Commentaires client les plus utiles
|
|
2 internautes sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
5.0étoiles sur 5
The public misconception of Kafka, Juil 15 2004
Whenever asked who is my favorite writer, my response of Franz Kafka usually generates in the inquisitor a look of severity, as if I had responded with the most stifling and impenetrable answer imaginable. I have always been positively baffled by the public perception of Kafka as a "difficult" author, a "serious" author, one of those authors good for no one beyond college professors. This is simply not the case. All of three of Kafka's novels are thrilling, nightmarish, and haunting, to be sure, but they are also downright hysterical, containing countless moments of slapstick humor worthy of the great comics. Furthermore, Kafka's novels are probably the most compulsively readable of any I've ever read. I've yet to spend more than two days reading or re-reading one of the three novels, as once I'm drawn into Kafka's spell I have no choice but to finish (that previous statement obviously fits right in with Kafka's universe). I can't stand it when people consider Kafka "the guy who writes stories about people turning into bugs". The Castle is my favorite of Kafka's works, a novel so rich and beautiful, so full of crazy characters and imagination, it is the logical precursor to Roald Dahl and Tom Wolfe and Terry Southern and other writers of the comically absurd. Monty Python surely owes a huge debt to The Castle. The Castle is indescribable. There has never been another novel quite like it, before or after, and surely every reader will find it a different experience. It is a masterpiece in that it hints at serious post-modern themes and events, but remains ambiguous enough to take under its wing any number of interpretations. Great 20th century novels like Orwell's 1984 and Nabakov's Lolita probably won't stand up to future scrutiny the way Kafka's will, because Kafka is the only writer of the 20th century to succesfully represent the human experience through the form itself, letting the content and meaning transform entirely according to the reader.
|
|
|
1 internautes sur 1 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
4.0étoiles sur 5
Enter At Your Own Risk, Janv. 8 2004
Outside of the Russian authors it's hard for me to think of an author I like more than Kafka. I own everything he's every written, whether I have read all of his stories is a different matter lol. I have read "The Trial", and have read some of his short stories. I even did a school paper on two of them, "The Vulture" and "Home-Coming". But, "The Castle" is somewhat disappointing. When I first read "The Trial" I had a lot of ideas as to what it represented. I felt a connection with the main character, but, here with "The Castle", I'm debating what is this book about? My first guess was\is the castle clearly represents the government. But I wouldn't call "The Castle" a political book. As with all of Kafka's novels, they are incomplete. I noticed this bothered some people when reading "The Trial", but I thought the book was a masterpiece. I've also noticed some people are bothered by this book being incomplete as well. While I'm not really upset over that, I will admit, I did think about it more. Many characters are just forgotten. We have no clue what will happen to them. The last chapter I found unnecessary. And hated the last sentence in the book. But would I call this a bad book? No. Maybe I just like Kafka so much I can't be hard on him. I do think there is some substance to this book, it just takes a while to absorb it, but, I don't think it's as rewarding as "The Trial". Would I encourage someone to read this book? Only if your a Kafka fan. In order to "test the waters" read some of the short stories and "The Trial", I haven't read "Amerika" yet, so I can't comment on it, but "The Castle" should not be your introduction into Kafka's world. Bottom-line: For me, simply not as thought provoking as other works by Kafka. I enjoyed it to a point, but was left somewhat disappointed. Has a sloppy ending and seems as if it doesn't resolve anything.
|
|
|
2 internautes sur 3 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
3.0étoiles sur 5
Not his best, Juil 16 2004
I disagree with many of the reviews of this work. "The Castle" is deliberately cumbersome to get across the feeling of bureaucracy; this makes it perhaps a good read when you've got nothing to do and are feeling a bit philosophical or pessimistic, but it's not something you can read after work. I liked "The Trial" a lot; it blended a bleak view of the world of guilt, punishment and self-righteousness with some good humour ["Are you a house painter?"] There is much less humour in "The Castle" and Josef K's character does not develop anywhere near as fully in this book. It is hard not to put this down to the fact that it was far from finished and the text breaks off mid-sentence, whilst "The Trial" [though still unfinished] has an ending and was nearer completion. There is still the surreal interactions with women in this book and the stubborn conversations that don't go anywhere, but they are in a much less animated tone. Also, the chapters where the procedures of bureacracy are described or K's "story so far" gone over are terribly boring. Some may say that this is to build up a sense of the bureacratic nature, but doing it in this way was no better than just reprinting the criminal code of Russia. I'd say the last few chapters are amongst the best, such as when he talks to an official that can never get to sleep.
|
|
|
Commentaires client les plus récents
|
de Franz Kafka
de Franz Kafka
de Franz Kafka
de Franz Kafka
