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Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life [WHY YOU SHOULD READ KAFKA BEFO]
Everybody knows the face of Franz Kafka, whether they have read any of his works or not. And that brooding face carries instant bleak and threatening visions of an inescapable bureaucracy, nightmarish transformations, uncanny predictions of the Holocaust. But while Kafka’s genius is beyond question, the image of a mysterious, sickly, shadowy figure who was scarcely known in his own lifetime bears no resemblance to the historical reality. Franz Kafka was a popular and well-connected millionaire’s son who enjoyed good-time girls, brothels, and expensive porn, who landed a highly desirable state job that pulled in at least $90,000 a year in today’s dollars for a six-hour day, who remained a loyal member of Prague’s German-speaking Imperial elite right to the end, and whose work was backed by a powerful literary clique.Here are some of the prevalent Kafka was the archetypal genius neglected in his lifetime.*Kafka was lonely.*Kafka was stuck in a dead-end job, struggling to find time to write.*Kafka was tormented by fear of sex.*Kafka was unbendingly honest about himself to the women in his life – too honest.*Kafka had a terrible, domineering father who had no understanding of his son’s needs.*Kafka’s style is mysterious and opaque.*Kafka takes us into bizarre worlds.James Hawes wants to tear down the critical walls which generations of gatekeepers---scholars, biographers, and tourist guides---have built up around Franz Kafka, giving us back the real man and the real significance of his splendid works. And he'll take no prisoners in the process.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2008
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October 16, 2022
This book aims to explode the common myths about Kafka: that he was a depressive, celibate loner in a dead-end job, unacknowledged as a literary success in his own time, who somehow foresaw the Holocaust.
Despite its title, this book would only be meaningful to those who have read Kafka’s work and know something of his life, especially since the writing style is confused and confusing (and I found it irritating as well). It is chatty, jumpy, with lots of asides and footnotes, and sometimes swaps to present tense, talking about Kafka as if he’s a mutual friend. It also repeats itself in nearby pages (poor editing).
It starts with a fairly detailed political history of Prague, Germany etc in the early 20th century, but there’s no timeline of that, let alone events in Kafka’s life, which is especially necessary considering how much the book jumps around.
Then there’s too much about Kafka’s indulgence in porn and brothels (none of it remarkable), then some debunking of myths, followed by a chapter each on Felice and Milena (rather late, as both are mentioned several times in passing, with no real explanation, earlier in the book) and.. that’s pretty much it. Nothing about Dora, not much about his mother or the other Julie. A very odd structure.
As for the myths, any serious fan already knows that many of them are untrue or exaggerated, although he does have some interesting angles.
He points out the disparity between his fame and reputation and how unfamiliar his actual words are to most people: widely known but little read, although apparently Shakespeare is the only author who generates more PhDs and biographies. He is famous for his vision, but not his words.
He also cautions against using hindsight to infer premonitions of the Holocaust in Kafka’s work, though he draws parallels with Hitler (who also had a troubled relationship with his father), whilst dismissing such hindsight and saying it was just the zeitgeist.
He points out how modern technology has reintroduced long-distance, written romances, not so dissimilar to those Kafka had.
Then, near the end, he finally comes up with something controversial: Kafka’s life story is largely irrelevant to his fiction, as long as one understands the broad historical context. So after all the overwrought analysis of the man’s porn, what really matters is that we remember the European legal system was and is very different from that in Britain and the US (it’s normal for suspects to be identified well before any decision whether to prosecute, e.g. the parents of missing Maddie McCann in Portugal) and the political and boundary upheavals going on at the time would make an unannounced land surveyor ("The Castle") arouse suspicion.
On the plus side, the breezy style makes it a very quick and easy read.
See my Kafka-related bookshelf for other works by and about Kafka: HERE.
Despite its title, this book would only be meaningful to those who have read Kafka’s work and know something of his life, especially since the writing style is confused and confusing (and I found it irritating as well). It is chatty, jumpy, with lots of asides and footnotes, and sometimes swaps to present tense, talking about Kafka as if he’s a mutual friend. It also repeats itself in nearby pages (poor editing).
It starts with a fairly detailed political history of Prague, Germany etc in the early 20th century, but there’s no timeline of that, let alone events in Kafka’s life, which is especially necessary considering how much the book jumps around.
Then there’s too much about Kafka’s indulgence in porn and brothels (none of it remarkable), then some debunking of myths, followed by a chapter each on Felice and Milena (rather late, as both are mentioned several times in passing, with no real explanation, earlier in the book) and.. that’s pretty much it. Nothing about Dora, not much about his mother or the other Julie. A very odd structure.
As for the myths, any serious fan already knows that many of them are untrue or exaggerated, although he does have some interesting angles.
He points out the disparity between his fame and reputation and how unfamiliar his actual words are to most people: widely known but little read, although apparently Shakespeare is the only author who generates more PhDs and biographies. He is famous for his vision, but not his words.
He also cautions against using hindsight to infer premonitions of the Holocaust in Kafka’s work, though he draws parallels with Hitler (who also had a troubled relationship with his father), whilst dismissing such hindsight and saying it was just the zeitgeist.
He points out how modern technology has reintroduced long-distance, written romances, not so dissimilar to those Kafka had.
Then, near the end, he finally comes up with something controversial: Kafka’s life story is largely irrelevant to his fiction, as long as one understands the broad historical context. So after all the overwrought analysis of the man’s porn, what really matters is that we remember the European legal system was and is very different from that in Britain and the US (it’s normal for suspects to be identified well before any decision whether to prosecute, e.g. the parents of missing Maddie McCann in Portugal) and the political and boundary upheavals going on at the time would make an unannounced land surveyor ("The Castle") arouse suspicion.
On the plus side, the breezy style makes it a very quick and easy read.
See my Kafka-related bookshelf for other works by and about Kafka: HERE.
March 25, 2023
Why I Should Have Read Cecily Before I Wasted My Life Reading “Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life”
OK, I admit it; I judged this book by its cover, seduced by the catchy title - and because I haven’t read any Kafka for some 40 years and I keep meaning to return to him.
