The standard view of Kafka reduces him to the patron saint of neurotics.
fiction-in-translation
Book Review: “The Last Weynfeldt” — The Virtues of a Wry, Cosmopolitan Vibe
In this enjoyable novel, Martin Suter has chosen to sidestep depth in favor of colorful characters fine-honing their hopes and dreams..
Book Review: “Our Lady of the Nile” — Prefiguring Rwandan Genocide
Because of the national tension between the Tutsis and the Hutus, and its effects on everyday routines in the school, this novel cannot long remain a bemusing tale of adolescent life.
Book Review: Pierre Michon and his Many Artistic “Lives”
The books are bleak in that Pierre Michon provides no reassuring, idealistic view of the creative urge. Art leads to no transcendence, no permanent uplifting sentiment. Making poems or making pictures is a rough daily business.
Book Review: “Trieste” — A Vivid and Lurid Chronicle of Horrors
As fiction, “Trieste” is almost entirely a dense tapestry of thinking, remembering, agonizing and raging.
Book Review: A Wilted “Black Flower” From Korea
I can see why celebrated Korean writer Young-ha Kim was attracted to this real life story of about a thousand Koreans emigrating from Asia in 1904.
Poetry Review: Translucent Translations — “Wheel with a Single Spoke”
Nichita Stănescu is one of the poets who broke through the socialist-realism sound barrier and propelled Romanian poetry into new spheres.
Book Review: “The Lair” — The Intoxicating Trauma of Exile
Norman Manea’s compelling novel “The Lair” tracks the ambiguities, contradictions, and confusions of the exile’s psyche as he struggles to find footing in surroundings that are often unintelligible. It is a highly cerebral, labyrinthine book, filled with mystery, paranoia, and illegible codes.
Book Review: Robert Walser’s Big Small Thoughts — Modest But Miraculous
In his prose and poetry, Swiss writer Robert Walser revolts from the chaos of modernity, engaging in extreme subjectivity only to confess to the heresy that is the self, choosing to revel in the simplicity of the rural life. Not for truth, but for the sake of a fleeting rapture.
Book Review: “Second Person Singular”—A Powerful Look at Israel’s Tangled Issues of Identity
In his novel, Sayed Kashua paints such a vivid picture of modern Jerusalem that I found myself longing to see that city again; he also portrays a whole spectrum of Arab life in Israel — from the poor families visited by the social workers to the ambitious Arab mothers and their sometimes feckless sons — with empathy and humor.