Word: kafka
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...subdued and without ostentation as the beginning three lines. In the midst of this deceptively unadorned prose, however, lurks the seed of an almost unimagineably horrible tale, which Appelfeld manages to recount in completely nonjudgmental strokes. Ultimately, it's clear why Appelfeld has been called a "worthy successor to Kafka" with his surreal, yet plausible, plots. Though the legacy of the Holocaust is never explicit, The Conversion often seems a device forcing the reader to question reality, and our ability to believe (or ignore) its ramifications...
...Calasso's treatment of the stories as texts to learn from, not to snicker pre-pubescently at. Even more interesting is his incorporation of Western texts and ideas into a decidedly Eastern way of thinking. Thus Proust becomes a Vedic prayer-chant master; the great creator-spirit Prajapat faces Kafka-esque dilemmas that lead him to be compared to The Trial s K. The gods and mythical figures of Ka are not the heavy-handed, wrathful gods of the West. These are thinking, breathing creatures who can bitch and moan, laugh and cry, love and be loved just like...
...first to appear in sixty years. Unlike the translators of the previous edition, Edwin and Willa Muir, who tried to clarify the text through interpretation, the new translator, Breon Mitchell, makes an effort to preserve the hidden meanings present in the original. To this end he painstakingly reviews Kafka's diction and syntax, searching for connotations not readily apparent in the German...
...addition to having decades of critical studies to rely on, Mitchell also has recourse to a new German edition of the work. The Muirs, translating from the original German release, were forced to work with an already altered text. Not only were some changes made converting Kafka's writing to High German, but some additions to the original text were made by Max Brod, Kafka's friend and the editor of his posthumously published works. The new text released in Germany disposes with these numerous alterations, presenting the novel in the form most closely resembling Kafka's initial writing. Using...
...Trial is an unfinished work. Kafka apparently did not intend it for publication and did not prepare it by correcting the numerous errors that abound. Inconsistencies in such matters as time or the spelling of names abound. Yet the rough and unfinished quality of the novel lends power to the ambiguity of its meanings. K. seems unjustly accused, yet his punishment may be appropriate. The court is presented in a negative light, yet compared to K. it sometimes seems to be the lesser of two evils as gross incompetence is contrasted with overplayed cockiness. The new interpretation finally presents Kafka...