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Summary: Kafka's Genius Here!
Review: This collection contains all of Kafka's stories, but not his three novels. In my opinion, the stories are Kafka's greatest work. They are quintessentially Kafka. The very famous story, "The Metamorphosis," is here, in which a man "becomes" a bug.Also here is Kafka's little jewel of a masterpiece: his 800 word story, entitled, "A Fratricide." And, of course, "A Hunger Artist" is here, too. The depth and scope of Kafka's genius is all here, and I recommend this book to everybody.
Rating:
Summary: Some gems
Review: This is a mixed bag. Some of the pieces are fragments. Some are of questionable value. Some are gems. While it is possible to examine Kafka and his work from a psychoanalytic point of view, the point of engaging in such a puerile exercise eludes me. Such an approach is both shallow and unilluminating. Kafka's gems, such as "The Metamorphosis," are of the highest literary merit. In connection with "The Metamorphosis," I would recommend reading the corresponding lecture in Nabokov's "Lectures on Literature." Not only is Gregor Samsa a human being in an insect body, his family might aptly be described as insects in human bodies. "The Metamorphosis" is also interesting from a philosophical point of view as a piece of existentialist literature. There is certainly a sense of the absurd in this work. It may also lead us to question our sense of self-identity. To what extent is that connected to our body, to what extent connected to how others view us? As to the latter, recall that in Camus' "The Stranger," Meursault only becomes self-reflective after the trial in which his impression on others is reflected back to him.
Rating: 
Summary: tales of an unwell man
Review: Two things strike me about Franz Kafka. First, the almost complete absence of ideas in his work. Second, how obvious it is that his work is fundamentally about either repressed or closeted homosexuality. First things first; reading these stories and comparing what's actually on the page to the central position that Kafka holds among critics in 20th Century literature, I couldn't help thinking of Chauncey Gardiner. He, of course, is the simple minded hero of Jerzy Kozinski's great book Being There. Having spent his whole life within the grounds of a mansion gardening and watching TV, he enters the world completely unprepared to interact with his fellow man. But the people he meets inflate his non sequitirs into faux profundities and he is soon advising the President of the United States. He is a blank slate upon which other people scribble and then interpret their own ideas as genius. In much the same way, Kafka wrote a series of completely autobiographical tales, and an unpleasant autobiography it is: grown men living at home with their parents; working menial jobs in huge bureaucracies; terrified of marriage; bullied by overbearing fathers; plagued by illness, nightmares and feelings of alienation from all around them except for one loving sister. This was Kafka's own life and these are the common threads that run throughout his work. But add them all together and what you get is a situation, not a set of ideas. Kafka endlessly rewrites the situation that he found himself in; noticeably absent are any thoughts about the origin, meaning or alternatives to this situation, other than killing off the character who finds himself stuck therein. Second, I guess the discussion of Kafka as a "gay" writer is fairly recent, but I'm not sure how else he can be read. The very lack of socio-political meanings in his work, the degree to which it is situation based, rather than driven by ideas, leaves you with only the elements of the situation to interpret and the point inexorably towards a conclusion that his heroes are isolated by their homosexuality. Just take Metamorphosis; here are the elements of the plot. A grown single man who still lives with his family wakes up one morning to find that he has become a bug. This leads to his being isolated from his shamefaced family. His father drives him out of a room by throwing apples at him. One lodges in his backside and rots there; the resulting infection kills him. Well c'mon; this just isn't even subtle. A family ashamed of their single son. He's a dung beetle for cripes sakes. The apple (sin) infects his posterior. I mean surely we've all got the picture by now. Why go on? All of which leaves us with an interesting question, does the fact that his stories may not have meant to him what they have come to mean to different schools of critics in some way diminish his stature as a literary figure? Or does the fact that his intensely personal story can be read in a universal manner to apply to (1) the Jewish experience, (2) the epoch of totalitarian regimes and (3) the dehumanizing age of bureaucracy in which we all live, actually demonstrate just how great a writer he was? I'm inclined towards the first view. I think that the situation that he reiterates in his work is so specific to him and has so little to say about the world most of us live in that it is hard to justify his lofty position in the literary pantheon. As I read, I found myself thinking, "this author is a troubled boy" more often than "this is a troubling society he describes". In a perverse way, it seems likely that the best thing that ever happened to Kafka was the rise of totalitarian regimes in general and, specifically, their banning of his works. It is noteworthy that he died before the long dark night of Nazism and Communism descended on Europe. It is only retrospectively that his work came to be read as a gloss on these regimes. And had they simply ignored him, it's hard to believe that he would have come to be so closely associated with their machinations. Return him to the time and place that he wrote and take his work at face value and I think you're left, not with a writer whose work defines and illuminates the 20th Century (a la Orwell, with whom he is often unjustly paired), but with merely the mildly intriguing tales of an unwell man. GRADE: C+
