Povídky I

Not an easy read for someone who like me who is probably just a surface reader at best.

Although the surreal feeling of his writing is probably what I like the most about it, sometimes in can lean into incomprehensible stream-of-consciousness style that is almost impossible to follow. This is especially true about the whole first part (called Contemplation, or Betrachtung in German) and the four stories united under the theme of a starving artist: A Hunger Artist (Ein Hungerkünstler), A Little Woman (Eine kleine Frau), Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk or Josefine (die Sängerin, oder Das Volk der Mäuse), and First Sorrow (Erstes Leid).

It should come as no surprise, then, that I like Kafka's more narrative-driven works better. In this collection, that would be:

(longer ones)
* In the Penal Colony (In der Strafkolonie)
* The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung)
* The Stoker (Der Heizer)
(shorter ones)
* Before the Law (Vor dem Gesetz, amazing!)
* The Dream (Ein Traum)
* The Bucket Rider (Der Kübelreiter)