This bio (for that’s what it is - Hawes doesn’t ever say what you should not waste your life doing) is written in a breezy present-tense style, an attempt to generate some tension by continually foreshadowing events in Kafka’s life, and most irritatingly, calling him “our hero”. It claims to show, with lots of italics that K was a happy, well-balanced post-Habsburg lad with a lusty sex life. This is supposedly in direct contrast to everything that has ever been written about Kafka.
This is of course nonsense. I’m sure the fact that Kafka was not necessarily a terminal depressive has been noted (and even if he had been, he would surely have had short periods of cheerfulness, as indicated by photos which prove (prove!) he was not gloomy and haunted all the time).
On p.128 Hawes says with the air of having discovered a fundamental truth,
“Of course this isn’t to say that Kafka didn’t feel isolated. You can feel horribly alone in a crowded party.”
No shit, Sherlock.
‘No shit’ was my frequent reaction throughout this book. For example, on being told earnestly (p.212) that justice in early 20th century Europe was nothing like our current processes and people really could be arrested for nothing! Yes readers, The Trial and The Castle really can be read as satire!
Then there is K’s sex life.
Hawes says, teasingly, on p.8
“... we’ll see what two entire generations of scholars have never shown to Kafka’s readers ... pictures that, when I first saw them, made me rub my eyes”.
Yes, K was obsessed with porn! Hawes must have led a very sheltered life because he devotes many pages to it, even though it is little more than Aubrey Beardsley-style erotica. In any case it would hardly have been exceptional in a time when there were so few other sanctioned outlets for sexual drive. And it turns out on p.58 that “Kafka’s porn is no real secret”. Sigh.
Apparently some scholars have maintained that Kafka was a virgin so Hawes goes to great lengths to prove otherwise. But it is clear that K was one tortured and mixed-up kid when came to women. (For a way more enjoyable read, see the delightful vignette in 1913: the year before the storm.)
Another argument is one I’m not really familiar with – that Kafka foresaw the fate of the European Jews. Again, this seems like a straw-man argument as many insightful writers could see by the early twenties that once again Jews were going to be blamed for Germany’s problems, even if they could not have known the terrible outcome.
I have a feeling that this is perhaps a particularly academic obsession that Hawes is railing against, though he never provides any evidence to back up any of his claims.
OK, on p.130 we get to K’s famous letter to his father.
What can you make of this syllogism?
... no, no, no! Hawes is not suggesting that Kafka was anything like Hitler! Why would you think that? He just means ... err, I’m not sure what exactly; but he does tell us, again very earnestly, that family life was different back then, and the Father really was the head of the household.
No shit.
So there all these “K-myths”, but I am pretty sure most are a figment of Hawes’s imagination, and he does a terrible job of demolishing them. And as he imples later in the book, it doesn’t matter! There is no question that Kafka must have been a tortured character, it comes across clearly in his writing and letters. Isn’t that enough?
So stop it, James, you’re being tiresome; go back to your little paddling pool of academia.
OK, I admit it; I judged this book by its cover, seduced by the catchy title - and because I haven’t read any Kafka for some 40 years and I keep meaning to return to him.
This bio (for that’s what it is - Hawes doesn’t ever say what you should not waste your life doing) is written in a breezy present-tense style, an attempt to generate some tension by continually foreshadowing events in Kafka’s life, and most irritatingly, calling him “our hero”. It claims to show, with lots of italics that K was a happy, well-balanced post-Habsburg lad with a lusty sex life. This is supposedly in direct contrast to everything that has ever been written about Kafka.
This is of course nonsense. I’m sure the fact that Kafka was not necessarily a terminal depressive has been noted (and even if he had been, he would surely have had short periods of cheerfulness, as indicated by photos which prove (prove!) he was not gloomy and haunted all the time).
On p.128 Hawes says with the air of having discovered a fundamental truth,
“Of course this isn’t to say that Kafka didn’t feel isolated. You can feel horribly alone in a crowded party.”
No shit, Sherlock.
‘No shit’ was my frequent reaction throughout this book. For example, on being told earnestly (p.212) that justice in early 20th century Europe was nothing like our current processes and people really could be arrested for nothing! Yes readers, The Trial and The Castle really can be read as satire!
Then there is K’s sex life.
Hawes says, teasingly, on p.8
“... we’ll see what two entire generations of scholars have never shown to Kafka’s readers ... pictures that, when I first saw them, made me rub my eyes”.
Yes, K was obsessed with porn! Hawes must have led a very sheltered life because he devotes many pages to it, even though it is little more than Aubrey Beardsley-style erotica. In any case it would hardly have been exceptional in a time when there were so few other sanctioned outlets for sexual drive. And it turns out on p.58 that “Kafka’s porn is no real secret”. Sigh.
Apparently some scholars have maintained that Kafka was a virgin so Hawes goes to great lengths to prove otherwise. But it is clear that K was one tortured and mixed-up kid when came to women. (For a way more enjoyable read, see the delightful vignette in 1913: the year before the storm.)
Another argument is one I’m not really familiar with – that Kafka foresaw the fate of the European Jews. Again, this seems like a straw-man argument as many insightful writers could see by the early twenties that once again Jews were going to be blamed for Germany’s problems, even if they could not have known the terrible outcome.
I have a feeling that this is perhaps a particularly academic obsession that Hawes is railing against, though he never provides any evidence to back up any of his claims.
OK, on p.130 we get to K’s famous letter to his father.
What can you make of this syllogism?
K’s letter to his father is full of blame concerning barriers to his becoming an artist;
Hitler wrote a similar self-serving essay about his artistic ambitions;
“So if Hitler wrote like that about his father ...” [sic]
... no, no, no! Hawes is not suggesting that Kafka was anything like Hitler! Why would you think that? He just means ... err, I’m not sure what exactly; but he does tell us, again very earnestly, that family life was different back then, and the Father really was the head of the household.
No shit.
So there all these “K-myths”, but I am pretty sure most are a figment of Hawes’s imagination, and he does a terrible job of demolishing them. And as he imples later in the book, it doesn’t matter! There is no question that Kafka must have been a tortured character, it comes across clearly in his writing and letters. Isn’t that enough?
So stop it, James, you’re being tiresome; go back to your little paddling pool of academia.
August 14, 2023
برای من که چیزی از کافکا نمیدونستم جالب بود و مشتاق شدم کتابهاش رو بخونم بهخصوص مسخ و محاکمه.
