not Kafkaesque, offers an interesting and fun introduction to the mysterious world of Franz Kafka.
New ebook on Kafka explores Different Dimensions of the Kafkaesque
It starts with an account of Kafka’s most famous short story, Metamorphosis, but also discusses his two novels (The Trial; The Castle) and a short story he wrote at the end of his life (The Hunger Artist).
The challenge with Kafka is making sense of the mysterious world he conjures up, and this book offers one way of doing so. In fact, in relation to each story it offers three very different, indeed, contradictory accounts. This itself may seem a bit Kafkaesque, but according to Johnston it is the only way to get to grips with the complexities of Kafka (and indeed reality itself). This is an interesting and slightly different approach, but the book does not take itself too seriously. It should be a fun read for those who already love Kafka, but it can also serve as an introduction for those who have not read him before and a re-introduction for those who read him many years ago and were never quite sure what to make of him.
