AKICILJ: Kafka edition

[truepenny]

Does anyone know of a better English-language biography of Franz Kafka than Frederick Karl's Franz Kafka: Representative Man: Prague, Germans, Jews, and the Crisis of Modernism? Because I was shouting at the book by page 12, and I don't think that's a good sign.

Comments

[perverse-idyll.livejournal.com]

Well, it's been about 20 years since I read it, but I thoroughly enjoyed Ernst Pawel's The Nightmare of Reason (http://www.amazon.com/Nightmare-Reason-Ernst-Pawel/dp/0374523355/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229535793&sr=1-1), which admittedly is the only Kafka bio I've read. I remember looking at the Karl and rejecting it on grounds of - was it reductive Freudian psycho-babble? I'm not sure. But I was going through the thrill of Kafka-discovery at the time.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was reductive Freudian psycho-babble, with particular reference to the Oedipus complex.

Thank you!

[jazzfish]

Myself, I'm fond of R. Crumb's Kafka (formerly Introducing Kafka in the US or Kafka for Beginners in the UK). Not for people that don't like Crumb's art, of course.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Serendipity was my friend: I found a copy of The Nightmare of Reason in the used bookstore yesterday. It is SO MUCH BETTER. Pawel is smart and careful and makes me happy. So double thank you for the recommendation.

[perverse-idyll.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome. It's always a pleasure to recommend a book I enjoyed. And Kafka is one of the great loves of my reading life.