جریان عاشقانه کافکا با فلیسه و ملینا هم جالب بود.
نمیدونم علت امتیاز پایین کتاب چیه چون زندگینامه دیگهای از مافکا نخوندم و گویا این زندگینامه یه سری موارد رایج نوشته شده در سایر زندگینامههای کافکا رو زیرسوال برده و دیدگاه تارهای داده اما تا چه حد درسته رو نمیدونم.
جریان عاشقانه کافکا با فلیسه و ملینا هم جالب بود.
نمیدونم علت امتیاز پایین کتاب چیه چون زندگینامه دیگهای از مافکا نخوندم و گویا این زندگینامه یه سری موارد رایج نوشته شده در سایر زندگینامههای کافکا رو زیرسوال برده و دیدگاه تارهای داده اما تا چه حد درسته رو نمیدونم.
October 28, 2008
I did not want to finish this book. I also did not finish this book. The problem for me was this:
While some of myths uncovered about Kafka were interesting, such as Kafka was a lonely writer. I thought the writing presented the book with too many opinions which jumped from one idea to the next. My feeling is this may or may not had anything to do with Kafka. At first the author’s attempt seemed important to me. Yet, as I kept trying to read this book the constant jumping around from thought to thought became old and boring. One example: After reading a passage about a letter Kafka wrote to his father as quoted in the book the author writes:
"It seems as if we really must take the letter to his father with a very large pinch of salt indeed. Now, there's a good old Niietzchean argument that artist are somehow beyond truth and falsehood, that Ackroyd says of Dickens: Immediately he seized upon an opinion or a belief it possessed absolute truth and reality in his own mind"
Are we are talking about what Ackroyd says of Dickens? Okay... I am trying to follow this. Maybe this idea the author intended is about Kafka in an indirect way. Let’s go with this thought. The thought that the author may or may not have in mind for us and see where it goes. I keep thinking as I am reading the next sentence. Suddenly, this thought or idea about the creation of lies and how in my mind this all goes back to Kafka ends abruptly. Out of nowhere. While I am still banging my head on a headboard. The text jumps out and states:
The great (and, in his personal life, often deeply unpleasant) playwright Bertolt Brecht was once asked by an adoring listener "Herr Brecht, what a wonderful story you have just told us! Is it true? To which the cigar-smoking dramatist replied, with sovereign scorn, "Of course not. If it were true, it would not have been a good story"
Now, I am reading about Bertolt Brecht. I thought I was reading about what Akroyd says of Dickens and how this may or may not relate to KAFKA! I don't get it. I just got done banging my brain with an idea of how Akroyd feels about the creation of a lies. This is written as if it were Akroyd's feelings not Kafka's or is this Kafka’s feelings? How does Akroyd know? Does anybody know? If this is not Kafka’s feelings what does Akroyd’s interpretations about Dicken’s feelings have to do with KAFKA?
Maybe, Ackroyd's interpretations of a lie is related to Kafka in an indirect way. If this is the case then please support this for chissakes with more ideas about the relationship to KAFKA! Please do not bounce to Bertolt Brecht interpretations of a lie. I do not care about Bertolt Brecht interpretations of a lie at this point. I just want get some sleep.
Before, I have a nightmare. I wish I knew KAFKA'S interpretations of a lie. Maybe, a tad about Dicken's interpretations of a lie too since this idea was put in my head by the writer before my head hurt. If it was indeed related to Kafka. Was it?
Now add Bertolt Brecht? Your going to throw him in the mix? I thought I bought book about KAFKA! Why I Should Read KAFKA Before I Waste My Life.
At this point l can’t fall asleep since my brain hurts. I keep wondering why I should care about what else is inside the literary drain the author decided to pad this book with.
While some of myths uncovered about Kafka were interesting, such as Kafka was a lonely writer. I thought the writing presented the book with too many opinions which jumped from one idea to the next. My feeling is this may or may not had anything to do with Kafka. At first the author’s attempt seemed important to me. Yet, as I kept trying to read this book the constant jumping around from thought to thought became old and boring. One example: After reading a passage about a letter Kafka wrote to his father as quoted in the book the author writes:
"It seems as if we really must take the letter to his father with a very large pinch of salt indeed. Now, there's a good old Niietzchean argument that artist are somehow beyond truth and falsehood, that Ackroyd says of Dickens: Immediately he seized upon an opinion or a belief it possessed absolute truth and reality in his own mind"
Are we are talking about what Ackroyd says of Dickens? Okay... I am trying to follow this. Maybe this idea the author intended is about Kafka in an indirect way. Let’s go with this thought. The thought that the author may or may not have in mind for us and see where it goes. I keep thinking as I am reading the next sentence. Suddenly, this thought or idea about the creation of lies and how in my mind this all goes back to Kafka ends abruptly. Out of nowhere. While I am still banging my head on a headboard. The text jumps out and states:
The great (and, in his personal life, often deeply unpleasant) playwright Bertolt Brecht was once asked by an adoring listener "Herr Brecht, what a wonderful story you have just told us! Is it true? To which the cigar-smoking dramatist replied, with sovereign scorn, "Of course not. If it were true, it would not have been a good story"
Now, I am reading about Bertolt Brecht. I thought I was reading about what Akroyd says of Dickens and how this may or may not relate to KAFKA! I don't get it. I just got done banging my brain with an idea of how Akroyd feels about the creation of a lies. This is written as if it were Akroyd's feelings not Kafka's or is this Kafka’s feelings? How does Akroyd know? Does anybody know? If this is not Kafka’s feelings what does Akroyd’s interpretations about Dicken’s feelings have to do with KAFKA?
Maybe, Ackroyd's interpretations of a lie is related to Kafka in an indirect way. If this is the case then please support this for chissakes with more ideas about the relationship to KAFKA! Please do not bounce to Bertolt Brecht interpretations of a lie. I do not care about Bertolt Brecht interpretations of a lie at this point. I just want get some sleep.
Before, I have a nightmare. I wish I knew KAFKA'S interpretations of a lie. Maybe, a tad about Dicken's interpretations of a lie too since this idea was put in my head by the writer before my head hurt. If it was indeed related to Kafka. Was it?
Now add Bertolt Brecht? Your going to throw him in the mix? I thought I bought book about KAFKA! Why I Should Read KAFKA Before I Waste My Life.
