Marks54's Reviews > Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka

I did not know that it has been exactly 100 years since Franz Kafka died.

This is a new book by a Polish born literary scholar seeking to explain the continued influence and. Importance of Kafka today - indeed if anything a growing popularity on a global scale . How does one do that, when the author died very young and with few of his works being published? This makes this an example of “reception” research. It is a short and readable book that is insightful and even clever. It has convinced me to go back to some of Kafka’s less well known short stories and to appreciate the influence of Kafka on so many other authors. The chapter on Kafka’s influence in Korea was especially interesting to me, due to the linkages with such recent novels as “The Vegetarian”. I read the 2015 novel but it made me think of Apollo and Daphne rather than Kafka but I am open to that.

I remain a rank novice at literary criticism and so will continue to process this for a while. It is well worth reading if one has any interest in Kafka.