The title story is an absolute nightmare. I don't mean that as a strong criticism, but from the start, the protagonist and the other character feel totally surreal and opaque, doing odd, compelled to do quirky things in each other's proximity but never to be a real human being. Then when it goes into a dream sequence there are some cool psychedelic images (really reminded me of Jodorowsky film imagery, or the Simpsons episode where Homer eats the spicy chili), but I didn't find that it was making a particularly sharp point about life or relationships or modern society or anything. It felt juvenile, which it is -- a young talented writer trying to make something sweeping and expressionistic, but just making something confused and blunt.
But still, there are plenty of interesting, funny and strange shorter stories in this collection. "Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor" is hilarious and deeply futuristic -- two shiny orbs materialise and follow a deeply boring man around; he locks them in a cupboard and goes to work, where Kafka spends 8 pages describing his daily routine in minute detail, and then the story just ends without mentioning the orbs again. Very funny and nihilistic.
And then there are some great miniatures, paragraph long stories, little fables of alienation and suffering which almost do the same trick as a full length Kafka masterpiece. It's clichéd to say this, but Kafka really can be very funny, in the way that only severely depressed people can be. My favourite is 'A Little Fable':
"Alas", said the mouse, "the whole world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I am running into."
"You only need to change your direction," said the cat, and ate it up.