At this point l can’t fall asleep since my brain hurts. I keep wondering why I should care about what else is inside the literary drain the author decided to pad this book with.
Read
September 11, 2024Yarım bıraktım. Kitap, Kafka'yla ilgili birtakım hurafeleri çürütmek ve onun gerçek kimliğini göz önüne sermek için yazılmış güya. FAKAT sürekli bir şey söylemesine rağmen aslında hiçbir şey anlatmıyor. Koca bir laf kalabalığı diyebilirim. Yorucu ve sıkıcı buldum.
June 6, 2011
Observations:
1. I've discovered that I really like to read books about people who write books. As a casually aspiring author I find it's easier to read about people writing than it is to actually sit down and write myself. I like to live vicariously through authors, looking over their shoulder as they labor. I like to think that I can do what they do. I cannot. Oh well. It's still fun to watch the greats at work. It's like football: a bunch of fat guys at home watching a healthy guy run around on the screen (this metaphor makes sense in my mind---I'm the armchair quarterback and Kafka is Brett Favre).
2. Also, as I have previously mentioned in another review, I am about a million times more likely to read a book is it has a large picture of an animal on the front. Or a woodcut print. Or a woodcut print of a beetle.
3. This book's title is misleading. A better title would be: "Kafka: You might think he's like this, but really he's like THIS." That's the gist of the book. It's a fun tour of Bohemian Germany and... a not so fun trip into the twisted mind of Franz Kafka. Kafka was a real angry, manipulative, bitter, spoiled weirdo, that's for sure.
In conclusion: fun read. The author, though, often gets too wrapped up in how clever he is. He constantly refers to trivial things that a layman would have no way of knowing about. That's frustrating.
1. I've discovered that I really like to read books about people who write books. As a casually aspiring author I find it's easier to read about people writing than it is to actually sit down and write myself. I like to live vicariously through authors, looking over their shoulder as they labor. I like to think that I can do what they do. I cannot. Oh well. It's still fun to watch the greats at work. It's like football: a bunch of fat guys at home watching a healthy guy run around on the screen (this metaphor makes sense in my mind---I'm the armchair quarterback and Kafka is Brett Favre).
2. Also, as I have previously mentioned in another review, I am about a million times more likely to read a book is it has a large picture of an animal on the front. Or a woodcut print. Or a woodcut print of a beetle.
3. This book's title is misleading. A better title would be: "Kafka: You might think he's like this, but really he's like THIS." That's the gist of the book. It's a fun tour of Bohemian Germany and... a not so fun trip into the twisted mind of Franz Kafka. Kafka was a real angry, manipulative, bitter, spoiled weirdo, that's for sure.
In conclusion: fun read. The author, though, often gets too wrapped up in how clever he is. He constantly refers to trivial things that a layman would have no way of knowing about. That's frustrating.
November 27, 2011
Interesting look at Kafka's life, but the book doesn't live up to the title (or really address it at all!).
November 12, 2012
Engaging style, like hanging out and listening to a rant by one of the PhD candidate buddies. I'll definitly buy the next several rounds, as many as needed to keep the flow going...
August 28, 2008
Fun book to read, though probably not steeped in as much scholarship nor as revelatory as it stridently claims to be. Thesis is that the popular image of Kafka as a tubercular loner, undiscovered, sort of the Van Gogh of between-the-Wars Eastern Europe is a deliberately constructed fabrication. Real Kafka, the book claims, was a commitment-phobic man-about-town, award-winning author in his own day, and high-wage earner via a coveted civil service job. The fun in reading this is the tabloidy approach -- a few interesting anecdotes, a lot of harmless sneering, and some untenable, but salacious conclusions. I feel like I did learn a bit about Kafka that I hadn't previously known, and I came away with a hunger to re-read what I've read, and discover what I haven't.
March 22, 2019
I really enjoyed this book, which is a very sophisticated rant about why you should read Kafka despite the industry and mythology that has grown up around him. It's a warts and all not quite biography that I found easy to read and understand, which is especially good as I've never actually read any Kafka.
I know the stories. Or some of them. But I've been a little put off by the mythology of Kafka that Hawes gives a good kicking to here. I don't have the depth of knowledge to say whether Hawes is right about the Kafka myths, but he puts a good case. And one chapter in particular, about his relationship with Festina, does a marvelous job of destroying the mythology and making Kafka look like a prick at the same time.
Most importantly it makes you want to read Kafka.
Liked it a lot.
I know the stories. Or some of them. But I've been a little put off by the mythology of Kafka that Hawes gives a good kicking to here. I don't have the depth of knowledge to say whether Hawes is right about the Kafka myths, but he puts a good case. And one chapter in particular, about his relationship with Festina, does a marvelous job of destroying the mythology and making Kafka look like a prick at the same time.
Most importantly it makes you want to read Kafka.
Liked it a lot.
August 27, 2010
Despite the turn-off Kafka can give you in college (at least it did for me), this made me want to go back and re-read him, and with better understanding. But Hawes also goes into Kafka's personal life, rescuing the horny, fun-loving man from the shroud of a depressive reputation.
September 8, 2020
Entertaining, energetic and sometimes insightful. Although the work is also highly prone to making unwarranted suppositions, drawing incredibly long bows and inferring far too much from too little.
June 24, 2020
Franz Kafka was a tortured artist whose greatest works were ignored in his lifetime, and who foresaw the horrors of the 20th century, especially the Holocaust. His work abounds with mysterious forces constantly aligned against the everyday man, and can only be read as tragedies.
If you believe all this, have I got the book for you! Another fun re-read, prompted by my recent completion of "The Castle" (which was unfinished at Kafka's death), "Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life" is a fantastic deconstruction of the many myths around Franz Kafka (1883-1924), certainly one of the greatest literary figures in modern times but far from neglected in his own time. Written by James Hawes with wit, insight, and passion, this might be one of the most fun literary studies works I've ever come across.
Hawes points out that Kafka, who grew up in the primarily German-speaking Jewish-German section of Prague (then an outpost for the Austro-Hungarian Empire until his thirty-fifth year) was anything but neglected in his time. True, his novels were only published in the wake of his passing, but many of his classic shorter works (such as "The Metamorphosis" and "The Judgment") were published in his lifetime, and well-received at that. Kafka's "tortured" relationship with his father may very well have been a literary device common to Victorian- and Edwardian-era novelists (and more dramatic than the truth), and his attempts to wed may not have been thwarted by any "illness" on his part so much as his desire to cling to his freewheeling bachelor days without being alone as much. Franz Kafka, in conclusion, was a very complicated soul, but perhaps "tortured" is stretching it.
