314. Amerika

Amerika
Franz Kafka
1927
Around 340 pages

We come to the last Kafka on the List, so he can stop squirming in the afterlife because people are paying attention to him (sorry Franz). 

Karl Roßmann emigrated from Europe to escape the scandal of having a child with a housemaid. Or, as Kafka puts it, "being seduced by a housemaid." Anyway, he wanders around New York City, gets a job as a lift-boy, and gets stuck in a fat woman's apartment. 

Once again, we are only treated to fragments, so it's hard to judge it as you would a complete work. It's weird, he's weird, but I really like the dark themes he explores in his writings. And his version of Amerika is actually less strange than the real thing.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Kafka's working title was The Man Who Disappeared.

UP NEXT: Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson. 

311. The Castle

The Castle
Franz Kafka
1926
Around 315 pages

Another unfinished manuscript, which is much harder to judge than the completed projects. And you know how naturally judging comes to me. This is nothing against Kafka, he died before he could complete them. But I think the true magic of storytelling comes from realizing a story's full potential. So, tragically, for me, this can never be a five star read.

A character only identified as K. arrives in a village and is summoned to a nearby castle by mysterious authorities. He spends the remainder of the novel trying to access to the castle and the bizarre government of the town.

Kafka's themes are timeless, but it's interesting to examine this through the lens of Kafka's world, and the Anti Semitism he faced at the time. I wish Kafka had lived long enough to finish what he started. He seems weird and I think we would have got along.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Kafka's friend Max Brod heavily edited the manuscript.

Kafka wanted all his manuscripts destroyed, but Brod published them anyway.

UP NEXT: Blindness by Henry Green. I feel like he's a little meh.

301. The Trial

The Trial 
Franz Kafka
1925
Around 250 pages

Poor Franz Kafka. His last request was that everything he left behind be burned, unread. I wonder if it would be a comfort to him, knowing everybody thinks he's a genius. I'm not sure obsessively trying to complete a list is proper justification for invading his privacy. But like teenagers in a horror movie who've killed a homeless person and dumped the body in the ocean, I've come too far to turn back now.

Josef K., a cashier at a bank, is arrested by two agents of an unspecified agency for an unspecified crime. On his birthday no less. He's permitted to remain "free" but must appear at court on a Sunday, without being told the time or room. 

So basically, it's everybody's worst nightmare. I saw a critic refer to Kafka as the Dante of the twentieth century, which I think is an apt description. Bureaucracy is modern hell. You can relate to this novel simply by picking up the phone and calling Budget. 

It's unfinished, so the ending is abrupt, but I actually thought it was perfect for the story. Well done.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Heavily influenced by Crime and Punishment, and Kafka even called Dostoyevsky a blood relative.

Adapted in 1962 by Orson Welles, with Anthony Perkins in the lead.

UP NEXT: The Counterfeiters by Andre Gide. Another pedophile, gag.