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A review by samzwiefelhofer
The Complete Stories by Franz Kafka
4.0
I really enjoyed The Judgement, The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor, A Country Doctor, The Hunter Gracchus, A Report to an Academy, A Hunger Artist, A Little Woman, The Burrow, and Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk.
However, I wish that I had first read one of Kafka’s novels before jumping into his entire collection of stories. Some of the stories were rather dense, and others were rather confusing, and some were both. I found many of the short stories to be especially trying, despite the brief length of the individual stories.
One story that particularly stood out to me was “The Burrow.” Perhaps overlooked by “The Metamorphosis” or “The Hunger Artist,” I found The Burrow to be rich with illustrative description and engaging turmoil within the story. The imagery that Kafka was able to conjure was entertaining from a self-visualization standpoint, and I enjoyed the twisting, claustrophobic nature of the burrow in a literal sense but also in regard to developments in the plot. I was reminded of Tana French’s “Broken Harbour.”
However, I wish that I had first read one of Kafka’s novels before jumping into his entire collection of stories. Some of the stories were rather dense, and others were rather confusing, and some were both. I found many of the short stories to be especially trying, despite the brief length of the individual stories.
One story that particularly stood out to me was “The Burrow.” Perhaps overlooked by “The Metamorphosis” or “The Hunger Artist,” I found The Burrow to be rich with illustrative description and engaging turmoil within the story. The imagery that Kafka was able to conjure was entertaining from a self-visualization standpoint, and I enjoyed the twisting, claustrophobic nature of the burrow in a literal sense but also in regard to developments in the plot. I was reminded of Tana French’s “Broken Harbour.”