Hawes doesn't delve as much into the works of Kafka as you might think; this is more biocriticism than criticism, and that's okay. The works are important, but I think what Hawes is doing here is deconstructing the myths around Kafka so that you as a reader can approach them without as much of the "K-myth" attached to it. Which, honestly, is harder to do than it sounds, especially if you're well-versed in literary theories that either a.) attach a ton of importance to an author or creator's life story or the history of the environment in which a work is completed or b.) says "to hell with that, take the work on its own merits." Both are almost impossible to manage with an author of Kafka's stature; either you'll believe the hype (against the advice of Public Enemy), or you'll be unable to appreciate the comedy in a story of a hapless bureaucrat alone in an unfamiliar village without seeing it through the lens of Kafka's Jewishness, his German-ness in a Czech nation, or his place in the Austro-Hungarian bureaucracy.
Hawes shows the complex human being behind the myth, a man who was an imperfect human being but also a creative genius, whose work deserves not to be pegged as "prophetic" about the century to come so much as it reveals what was actually the facts of daily life in an autocratic monarchy like Austria-Hungary and its long-lived ruler Franz Josef. It strikes a blow for New Criticism, perhaps, but not really; it says that everything you thought you knew about Kafka might be wrong, and that's okay. Because once you arrive at this conclusion, you will be better equipped to read his masterpieces. And to be honest, isn't that the way it should be?
If you believe all this, have I got the book for you! Another fun re-read, prompted by my recent completion of "The Castle" (which was unfinished at Kafka's death), "Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life" is a fantastic deconstruction of the many myths around Franz Kafka (1883-1924), certainly one of the greatest literary figures in modern times but far from neglected in his own time. Written by James Hawes with wit, insight, and passion, this might be one of the most fun literary studies works I've ever come across.
Hawes points out that Kafka, who grew up in the primarily German-speaking Jewish-German section of Prague (then an outpost for the Austro-Hungarian Empire until his thirty-fifth year) was anything but neglected in his time. True, his novels were only published in the wake of his passing, but many of his classic shorter works (such as "The Metamorphosis" and "The Judgment") were published in his lifetime, and well-received at that. Kafka's "tortured" relationship with his father may very well have been a literary device common to Victorian- and Edwardian-era novelists (and more dramatic than the truth), and his attempts to wed may not have been thwarted by any "illness" on his part so much as his desire to cling to his freewheeling bachelor days without being alone as much. Franz Kafka, in conclusion, was a very complicated soul, but perhaps "tortured" is stretching it.
Hawes doesn't delve as much into the works of Kafka as you might think; this is more biocriticism than criticism, and that's okay. The works are important, but I think what Hawes is doing here is deconstructing the myths around Kafka so that you as a reader can approach them without as much of the "K-myth" attached to it. Which, honestly, is harder to do than it sounds, especially if you're well-versed in literary theories that either a.) attach a ton of importance to an author or creator's life story or the history of the environment in which a work is completed or b.) says "to hell with that, take the work on its own merits." Both are almost impossible to manage with an author of Kafka's stature; either you'll believe the hype (against the advice of Public Enemy), or you'll be unable to appreciate the comedy in a story of a hapless bureaucrat alone in an unfamiliar village without seeing it through the lens of Kafka's Jewishness, his German-ness in a Czech nation, or his place in the Austro-Hungarian bureaucracy.
Hawes shows the complex human being behind the myth, a man who was an imperfect human being but also a creative genius, whose work deserves not to be pegged as "prophetic" about the century to come so much as it reveals what was actually the facts of daily life in an autocratic monarchy like Austria-Hungary and its long-lived ruler Franz Josef. It strikes a blow for New Criticism, perhaps, but not really; it says that everything you thought you knew about Kafka might be wrong, and that's okay. Because once you arrive at this conclusion, you will be better equipped to read his masterpieces. And to be honest, isn't that the way it should be?
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November 14, 2023Kafka’nın eserleri üzerine çok fazla yorum okudum fakat bu okuduklarım arasından onun özel hayatına en çok yoğunlaşan kitaptı. Kafka hakkındaki efsaneleri yıkmaya yönelik bir kitap. Hawes kendi ilgi alanı ve çalışmalarından yola çıkarak özellikle tarihi olaylara (Avrupa’nın o dönemli ruh hali ve birinci dünya savaşına) çok fazla yer vermiş. En başta bunu garipsedim. Bir de ilk bölümde nedense Kafka’ya arkadaşıymış gibi hitap etmesi ve bazı yorumlarında da her şey yanlış aslında böyle gibi kesin bir yaklaşımla konuşması çok hoşuma gitmedi… Ama yine de çoğu yerde aydınlatıcıydı ve severek okudum. Kafka hakkında daha kişisel bilgiler öğrenmek ve başta söylediğim gibi yazar üzerine bilinen efsanelerin ne kadar doğru olup olmadığını görmek için güzel bir okuma.
June 19, 2024
Having just been to a Kafka exhibition at the Bodleian library, having spent 3 months in the Czech Republic as a youngster in the 90s and having had this book on my shelf for about 10 years, it was high time I actually read it! It's not going to be for everyone but I enjoyed its humour and lateral thinking. I really enjoyed the links between Kafka and Dickens and Sherlock Holmes, I also enjoyed the clear placement of Kafka in his historical context, a very different justice system, a country in huge turmoil, the status of German speaking Jews in Prague and all the other aspects of Kafka's life and work that I didn't really know much about. So, yep, good fun, and I've ordered a collected Kafka to dip into and enjoy.
October 18, 2017
Great book about Kafka and a very good book overall. James Hawes writes about parts of Kafka's life and works that show us who Kafka really was, instead of the K.-myth that has been created by scholars in the past century. The conclusion tells an essential truth about Kafka, and the world itself.
June 15, 2025
A complete tour de force
An extraordinary book. It is about Kafka, literature, Jewry, Czechoslovakia and German culture. It will make me go back to Goethe’s Werther in the original German as a revision of German language and culture. A complete tour de force.
