The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

About the book –

‘One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.’

Thus begins The Metamorphosis, cited as one of the seminal works of fiction of the twentieth century. A story of Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, who wakes up one day to discover that he has metamorphosed into a bug, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a book that concerns itself with the themes of alienation, disillusionment and existentialism.

As Samsa struggles to reconcile his humanity with his transformation, Kafka, very deftly, weaves his readers into a web that deals with the absurdity of existence, the alienating experience of modern life and the cruelty and incomprehensibility of authoritarian power, leaving them at once stunned and impressed.

Book Review –

I did not enjoy this read as much as I expected to.

The book , The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, is a short and an easy read but something was off. It felt plain after a point of time. However, it being merely 75 pages long is worth reading atleast once. I mean, how can one miss reading a twentieth century literature?

The book didn’t work for me for the lack of character detailing and how a particular topic is being stretched with no ends. The protagonist of this short story enjoyed the attention but the reactions of his family were barely acknowledged. However the frustration among them was visible in the last few pages of the book.

There are many between the lines reading and interpretation about the son and the helpless family. How after his metamorphosis he was looking forward to his sister’s help and the turnout of events in the end for Gregor.

The introduction to the book gives a brief look into his life. Metamorphosis is said to be an autobiographical book but is a classic fiction. Kafka, in this book, draws a very surreal story about a family and the struggles – emotionally as well as financially. The book reflects Kafka’s real life difficulties with his father, his closeness to his sister, and his job.

About the Author –

An icon of twentieth-century literature, Franz Kafka was born on July 3, 1883, into a middle-class, German family in Prague. Never famous in his own lifetime, most of Kafka’s works were published and translated only during the 1920s and 1930s and almost instantly, they became cult texts of modern literature. The Judgment, The Metamorphosis and Amerika were all written in 1912 while The Trial, Kafka’s most famous novel, was written in 1914. Kafka died of tuberculosis in 1924. 

– Kinjal Parekh