Kafka

A patron requested Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life.

Library Journal Reviews

Trying to deconstruct Kafka's writing is an ambitious undertaking. Kafka's stories and characters, not to mention the term Kafkaesque and its evocations, are familiar to millions of people, many of whom have never read anything he wrote. It's easy for readers to come to Kafka with a prefabricated impression—e.g., he was a genius writer, neglected in his lifetime, who ordered that all his works should be destroyed; he was lonely, stuck in a dead-end job, and tormented by fear of sex. The focus of British novelist Hawes's (Speak for England ) book is to debunk these myths of Kafka, an ambitious, earthly lawyer and literary figure who lived an adjusted life—and even enjoyed "expensive porn." Taking a satirical approach, Hawes intends to reveal the truth beneath the image academics and critics have maintained and to restore Kafka for a general audience using "long-lost dynamite" never presented before. This includes reproductions of pictures and drawings, most of an erotic and pornographic nature. Despite the humorous style, this book is an original, fact-based study presenting some provocative ideas that will be of interest to Kafka scholars and students. Highly recommended for research and comprehensive literary collections.—Ali Houissa, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, NY