An extraordinary book. It is about Kafka, literature, Jewry, Czechoslovakia and German culture. It will make me go back to Goethe’s Werther in the original German as a revision of German language and culture. A complete tour de force.
March 17, 2021
Fairly entertaining biography about a guy I'd heard of but knew nothing about - would recommend
April 7, 2025
A good biography debunking some of the myths.
Lacked confidence in his writing. Not kind to women really. Expanded my understanding of his novels.
Lacked confidence in his writing. Not kind to women really. Expanded my understanding of his novels.
February 26, 2011
James Hawes’ Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life is a biography and literary criticism devoted to unveiling the real Franz Kafka. According to Hawes, the Kafka that most of us think we know, the Kafka that has been sold to us by teachers and scholars is false. Hawes refers to these misnomers as the K-myth: Kafka had a stifling bureaucratic job, Kafka’s writing was ignored in his lifetime, Kafka’s father was cruel and domineering, Kafka foresaw the Holocaust, and finally that Kafka was afraid of sex. Hawes proves that none of these are true and if there is any truth to any of them it is certainly not how the K-myth tells it.
Kafka did have a bureaucratic job Hawes tells us; he had a terrific state job in fact. He worked six hours a day for a high salary which allowed him to hobnob in middle-class circles. His writing was published during his lifetime and although he was not nearly as well-known as he is posthumously, he was well-known in his corner of the globe. Kafka’s father was - as the K-myth rightly tells - much different than him; he was a large, stout man and a devote Jew whereas Kafka was smaller and less religious, perhaps Hawes suggests, making Kafka feel less of a man. Hermann Kafka conceivably represented the old ways and tradition that many parents do to their children and this would have conflicted with what Kafka wanted for himself. However, Kafka’s father supported his desires a great deal; he paid for Kafka’s schooling and allowed him to study whatever he chose. What Hawes wants us to see is that Kafka’s father was like many parents whose traditional values clash with their children’s modernity, but he was not the cold-hearted monster that the K-myth claims. As far as Kafka foreseeing the Holocaust, Hawes reduces this to superstitious drivel. He asks if we are really to think Kafka was clairvoyant!
Hawes also reveals that contrary to what the K-myth claims, Kafka had a robust sex life. Kafka subscribed, as did many of his friends, to various exotic literary and porn magazines which he concealed from his parents in a locked cabinet. Hawes also re-tells from Kafka’s own diary about his plentiful visits to local brothels. The chapters Hawes devotes to Kafka’s sex life are by far the most interesting. Hawes’ descriptions of Kafka’s relationships with various women - relationships based solely on sex, relationships based on everything but sex, and one which seemed to have been an explosive combination of both – tantalizingly unravel Kafka’s personality. Hawes essentially establishes that Kafka was a successful man-about-town that did as such men did: meet Sweet Maidens (the present day equivalent to party girls according to Hawes), read dirty magazines, frequent whore houses, and hang out at cafes with likeminded friends. What he did that set him apart from other men in his position was fail to settle down as he progressed into his late twenties and beyond. He knew, according to Hawes, that settling down would stifle his writing and force him into the same existence of his parents - both terrified him. Hawes emphasis in these chapters and throughout the whole book is establishing Kafka not as depraved, but as entirely human. Hawes is a Kafka lover and does not aspire to devalue Kafka, but truth is always better than deceit and in truth, as Hawes reveals, Kafka was simply a man like many others. His writing, of course, is another matter. Hawes vehemently declares, “…and nothing we ever find out about his life will change one iota of his work” (p64).
Hawes’ book reveals that Kafka was far more like us and far more complex than we have previously been told. Hawes delivers the real Kafka in fast-paced, yet detail oriented prose peppered with humor. At times it feels he is teasing and purposely drawing out the punch-line. Hawes builds up anticipation for the next shocking fact exceedingly well, too well on occasion. Hawes’ book is invaluable to any wishing to know Kafka, to study him or his work.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 31, 2015
I enjoyed James Hawes' droll and irreverent attack on a myth that portrays Franz Kafka as an unworldly, self-effacing and totally original writer who willingly stood at the periphery of literary mainstream. Concurrently the legend credits him with visionary and quasi-mystical powers of prophecy. Didn’t Kafka predict the Holocaust? Hawes wants to destroy this interpretative echo chamber that is fed by a burgeoning stream of academic dissertations. This doesn't discredit Kafka's great literay achievement. It simply reframes it and injects it with some fresh and more earthly vibes.
Hawes' deconstruction strategy is partly biographical. Rather than a withdrawn artist who scurried away from publishing opportunities we meet an affluent, well-connected and cocky member of Prague's German-speaking elite who was rather adroit in navigating the literary establishment. Kafka’s powers of divination were less than perfect as is obvious from his decision to put a considerable share of his private wealth in Austrian war bonds. Very soon their value would be reduced to nothing. The author punctures Kafka’s saintly aura by an account of his sexual promiscousness. Just as many of his male contemporaries K, early in his adulthood, frequented brothels, took advantage of relatively vulnerable girls from the lower social classes and perused licentious publications. (Later this relatively rudimentary and uncomplicated sexuality would give way to the more tormented relationships with Felice and Milena, also included in the book. I didn’t really grasp from Hawes’ narrative how this switch in Kafka’s emotional life came about). All in all Kafka appears here as a fairly normal representative of a turn of the century cultural elite. Neurotic he certainly was but probably not more than his artistic peers.
The biographical lens is complemented by a fresh look at the work. The disturbing imagery and dispassionate style of Kafka’s stories sometimes make us feel as if he comes from another planet. Yet, an appreciation of how the Habsburg Empire’s opaque legal system worked makes the plot of The Trial not as outlandish as it seems. Some of Kafka’s most admired and original tropes - such as a person that metamorphosizes into a beetle - were lifted from well-known literary sources (such as, in this particular case, Goethe’s Suffering of Young Werther). Hawes argues that Kafka was significantly influenced by the then emerging genre of detective stories. His famous story The Judgment is "... a high-literary equivalent of a Sherlock Holmes story that looks and sounds exactly like a real proper Sherlock Homes story - except that all of Holmes’s deductions lead absolutely nowhere (…) What makes us feel so sympathetic to Kafka’s characters is that they - like us, his readers - think they live in a world that is run on grounds of morality and rationality, a world where there is some connection between what we deserve and what we get (…) What makes Kafka’s stories so memorable is the way he shows that the basic chasm between the world we want and the world we’re in is as vast in the age of electric lights, cars and phones as it is in the Book of Job.” In sum, we shouldn’t read Kafka’s work as darkly prophetic fables but as black comedy in which human beings are hopelessly led astray by their own delusions.
