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A review by wuthrinheights
Amerika: The Missing Person by Franz Kafka
adventurous
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book alternatively could've been titled "A Series of Unfortunate Events" for Karl Rossman simply did not get to catch a break. From getting shipped off by his parents to the US, to every single place he was placed into and everyone he met, has failed and mistreated him. It was simply exhausting and pitying (despite being called his funniest novel). If anything, this book reminded me of that line written by Emily Dickinson when she said "God gave a loaf to every bird, but just a crumb to me."
Kafka's writing tends to give off that surreal, dreamy feeling. Reading this felt like I was an onlooker with cotton in my ears and smoke in my eyes. Like I was watching everything unfold but it was muffled. The one thing about his style that slightly turned me off was how he almost never separated his work into paragraphs; it was something I had to get used to. Anyway, Albert Camus was right when he said "The whole art of Kafka consists in forcing the reader to reread" because I definitely must read this again someday to understand it fuller.
Kafka's writing tends to give off that surreal, dreamy feeling. Reading this felt like I was an onlooker with cotton in my ears and smoke in my eyes. Like I was watching everything unfold but it was muffled. The one thing about his style that slightly turned me off was how he almost never separated his work into paragraphs; it was something I had to get used to. Anyway, Albert Camus was right when he said "The whole art of Kafka consists in forcing the reader to reread" because I definitely must read this again someday to understand it fuller.