Ian A Holcomb’s Reviews > Selected Stories > Status Update

“In the Penal Colony” is a horrifying tale of state-sanctioned torture that, despite being written in 1914, reminds me of horrible atrocities from the Holocaust. Apparently Kafka wrote this as a reflection of himself being pulled between his desires of marriage and pursuing his art (in his mind, these were mutually exclusive).

“The Transformation,” probably better known by most as “The Metamorphosis” is a story I last read twenty years ago as required summer reading for AP English. It’s sadder than I remember, but the wry humor was lost on me the first time around.

“The Judgment” is a tale fraught with tension of a grown son and his elderly father. I honestly need to re-read this to know what to think.

Introduction and two very short, thought provoking stories, “Wish to Become an Indian” and “The Trees” complete.