A review by condensedmilk
The Metamorphosis and other Stories by Franz Kafka

Did not finish book. Stopped at 28%.

I don't particularly enjoy Kafka's writing style. I picked this book up because I wanted to read the title short story: The Metamorphosis, and to get there I had to read some other short stories too. I didn't really enjoy those ones because they were kind of childish in a way, because they tried to be complicated but fell short of it and were more angsty than anything. Like in 'Before the Law' the ending was confusing but not in an intellectual or interesting way—it just was vague but meant to be very symbolic and metaphorical, I assume. It just didn't give me anything. There's no 'aha moment' when I read the ending because I didn't really know what the story meant and nothing tied together in the end either. 'The Judgement' is better but still not as great as the story to come because it was very reactive. The ending was intense in a way that didn't make sense. (I will write what happened in this story in spoiler text to make more sense of what I mean, though I encourage you read the story yourself first! It is a short read afterall.)

In the story, the son is reprimanded by his father for lying to his (the son's) friend of his own success in life. The son does this because he didn't want his friend to feel bad, and was actually planning to tell him the truth eventually (as I remember) and invite him to his wedding. The father is unusually mad at him for doing this, even though the son didn't mean any harm and was at worst an idiot not a fiend, and the son is so upset over this that he (the son) KILLS HIMSELF. Now, I want to remind the reader that he has a BRIDE WHO HE LOVES waiting for him and he also has a successful business. So why??? Is the intensity of his emotions supposed to justify killing himself spontaneously??? It's odd to say the least, and I thought it inconsiderate of the guy considering he has somebody he loves waiting for him.

Now, I know I complained a whole lot about Kafka's stories, but 'The Judgement' is actually not that bad. I have another interpretation of the events that makes sense to me so I didn't really suffer reading this story (or any of the stories I mentioned, really. It's just that some of them were over the top). If you've read 'The Judgement', then I shall propose my interpretation in more spoiler text.

I think the son (I cannot remember his name for the life of me lol) is overwhelmed by the fact that he led his life dishonestly and even though he has a loving bride and a flourishing business, all of that means nothing when he loses the people he held close to him as he got lucky in life, and the possiblity of them dying thinking you were an honest but unlucky man, like the son's friend, was too real. I don't know if that makes sense but basically, the son offs himself because he was deceiving the people cheering him on because they thought he was one of them, when in reality it was long past when he'd crawled out of misfortune and was doing quite well with them none the wiser. I feel kind of insecure of my interpretation when it's written out but it sounds right in my head. Perhaps this feeling of guilt of deceiving his loved ones was amplified by his father being the one to point it, the only family member he was close to him criticizing him and disowning him (literally or figuratively, I can't remember) for being a deceitful person. Perhaps the son realizes that he was probably hiding the truth from his friend to make himself feel better and not the friend. To avoid the guilt and telling the truth, he nearly lives a double life. I don't think I agree with death as the answer to this problem because... you'll see next.

I also want to talk briefly about the bride of the main character to segue into a slightly feminist discussion of the story. I'll do it in more spoiler text because I have to.

It worries me that the son doesn't consider his bride when offing himself, considering this is somebody he loves enough to marry. He doesn't think of her when he jumps off to his death? That last thing he thinks of are the two men in the story, his accusing father and his misled friend. I feel like the value of his lover is depreciated when the son thinks nothing of her as he jumps, but then again, perhaps it was because he was truly selfish. Selfish when he held back the truth from his friend and selfish in death. It is fitting. I just wanted to talk about the bride because even though she's not integral to the story, she exists for a reason and perhaps it is to show how much the son abandons in death. Nevertheless—as more of a person than a reader, how could he just do that?! Ass.

Anyway, I think all my digressions almost made me forget the point of this review. I did like some of this stories clearly, and I liked 'The Metamorphosis' too. But truth be told, it is a really depressing story and at the time I thought it would be more of a light read so perhaps this is why I shall be abandoning this collection. It is really a me problem: I don't want to read a short story collection in a while and Kafka's writing is depressing. I really liked 'The Metamorphosis' and its message though, clearly his previous stories were just juvenile attempts and his writing seems to get better as you read through the collection, I think that's because in this collection the stories are chronologically ordered. I think I might pick this collection back up again, maybe once or twice, when I feel critical of life and its tricky elements. For now, it's novels for me.