More Monsters from Kafka

•Odradek, from the story “The Cares of a Family Man” (1919). This strange creature looks like a star-shaped spool of thread with one extra leg. It rolls around, lurking in shadows, trailing thread bits. No one knows what Odradek is, or how it lives, or if it can die. The Family Man’s specific “care” (referred to in the title) is the worry that the Odradek will live longer than he will, even though it’s just useless garbage.

•The gatekeepers from the story “Before the Law” (1915). If you seek ...