Amerika
by Franz Kafka
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Book Summary Information
Author: Franz KafkaTranslator: Willa Muir
Translator: Edwin Muir
Preface: Klaus Mann
Foreword: E. L. Doctorow
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-07-02
ISBN: 0805210644
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Schocken
Book Reviews of Amerika
Book Review: 3 1/2 Stars -- "Everyone is Welcome!"
Summary: 3 Stars
There were several times when I was tempted to set aside 'Amerika'...well, that's not exactly right. Several times I was tempted to hurl the book across the room. Franz Kafka's depiction of the young Karl Rossman's adventures in the make-believe country of Amerika was oftentimes so excruciatingly uncomfortable to read that I didn't think I was going to be able to go on. That Kafka was able to evoke such a visceral reaction is a testament to his abilities, I suppose, so there is that; frankly though, for the most part, it was an experience I could have skipped.
Enough has been said about the fact that Kafka never visited America - never made it any further west than Paris - and of the misconceptions about this country that he included in the book, that I doubt it will be helpful to go over them again. At first glance, considering the book's title is 'Amerika', one might think those misconceptions are critical mistakes, especially if one is looking for a realistic novel in the vein of Dreiser or Upton Sinclair. That is, until one realizes that Kafka's literary executor Max Brod came up with the title to his friend's unfinished manuscript; Kafka's working title had been 'The Man Who Disappeared' - and with this, I think we actually enter Kafka country.
So it seems to me that it serves no real purpose to fault 'Amerika' for not accurately reflecting America. Although it seems obvious that the *idea* of this country - as filtered through information available to a Middle European of the early 1900's - was the inspiration for Karl Rossman's adventures, I also believe that the particular territory that Franz Kafka wanted to explore - as he does with all his writings that I've read - is the peculiar setting of a rational man ensnared by others incapable or unwilling to act on any impulse other than their vulgar instincts. Rossman's problem, similar to K. and Gregor Samsa, is that he is a rational centrist - able to empathize even with the worst scoundrels, yet by chance or contrivance, only able to act in his own best interest when it serves him most to keep quiet, or to be strangely silent at the moment he should most speak up.
What sets 'Amerika' apart from Kafka's later, more accomplished work in 'The Trial', is that here I get the feeling that the author is simply toying with his character - that the deprivations and cruelties that Rossman suffers serve no greater purpose other than as examples of how the world mistreats its outcasts and the weak. In fact, I think it goes to extreme lengths to show this - each time Rossman is about to gain some relief, the author arbitrarily raises another scenario to toss him back into the frying pan.
'Amerika', according to the back matter of this Schocken edition is ''Kafka's first and funniest novel" - funniest if you think pulling the wings off of flies is funny, I suppose. I will say that the last chapter - 'The Nature Theater of Oklahoma' - nearly redeems the previous unpleasantness though. I might even be persuaded to think that the depths that Rossman is forced to experience prior makes the possibilities at the end all the more powerful, but whether that is true or not doesn't really matter. Instead, it is the almost a child-like innocence of the ideas behind the 'Nature Theater' that give it its surreal resonance. Surely a glimpse of heaven, as heralded by the angelic host that greets Rossman when he goes to apply for employment, Kafka leaves us on a decidedly upbeat note.
'Amerika' is unfinished, though to me it reads similar to the more post-modern habit of open-ended, ambiguous endings. If anything, I would think the missing chapters between young Karl's last entanglement with the scoundrels Robinson and Delamarche and his seeking out the Nature Theater would be more jarring than the ending is - but neither should be enough on their own to discourage anyone from tackling the novel. The reason I *do* only slightly recommend the novel has to do with the ultimately unsatisfying trials of Karl Rossman, which seem to be an end unto themselves. While there are still worthy aspects spread out over the entire story, I believe almost any of the other works by Kafka would be time better spent.
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