Metamorphosis and Other Stories (Franz Kafka)

Franz Kafka

Metamorphosis and Other Stories

Looking for a bit of light reading in Balham library having finished a Nabokov book I saw this and thought I should read it. I'm sure I must have read some of his stuff years ago but can't remember any of it. Jumped straight to Metamorphosis which is very weird and heavy going, at least trying to figure out the meaning. I see it as a comedy with dark humour as to why the main character (or is he?) has become a cockroach (that's hardly a spoiler) which is hardly a metamorphosis as he is one from the very start of the story. There's a lot of farce and probably comments on social niceties and values as of the time that it was written. It may be that the roach man symbolises a life of drudgery and that this is a way to stop that and to take on another life but he's just not creative enough to take the risk or he's just too tied to his family as the breadwinner. The changes within the story are his father who finds that he can hold down a job and the same for his sister who blossoms into a nubile (translators wording) young woman. Even his mother has changed probably for the better. Next I went through the Contemplations which has Kafka considering various things or at least describing them vividly. The rest of the stories are either descriptions of things and people that may have been relevant at the time but meaningless to me and to be honest just got very boring. A couple of odder stories such as the execution machine with the victim not knowing what he's done wrong but, again, excellent descriptive writing but a farcical story line and a bit so what. Maybe I'm not getting the inner meanings but to me it's speaking to a time long past. Some interesting jump off points into Wikipedia though including hunger artists.

Laughter in the Dark (Vladimir Nabokov)

Vladimir Nabokov

Laughter in the Dark

An odd book about an older man who falls for a scheming younger woman and leaves his family for her. Various accidents ensue leading to what is probably the reader's inevitable conclusion. Very well written and the descriptions are great. Not sure I really enjoyed it as all the characters had flaws in some way or another and even the minor characters are easily dislikeable. I was going to re-read Lolita too last read a long long time ago when I was young so maybe will have a different perspective on it. Having read this I think I'll wait a while and read something a little less depressing. Although I've started with Kafka's Metamorphosis so not a great start...

Stasiland (Anna Funder)

Anna Funder

Stasiland

Interesting read about East Germany where a crazy proportion of people were under surveillance by the Stasi which also implies a crazy proportion of people that were informers. Anne is Australian living in Berlin after the wall came down and searched out people who tried to get over and under the wall and also those who worked for and within the Stasi. Some remarkable stories of bravery and deceit. Most worrying is the ease by which citizens would inform on their neighbours and family. Dystopian but in some ways in an ineffectual way. We find out that if people simply refused to help the Stasi they'd just give up on them and leave them alone - just that most were so scared that they did help the Stasi. Obviously different if a family member or close friend was suspected of seriously anti-establishment activities or god forbid wanted to escape to the enemy over the wall. The stories are told with human pathos which makes the book such an excellent read. Politics isn't really analysed although the obvious wrongness of how the GDR kept order is contrasted with the newly capitalist east Germany where people are falling below the poverty line and left to rot (well, a bit of welfare thrown in to make the capitalist system look concerned and to stop civil unrest). As someone in the book points out, it's great to have a choice of toothpaste but do we really need a choice of 30? (as an aside, most are produced by 2 companies anyway but I won't go into the economics of that here). So well worth reading both as an insight into the Stasi and for engaging stories. Thanks Bruce.