Hawes' deconstruction strategy is partly biographical. Rather than a withdrawn artist who scurried away from publishing opportunities we meet an affluent, well-connected and cocky member of Prague's German-speaking elite who was rather adroit in navigating the literary establishment. Kafka’s powers of divination were less than perfect as is obvious from his decision to put a considerable share of his private wealth in Austrian war bonds. Very soon their value would be reduced to nothing. The author punctures Kafka’s saintly aura by an account of his sexual promiscousness. Just as many of his male contemporaries K, early in his adulthood, frequented brothels, took advantage of relatively vulnerable girls from the lower social classes and perused licentious publications. (Later this relatively rudimentary and uncomplicated sexuality would give way to the more tormented relationships with Felice and Milena, also included in the book. I didn’t really grasp from Hawes’ narrative how this switch in Kafka’s emotional life came about). All in all Kafka appears here as a fairly normal representative of a turn of the century cultural elite. Neurotic he certainly was but probably not more than his artistic peers.
The biographical lens is complemented by a fresh look at the work. The disturbing imagery and dispassionate style of Kafka’s stories sometimes make us feel as if he comes from another planet. Yet, an appreciation of how the Habsburg Empire’s opaque legal system worked makes the plot of The Trial not as outlandish as it seems. Some of Kafka’s most admired and original tropes - such as a person that metamorphosizes into a beetle - were lifted from well-known literary sources (such as, in this particular case, Goethe’s Suffering of Young Werther). Hawes argues that Kafka was significantly influenced by the then emerging genre of detective stories. His famous story The Judgment is "... a high-literary equivalent of a Sherlock Holmes story that looks and sounds exactly like a real proper Sherlock Homes story - except that all of Holmes’s deductions lead absolutely nowhere (…) What makes us feel so sympathetic to Kafka’s characters is that they - like us, his readers - think they live in a world that is run on grounds of morality and rationality, a world where there is some connection between what we deserve and what we get (…) What makes Kafka’s stories so memorable is the way he shows that the basic chasm between the world we want and the world we’re in is as vast in the age of electric lights, cars and phones as it is in the Book of Job.” In sum, we shouldn’t read Kafka’s work as darkly prophetic fables but as black comedy in which human beings are hopelessly led astray by their own delusions.
February 2, 2016
Sample passage (p. 70)
“No, none of this should shock us for the simple reason that none of it matters. No one would give a damn what Dr. Franz Kafka of Prague looked at or read or did with girls or though or felt (let alone, what kind of hairbrush he used) if his writing had not made us stop dead and wonder, and nothing we ever find out about his life will change one iota of his work. As the Chaplain in the cathedral scene of “The Trial” says: “The text alone is unchangeable.
The logic is inescapable: if we needed to know anything at all about Kafka’s life to enjoy his work, no one would ever have bothered finding it out.”
A fascinating tour of Kafka’s life and times, that ultimately reveals that it is the work – not the life – that truly fascinates.
While most of this exploration of Kafka the myth (“the K.-myth”) versus Kafka the man is informative, amusing (even the footnotes made me smile) and cleverly argued, there are some contentions that seem a bit belabored and overly strident (e.g. that Kafka could not have foreseen the Holocaust in his work, because he was dead long before the Shoah got on the road; an argument that surely needs little elaboration to convince anyone – except perhaps a psychic?) I don’t read academic journals, so I can’t accurately judge whether Dr. Hawes is knocking down straw men, or if he is making a valid protest against his academic peers. Not being a Kafka scholar, I also can’t accurately judge whether the Dr. Hawes’ theories are correct, but – as the author himself emphasizes - in the end that doesn’t really matter, as the book ultimately leads us past all these myths to revisit the works themselves. In that the book certainly succeeds – Dr. Hawes' bring the historical and cultural context of German-speaking Prague to life, which has definitely had the desired effect of enhancing my enjoyment of Kafka.
The book is comprised of about 80% K.-myth-busting, and 20% Kafka-in-context. My hope is that this book is a sign of some impending wider revival of new criticism for the mass market, and that in the future more such books come out - with the content percentages reversed.
“No, none of this should shock us for the simple reason that none of it matters. No one would give a damn what Dr. Franz Kafka of Prague looked at or read or did with girls or though or felt (let alone, what kind of hairbrush he used) if his writing had not made us stop dead and wonder, and nothing we ever find out about his life will change one iota of his work. As the Chaplain in the cathedral scene of “The Trial” says: “The text alone is unchangeable.
The logic is inescapable: if we needed to know anything at all about Kafka’s life to enjoy his work, no one would ever have bothered finding it out.”
A fascinating tour of Kafka’s life and times, that ultimately reveals that it is the work – not the life – that truly fascinates.
While most of this exploration of Kafka the myth (“the K.-myth”) versus Kafka the man is informative, amusing (even the footnotes made me smile) and cleverly argued, there are some contentions that seem a bit belabored and overly strident (e.g. that Kafka could not have foreseen the Holocaust in his work, because he was dead long before the Shoah got on the road; an argument that surely needs little elaboration to convince anyone – except perhaps a psychic?) I don’t read academic journals, so I can’t accurately judge whether Dr. Hawes is knocking down straw men, or if he is making a valid protest against his academic peers. Not being a Kafka scholar, I also can’t accurately judge whether the Dr. Hawes’ theories are correct, but – as the author himself emphasizes - in the end that doesn’t really matter, as the book ultimately leads us past all these myths to revisit the works themselves. In that the book certainly succeeds – Dr. Hawes' bring the historical and cultural context of German-speaking Prague to life, which has definitely had the desired effect of enhancing my enjoyment of Kafka.
The book is comprised of about 80% K.-myth-busting, and 20% Kafka-in-context. My hope is that this book is a sign of some impending wider revival of new criticism for the mass market, and that in the future more such books come out - with the content percentages reversed.
