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.