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juliavjue's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
jamorley's review against another edition
3.0
"He spoke very sparingly into the tube and one often saw that he wanted to make some objection to the speaker, or to ask him some question, but certain words he heard forced him instead, before he could say anything, to lower his eyes and write."
"The smoke from Mr Green’s cigar, a present from Pollunder, of a thickness that his father would occasionally affirm existed, but had probably never witnessed with his own eyes, spread throughout the room, and carried Green’s influence into nooks and corners in which he would personally never set foot."
"In the early days, Karl had high hopes of his piano playing, and while lying in bed, at any rate, he thought it might have a direct effect upon his American environment. But it did sound very peculiar when, with the windows letting in the noisy air from outside, he played an old ballad from his homeland, which the soldiers sing to each other in the evenings as they lean out through the barrack windows gazing at the dark square outside – but then, when he looked out on to the street, it was just the same, a tiny piece, no more, of a gigantic circulatory system that couldn’t be arrested without understanding all the forces operating on its totality."
"The first days of a European in America were like a new birth, and while Karl shouldn’t be afraid, one did get used to things here faster than when entering the human world from beyond, he should bear in mind that his own initial impression did stand on rather shaky feet, and he shouldn’t allow them any undue influence over subsequent judgements, with the help of which, after all, he meant to live his life."
"The smoke from Mr Green’s cigar, a present from Pollunder, of a thickness that his father would occasionally affirm existed, but had probably never witnessed with his own eyes, spread throughout the room, and carried Green’s influence into nooks and corners in which he would personally never set foot."
"In the early days, Karl had high hopes of his piano playing, and while lying in bed, at any rate, he thought it might have a direct effect upon his American environment. But it did sound very peculiar when, with the windows letting in the noisy air from outside, he played an old ballad from his homeland, which the soldiers sing to each other in the evenings as they lean out through the barrack windows gazing at the dark square outside – but then, when he looked out on to the street, it was just the same, a tiny piece, no more, of a gigantic circulatory system that couldn’t be arrested without understanding all the forces operating on its totality."
"The first days of a European in America were like a new birth, and while Karl shouldn’t be afraid, one did get used to things here faster than when entering the human world from beyond, he should bear in mind that his own initial impression did stand on rather shaky feet, and he shouldn’t allow them any undue influence over subsequent judgements, with the help of which, after all, he meant to live his life."
mattleesharp's review against another edition
3.0
This book is a little cuter than I expected. You kind of expect a Job-like freight train of terrible to hit your main character when you read Kafka. This was more of a fun little misadventure. I will probably forget most of the story overnight, but it was a decent enough read.
eliathereader's review against another edition
3.0
Tamamlanmamış bir roman olması sebebiyle boşlukta kalan ve ne olacağını merak ettiren bir kitap. Kopukluklar bu yüzden mevcut. Ama son kısımlarına kadar oldukça güzel bir çizgide ilerliyor. Belki de Kafkanın en beğenilen eseri olacaktı tamamlansaydı.
charlyritter's review against another edition
5.0
My ranking is most certainly too high but I just had so much fun reading this. So. much. fun.
I loved Karl as a character from the moment he was super excited to be pressing a letter scale up and down... in the middle of a semi-serious moment. Or just generally how excited he could get at seemingly innocuous things (see also: that scene where he gets so happy playing the piano that he jumps up and prefers looking at it instead of keeping on playing) and how quick he was to solidarize himself with people he deemed his friends.
Especially in the beginning, my sense of humor was met so very often and I had to laugh out a lot, at scenes ranging from quirky characters to situational humor to one-liners (on which alone I used up next to a whole pack of sticky notes)."Da war er also, der Feind, frei und frisch im Festanzug" sounds like straight out of a Thomas Brezina novel.
My favorites among the minor characters were Jiu-Jitsu-practicing Klara and, of course, the student:
- "Ja, schlafen!", sagte der Student. "Schlafen werde ich, wenn ich mit meinem Studium fertig bin. Vorläufig trinke ich schwarzen Kaffee."
- "Seien Sie froh, dass Sie das Studium aufgegeben haben. Ich selbst studiere schon seit Jahren nur noch aus Konsequenz. Befriedigung habe ich wenig davon und Zukunftsaussichten noch weniger." – ME
The more the novel progresses and the further away Karl gets from his goal of belonging and making a new home for himself, the less funny it becomes and issues of and references to class that function as a back-drop in the beginning (such as mentions of ongoing workers’ strikes) become more overt.
from Karl’s attitudes towards the police
- "Roßmann”, wiederholte der Polizeimann, […] Karl [sah] schon in der Wiederholung das Aussprechen eines gewissen Verdachts.