August 31, 2008
This lively debunking of the "K.-myth" has earned its author both praise and scolding in the UK, particularly because Hawkes points out what scholars have known for decades but never talked about. Kafka (like virtually every other male on the planet) enjoyed porn. Why this should be surprising or interesting, I'm not sure. In any case, this revelation plays a minor role in the book – which is dedicated to the demythologization of received truths such as: Kafka was a tortured neglected artist, a minor clerk, lonely and despairing with a domineering father and women who couldn't understand his genius. Again, the debunking is not especially exciting – but Hawkes demonstrates a charming asperity and salty sense of humor, and his book is unlike anything I've read on Kafka (who is usually treated with hushed Kabbalistic tones). As another reviewer points out, Kafka was something of a pill, a pushy vegetarian, controlling and hung up about sex, but above all – a dark comic genius.
Hawkes is particularly good in dispensing with the somber pseudo-profundity that Kafka somehow anticipated the Holocaust (which figures in more than one biography): "the Holocaust is utterly meaningless when considering the writings of Kafka... In fact it is worse than meaningless. It destroys meaning, sucks meaning into that blackest of holes. The Holocaust is the shadow we have to make ourselves forget in the context of Kafka."
Hawke is my favorite sort of scholar: sacrilegious and smart. If you're interested in Kafka's sorry life, you're likely to enjoy this book.
Hawkes is particularly good in dispensing with the somber pseudo-profundity that Kafka somehow anticipated the Holocaust (which figures in more than one biography): "the Holocaust is utterly meaningless when considering the writings of Kafka... In fact it is worse than meaningless. It destroys meaning, sucks meaning into that blackest of holes. The Holocaust is the shadow we have to make ourselves forget in the context of Kafka."
Hawke is my favorite sort of scholar: sacrilegious and smart. If you're interested in Kafka's sorry life, you're likely to enjoy this book.
August 4, 2013
I haven't read any Kafka, and didn't know that much about him before reading this book. I only knew the image of the K-MYTH as Hawes calls it.
In this book Hawes sets out to demolish the K-MYTH, and does a good job as far as I can see, although I only have this book to go on at the moment.
Hawes doesn't destroy Kafka the writer, writing that Kafka is the best he knows at taking 'the novel as far as it can go into the realms of purely psychological reality.' His imitators couldn't keep that balance, and descended into 'uncontrolled wallowing'.
Hawes tries to show how Kafka wasn't the tragic recluse who died a young unknown before his genius was realised; and also who influenced Kafka and his storylines: such as Nietzsche, Goethe and Dickens.
Hawes considers 'The Trial' Kafka's greatest work.The Trial
In this book Hawes sets out to demolish the K-MYTH, and does a good job as far as I can see, although I only have this book to go on at the moment.
Hawes doesn't destroy Kafka the writer, writing that Kafka is the best he knows at taking 'the novel as far as it can go into the realms of purely psychological reality.' His imitators couldn't keep that balance, and descended into 'uncontrolled wallowing'.
Hawes tries to show how Kafka wasn't the tragic recluse who died a young unknown before his genius was realised; and also who influenced Kafka and his storylines: such as Nietzsche, Goethe and Dickens.
Hawes considers 'The Trial' Kafka's greatest work.The Trial
September 11, 2015
Un bel saggio biografico che smonta quello che definisce "il mito K", ovvero l'immagine che ci siamo fatti un po' tutti che Kafka fosse come uno dei personaggi dei suoi racconti: isolato, tormentato, in lotta contro un ambiente ostile ed oscuro, magari "presago" della Shoah... E invece! Citando con cognizione testi, diari, lettere... ed altro (dalla cassetta segreta di Franz, le riviste pornosoft alle quali era abbonato: una versione mitteleuropea e fin de siècle di Playboy) ridisegna l'immagine di Kafka (rivalutando anche il padre Hermann, in genere considerato un "mostro" autoritario e repressivo)
Ora magari dovrò leggere qualche altre biografia "più classica" dello scrittore, per sentire anche le altre campane :)
Ma temo sarà difficile trovarne di così piacevole lettura. Stimolante, davvero.
Ora magari dovrò leggere qualche altre biografia "più classica" dello scrittore, per sentire anche le altre campane :)
Ma temo sarà difficile trovarne di così piacevole lettura. Stimolante, davvero.
November 24, 2014
While extremely interesting and very well designed (good references, interesting hypothesis and good build-up), it did not demolish the myth. I'm not sure how everybody else felt the myth (the author describes the way he felt it, and tries to give general outlines as to how others might have) but the book left me feeling Kafka as I did before: deeply troubled, socially (very)awkward, unable to love and let others love him, and deeply disappointed by himself in the world. My, only four, stars reflect just that. That for me it did not to the job it set out to do. On the other hand: it is very well written, it is an enjoyable read, and a very clear (probably one of the most honest) journey through Kafka's life.
December 3, 2015
Ever read Kafka? If so you most probably know the stories associated with him, that he was unworldly, aesthetic, caught in a dead end and unloved job, a prophet who saw the coming horrors of totalitarianism, who wanted his work destroyed when we died. Well in this book, Hawes makes a quite convincing argument that if not completely wrong, then at the very least, most of these points were a great overstatement, and does so showing great knowledge of his subjects life and with a dry witty sense of humour. If you ever wanted to know about Kafka's porn collection this is the book for you.
December 31, 2008
I hated his tone and I hated his story-writing technique. He wasn't interesting but condescending in his introduction. Sure, it could be true, but the way he writes it, why would I want to believe it?
If you're into Kafka, it's likely better to stick to his ouevre. Too many academics trying to capture it all from one angle or another in warring manners.
If you're into Kafka, it's likely better to stick to his ouevre. Too many academics trying to capture it all from one angle or another in warring manners.
August 20, 2008
Highly recommended for any and everybody with an interest in Kafka. Beyond the myth busting, Hawes' best accomplishment is in deftly illustrating why Kafka remains fascinating to us... and that the more things change, the more familiar they remain.
February 18, 2011
Recommend to anyone even vaguely interested in knowing about Kafka or life in general at this period of history in Prague. Well written with good references and a whitty style. Concise and relevant subtexts and it draws a great picture of the subject.
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