FRANZ KAFKA’S, “METAMORPHOSIS AND OTHER STORIES.”

When you enter the world of Franz Kafka you enter a completely different universe (well, maybe not as different now as it was ten years ago but still different). He’s different from geniuses like Orwell and Ray Bradbury. In a sense, they were fortune tellers who in many ways have predicted the future.

Kafka’s writing is in the present which was at the turn of the 20th century in Germany and Europe, but his use of allegory is much greater than most writers I have read. “Metamorphosis,” which can easily be interpreted a hundred different ways, finds Gregor… a young successful young man who supports his mother and father and younger sister… suddenly is transformed into a monstrous cockroach over night.

He naturally becomes useless and an embarrassment to his family, and no longer the money supplier. He is like the star athletic who is suddenly involved in a tragic accident and paralyzed. He eventually becomes a liability to his family.

“Metamorphosis,” is one of many wonderful short stories in this book. “The Hunger-Artist,”and “Josefine, the Singer or the Mouse People,” I found nearly as interesting as Metamorphosis.”

The collection is just short of 300 pages with at least 25 short stories. It reads more like 600 pages, but then you wouldn’t expect anything different from this marvelous writer.