My edition is the Oxford one with Meditation, The Judgement, The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony and Letter to his Father. Letter is autobiographical and interesting from that perspective but without the context of his life not very meaningful or worthwhile - I don't really understand why it was included.

In the Penal Colony is probably the best horror story I've ever read - it's gory and disturbing, as much for what's not said as what is. There are a million questions I can think of reading it - what is the new commandant's plan? what made people suddenly dislike the machine? why did the machine destroy itself as it did? - all of which lead to further disturbing thoughts about the world described. Perfect.

The Metamorphosis is great too. Gregor's state brings to mind other things - particularly for me depression - which make me think of my own life. The hatred and disgust his family have for Gregor is palpable and is ignorance or submissiveness in the face of it is heartbreaking. Also made me think of capitalist society - what makes Gregor truly horrible is the impossibility of him ever working - although I feel that might be reading against the text a bit.

The Judgement is fascinating and enigmatic (by the way, both Judgement and Metamorphosis seem distinctly autobiographical). One to ponder on as the story itself calls into question its own version of events.

Meditation is a bunch of very short stories that make moods. Not super great but I enjoyed his writing style.

The 5 stars is for the 3 "proper" short stories which are all grand. ( )

The collection might be a good way to dip your toe into the dark, cold, bottomless Kafka oeuvre if the collected stories seem formidable. It contains 3 of his best known fictions: The Judgment, The Metamorphosis, and In the Penal Colony. It also includes his earliest published work, Meditations, and Letter to His Father, which is non-fiction to the extent that anything FK writes could be termed non-fiction.

It’s hard to nail down Kafka’s distinctive style. It uses various techniques to make reading very slow. Paragraphs seem to go on forever. Although Kafka claims he was not a good student, his training in law as well as his day job at an insurance company seem to be reflected in the prose style of how he represents action, dialog, and thought. (There might also be some influence from Biblical exegesis.) With regard to law, this is the discourse of briefs and memoranda, not the dramatic, persuasive rhetoric used for juries. There’s probably something in there from insurance claims reports, as well. Reasoning is followed as strictly as possible, emotion is excluded, repetition is often employed to make a point clear, and getting from point to point is documented in meticulous detail even if it seems unnecessary. The translation I believe reflects the original style. Part of the humor is that what is being described is nightmare crazy. Or maybe the dry discourse is meant to keep the crazy in check.

The introduction and notes can be helpful but to an annoying degree appear to be reading allusions in dead metaphors.

The Letter to His Father was new to me. It was long and exasperating, like watching a passive-aggressive character going through its routine, claiming no blame is involved while piling on the blame, using apparent self-criticism to display one’s victimhood. There may be an element of self-satire, but his friend Max Brod had to persuade him not to send it so it’s hard not to see this as the warts and all Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The letter documents a childhood memory that seems to capture FK’s personality: “One night I kept whining for water, certainly not because I was thirsty, but partly to annoy you, I suppose, and partly to amuse myself.”

Reading Kafka’s works as being about the family romance is reductive though. Family had a profound influence on him and shapes his expression, but his own family memories are used to launch the interior world building that seems so alien but familiar, to make the writing suggestive in the literary rather than the Freudian sense. ( )

Den här boken är så annorlunda att den kan få vem som helst att känna sig riktigt normal.

“As Gregor Samsa awoke from unsettling dreams one morning, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” (3). So opens Kafka’s most well-known novel about a man who has suddenly transformed into a giant beetle/cockroach. On the surface, the story is about Gregor, who is a dutiful son, and has moved back home to help his mother, father, and sister. He took a job as a salesman in order to provide financially for his family. He has only been home a short time when he transforms into a giant bug, and cannot anymore go to work. His family is shocked, but not enough to do try to get him help or get rid of him. His sister takes over care of Gregor, bringing him food and cleaning his room each day, while his parents, and even his sister, must take jobs in order to survive. The family is able to go on like this for some time, but then they must rent a room in their apartment. The renters have no idea that Gregor is living next to them until one day, he escapes his room to listen to his sister play her violin. The renters are appalled, and the family realizes there is only one solution to the problem of what to do about Gregor: they must make him go. Looking deeper into this short novel, one may see this novel as an allegory, with many symbols and metaphors. Starting with the title, The Metamorphosis, and continuing until the end, readers could see a way to look at themselves: have we transformed ourselves into something society wants us to be? And how do we view ourselves after that has happened? Can we avoid that kind of metamorphosis? A wonderful short novel with many layers of depth, The Metamorphosis is a classic that can be read by anyone, and interpreted several ways. ( )