Let’s not get into how it’s taken me to this point in my life to read any Kafka. Let’s just say that my understanding of Kafkaesque has, perhaps, before now, been somewhat flawed.

What a strange little tale! What a sad ending! And yet, how very enjoyable to read.

I had imagined it being quite a bit darker than it was, but it was actually quite funny! And it reminded me a fair bit of the work of some of the absurdists, like Beckett or Ionesco. THe edition I have contains a number of the deleted fragments and incomplete chapters, which I have yet to dig through, as well as the postscripts to the original three editions. Seeing that it is an unedited by the author, fragmentary sort of work helps with my comprehension.

But oh, how baffling – and yet… how very like life itself. I’m glad I finally got around to this one.

Funny, chilling, and marvelous. I can’t believe I never had read this before.