- Es war ein Glück für Karl, dass die Verfolgung in einem Arbeiterviertel stattfand. Die Arbeiter halten es nicht mit den Behörden.
- In den Worten des Polizeimanns lag wahrscheinlich Verachtung, dafür fuhr auch Karl ohne Gruß weiter, Verachtung der Polizei war besser als ihre Aufmerksamkeit.
to his general position in society
- Natürlich bedeutet ein Liftjunge gar nichts und darf sich deshalb nichts erlauben […].
to the devaluation of jobs
- Karl überhörte gänzlich die Beschimpfung, soweit sie ihn selbst betraf, so sehr war er darüber empört, dass die ehrliche und schwere Arbeit des Unterportiers, statt anerkannt zu werden, verhöhnt wurde, und überdies verhöhnt von einem Mann, der, wenn er es gewagt hätte, sich einmal zu einem solchen Schalter zu setzen, gewissen nach ein paar Minuten unter dem Gelächter aller Frager hätte abziehen müssen.
Due to the fact that themes from his later novels – isolation, loneliness, alienation, guilt – are already present here, but in a much less abstract way, I feel like this is either a very good first Kafka novels to read since it is more accessible or a very bad one since it’s not really representative of the other two. (Also do I need to mention that it obviously does not have a proper ending, I mean it IS Kafka...)
I loved Karl as a character from the moment he was super excited to be pressing a letter scale up and down... in the middle of a semi-serious moment. Or just generally how excited he could get at seemingly innocuous things (see also: that scene where he gets so happy playing the piano that he jumps up and prefers looking at it instead of keeping on playing) and how quick he was to solidarize himself with people he deemed his friends.
Especially in the beginning, my sense of humor was met so very often and I had to laugh out a lot, at scenes ranging from quirky characters to situational humor to one-liners (on which alone I used up next to a whole pack of sticky notes).
My favorites among the minor characters were Jiu-Jitsu-practicing Klara and, of course, the student:
- "Ja, schlafen!", sagte der Student. "Schlafen werde ich, wenn ich mit meinem Studium fertig bin. Vorläufig trinke ich schwarzen Kaffee."
- "Seien Sie froh, dass Sie das Studium aufgegeben haben. Ich selbst studiere schon seit Jahren nur noch aus Konsequenz. Befriedigung habe ich wenig davon und Zukunftsaussichten noch weniger." – ME
The more the novel progresses and the further away Karl gets from his goal of belonging and making a new home for himself, the less funny it becomes and issues of and references to class that function as a back-drop in the beginning (such as mentions of ongoing workers’ strikes) become more overt.
from Karl’s attitudes towards the police
- "Roßmann”, wiederholte der Polizeimann, […] Karl [sah] schon in der Wiederholung das Aussprechen eines gewissen Verdachts.
- Es war ein Glück für Karl, dass die Verfolgung in einem Arbeiterviertel stattfand. Die Arbeiter halten es nicht mit den Behörden.
- In den Worten des Polizeimanns lag wahrscheinlich Verachtung, dafür fuhr auch Karl ohne Gruß weiter, Verachtung der Polizei war besser als ihre Aufmerksamkeit.
to his general position in society
- Natürlich bedeutet ein Liftjunge gar nichts und darf sich deshalb nichts erlauben […].
to the devaluation of jobs
- Karl überhörte gänzlich die Beschimpfung, soweit sie ihn selbst betraf, so sehr war er darüber empört, dass die ehrliche und schwere Arbeit des Unterportiers, statt anerkannt zu werden, verhöhnt wurde, und überdies verhöhnt von einem Mann, der, wenn er es gewagt hätte, sich einmal zu einem solchen Schalter zu setzen, gewissen nach ein paar Minuten unter dem Gelächter aller Frager hätte abziehen müssen.
Due to the fact that themes from his later novels – isolation, loneliness, alienation, guilt – are already present here, but in a much less abstract way, I feel like this is either a very good first Kafka novels to read since it is more accessible or a very bad one since it’s not really representative of the other two. (Also do I need to mention that it obviously does not have a proper ending, I mean it IS Kafka...)
robertt's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I have only read Kafkas The Process and his shorter works in school and fell in love with his writings. Never before I have felt storys that represent my ideas of films and dreams i such an absurd way. We have to read Kafka in order to understand Kafka whose only separation to us is his birth and death hundred years ago. His work resembles us and our loneliness.
Amerika is the perfect depiction of a naive character (we are naive) who is confronted with a new world (our birth = his arrival in America).
Amerika is the perfect depiction of a naive character (we are naive) who is confronted with a new world (our birth = his arrival in America).
sylabista's review against another edition
adventurous
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
benno24's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5