The Sons (Schocken Kafka Library)
by Franz Kafka
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Book Summary Information
Author: Franz KafkaEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 1989-08-05
ISBN: 0805208860
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Schocken
Book Reviews of The Sons (Schocken Kafka Library)
Book Review: A tragic, fragmented portrait of a troubled relationship
Summary: 5 Stars
At one point in his career, Kafka made a request of his publisher that three of his stories be published together in a single volume, citing "an obvious connection among the three, and, even more important, a secret one." The publisher did not honor this request in Kafka's lifetime, but Schocken Books has since made Kafka's envisioned volume a reality, including use of Kafka's suggested title: The Sons.
The first story is "The Judgment," where a dutiful son contentedly looks after his feeble, aged father and prepares for his wedding... until a bout of nearly incomprehensible guilt utterly alters the relationship and the son's plans. Next is "The Stoker," the short story that is also the first chapter in the unfinished novel Amerika. Here a rejected, homesick youth temporarily finds a replacement for the father he has left behind in Europe. Rounding out Kafka's trio is his famed piece "The Metamorphosis," where Gregor Samsa awakens to find he has transformed into a giant insect, a situation that he regards with a surreal and comical lack of amazement, but which causes great consternation for his dependent parents and sister. The stories are, of course, excellent. More tightly written and polished than the fragmentary novels Kafka left behind, they highlight Kafka's taste for absurdity in the midst of banality and his characteristic injection of sly humor into scenarios that are sad or nightmarish from the characters' perspectives.
The editors of The Sons included one final piece, a piece that was not in Kafka's request to his publisher. Indeed, this piece was among the personal papers that Kafka asked to have burned unread after his death. It is Kafka's "Letter to His Father." Written when Kafka was thirty-six years old, the lengthy letter endeavors to answer his father's question of "...why I maintain I am afraid of you." Stripped of the playfulness of Kafka's fiction, the letter is like a dash of cold water in the face - both painful and clarifying. Suddenly the bizarre behavior of the sons in the preceding stories, their ingratiating, slavish devotion to fathers who reward them with rejection, intimidation, and violence, becomes more comprehensible as one reads the naked railings of Kafka to the father he both admired and feared. I've seen this letter dismissed as being unrealistic: objectively, Hermann Kafka was not a violent monster. This misses the point. This is not an objective assessment of the complex relationship between a parent and child. This is the desperate plea for understanding from a wounded adult child, speaking bluntly and truthfully about his subjective experience of the relationship. It is the tragic story of a clash of personalities; of a timid, sensitive child overwhelmed by a vigorous, aggressive parent. That the parent was likely well-intentioned and never understood the injurious affect he had on his son does not change the son's experience. Even more tragically, the letter makes it clear that even at the age of thirty-six, Franz Kafka still on some level perceived himself as a scrawny little boy, disappearing in the shadow of his strong father. Speaking from my own personal experience, I will warn you that if you've had any similar issues with your own parents, reading this letter will likely activate some painful emotions, but it can also provide a sense of catharsis.
Any of the individual stories in this brief collection is a worthwhile read on its own. Together they pack a powerful punch. I do advise keeping the publisher's order and saving reading the "Letter" for after reading the fiction. Enjoy the stories and see what you get out of them. Then read the letter, and perhaps revisit the stories, and see if you have a new perspective on Kafka's multilayered literary creations.
Summary of The Sons (Schocken Kafka Library)
I have only one request," Kafka wrote to his publisher Kurt Wolff in 1913. "'The Stoker,' 'The Metamorphosis,' and 'The Judgment' belong together, both inwardly and outwardly. There is an obvious connection among the three, and, even more important, a secret one, for which reason I would be reluctant to forego the chance of having them published together in a book, which might be called The Sons."Classics Books
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