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Summary: A provoking volume
Review: Until you read Kafka, many of us think we know Kafka based perhaps on anecdotal items we pick up in the media or from others. The mere fact there's the term "Kafkaesque" perhaps causes us to think we know what it means. But it is only when one reads Kafka do you begin to gain some insight into one of the most mysterious and yet hallowed writers of the 20th century. This volume is really the place to begin. For in it are three of his more widely known novellas: In the Penal Colony, The Judgement, and Metamorphosis. But it is with the other stories that the reader that peruses rather than skims will undoubtedly begin to ask questions. What is Kafka trying to say in such a circuitous manner? What conflict tears at him to write these unusual tales? Because I think most readers will begin to wonder the same, realizing that Kafka felt passionate about something, but chose a metaphoric manner to present his idea so ingenious and subtle that I fear it is lost upon most readers. Clearly, Kafka struggled with something deeply personal. He was engaged twice to the same woman, and called off the engagement twice. And he prefered to live an uneventful, unnoticeable and undemanding life. He ridiculed the bureaucry, yet chose it as his vocation. To me, that is a key element to understanding his stories. And these more obscure tales do more to reveal what is meant by "Kafkaesque" than the grandiose volumes of The Castle, or Amerika. It is clear why so many of his prose strikes one as unfinished (besides the fact most of it was unfinished), because Kafka's own metamorphosis was incomplete. Had he not died from tuberculosis, perhaps he would have solved the conundrum of his personal life. Instead, we are left with these beautiful and mysterious tales that whisper something to us.
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Summary: Contexts for Kafka
Review: Who could argue with the below reviews? The book is breathtaking. The short fiction is not really a "good introduction" to Kafka, though, it is Kafka at his best. In relation to what the top 10 reviewer (with whom I otherwise very much agree) says below, however, I would add that this imagination did not merely spring from the "ordinary life" of an insurance clerk, but from the extraordinary historical condition of turn-of-the-century German and Jewish Prague. Two recommendations: Mark Anderson's *Kafka's Clothes* is a literary analysis of several of these works in the context of the declining Habsburg Empire; Scott Spector's *Prague Territories* relates Kafka's whole generation of German-Jewish Prague writers to the nationality conflict between Czechs, Germans, and Jews. Contexts for Kafka!
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Summary: The Best Kafka Shorts Collection Available
Review: With a great introduction by John Updike, this is the best Kafka short story compilation I have found to date. I have read a lot of Kafka and believe that his shorts include some of his best work. This version presents some of the cleanest translations I have encountered and I think that with them we receive a much more approachable translation. For and introduction to Kafka this book is a great point of departure and for the Kafka fan, both new and seasoned this is a great book to own.
Including the famous Kafka shorts like the "Metamorphosis", "the Penal Colony" and "the Judgment" this book also contains some very short works that I would say are more indicative of his style including "Conversations With a Drunk" and "Conversations With a Worshipper". Some of these stories are so short that they barely span half of a written page and while they are arguably too short I suggest reading them first. Though some might read like a sucker punch by beginning and ending before you realize what occurred, these works will elucidate Kafka's style quicker than the longer shorts. If "The Trial" of "Amerika" is required reading (for students) or even if you have to read "
The Metamorphosis" take some time and read some of these very short stories first, not only will you have a far better command of Kafka's style but you will sound more intelligent in your classroom discussions and your literary analysis when you refer to other works by the author. For the pleasure reader set you can follow this same advice as spending mere moments to read these works will only enrich the experience of reading Kafka's Larger works.
Saving Literary analysis for another forum, I will go straight to the point of recommending this set of stories as the finest example of a Kafka shorts collection. Anyone who knows me well will know that I find the short story to be among the most enjoyable literary forms and that I have read more than my share of Kafka. This collection not only provides the most stories but presents them in a well thought out manner by including the very short stories in a section of their own. Since, undoubtedly, you will be reading this book often it is good to know that this a sturdy paperback that will sustain a great deal of abuse. I recommend that even if you don't buy this version read the stories, however if you are in the market for a Kafka short collection this is the one to buy. At a little over ten dollars you can't go wrong... Enjoy!
-- Ted Murena
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Summary: Kafka's Best Works
Review: _The Complete Stories_ by Kafka rank at the top of my list of the best short-story collections ever. The works contained in this volume represent Kafka's most important, innovative, and groundbreaking works. Collectively, this volume is exponentially better than any one of Kafka's fine novels. This is the real Kafka, and the reader will quickly realize that 70-80% of Kafka's most important works and ideas are contained in this volume.
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