Metamorphosis & Other Stories by Franz KafkaMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was looking to read some works of Kafka before picking up on Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore" as the lady at the Zazen library said that Kafka is mindf*** and Murakami writing on same would be square of same. So getting intrigued, i picked up this short story collection. It has six stories (different from names given in Goodreads description), namely Metamorphosis (5 stars), In the Penal Settlement (4 stars), The Burrow (4 stars), Investigations of a Dog (3 stars), The Great Wall of china (3 stars) and The Giant Mole (2 stars).
I have realized that reading short storied takes much longer than a novel (I am reading short stories by Sadat Hassan Manto parallely). Plus Kafka fills in so much in a sentence that you have to hold on to each and every word, and re-read to check if you have got the meaning correct. I wonder the level of imagination to write these stories as these topics can only be researched to an extent and balance has to come from knowing the intricacies of the nature of that living being (beetle, mole, dog and obviously human).
Reading Kafka was so frustrating in the beginning as i was not sure whether it is realty or a dream as it never gets discussed or even questioned. Things and thoughts are stated in one of the most straight forward way. Some stories have a closure, some don't.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment