Doing a #readalong of Dune Messiah with my bestie; starting story land by Amy Jeff’s for #LBCWSwan & dipping into cosy comfort read the Queen of Poisons by Robert thorogood when the world gets a bit much.
You?
Excellent cover. Hope you enjoy… that’s not the right word for Kafka in general & this one specifically, but you know what I mean!
(Hoping you feel ‘existential futility, isolation & a bureaucratic based despair’ doesn’t have the same ring.)
Thanks. I’m finding it a bit more of a chore than than the other Kafka I’ve read, but that’s probably my fault - diminished attention span? - rather than Franz’s.
If I’m remembering accurately, it’s particularly dark. But also wasn’t finished (at least not by Kafka) and published posthumously but don’t be hard on yourself - it’s probably it, but you!!!
Have you read (& did you enjoy) The Trial? I finished that, but it was a real chore for me. Have never read his other long fiction, & if you're finding The Castle worse, maybe I made the right decision. Like Borges, his gift was really the shorter form
I read it in my 20s and I remember enjoying it. I think my powers of concentration and my ability to plow through things that weren’t immediately rewarding were higher then. I honestly couldn’t recommend The Castle. It would have made a great short story or even a novella, but the premise …
… just doesn’t warrant a long-ish novel. ( interesting to recall that he wanted all his work burned). That’s so true about Borges. He understood his strengths (and maybe his weaknesses, as well) and he was able to construct whole universes within his short stories.
I have tried to read The Castle twice and haven’t been able to finish it either time (got about halfway through). I’d already read The Trial, which I loved, and The Castle felt too similar
Yes, they are extremely similar. I actually quite enjoyed Amerika too, much more than The Castle. I’ve got about 70 pages left so I will make it through, but it hasn’t been much fun. That Highsmith book I was reading last week, Found in the Street, was a very different experience - riveting, and …
