A review by timmytoenail69
America by Franz Kafka

adventurous inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The reputation of this novel as unique in Kafka’s oeuvre as a lighthearted and positive story is indeed accurate. I have not read Kafka’s letter to his father yet, but having read the Metamorphosis and his diaries, Rossmann’s adventure seems to reflect a lot more the ideal that Kafka wished he could fulfil. In a rather Freudian sense, America represents the superego for Kafka: a hard-working man whose resilience affords him fortune in the face of somewhat bizarre and certainly uncontrollable misfortunes. It is a shame that is was left unfinished, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable book that managed to explore the same Kafkaesque themes in the total opposite way.