Björn recenserade Der Verschollene av Franz Kafka (Gesammelte Werke in zwölf Bänden / Franz Kafka -- 2)
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3 stjärnor
Very obviously an early work - not only is it unfinished (especially noticeable towards the end, where it doesn't so much end as just stop) and not as quintessentially Kafka as his later works, but you really notice him developing the identity of the novel as it goes on. From a simple short story about a hapless immigrant, to an often hilarious litany of shatuponing at the hands of a system of fixed structures (including the German language itself), to a beautifully absurd final chapter that seems like the start of the novel it might have been. My guess is he never finished it because he realised he'd have to go back and re-write the whole thing from the beginning to incorporate the stuff he came up with as he wrote it. What's there is still worth reading, though.
Very obviously an early work - not only is it unfinished (especially noticeable towards the end, where it doesn't so much end as just stop) and not as quintessentially Kafka as his later works, but you really notice him developing the identity of the novel as it goes on. From a simple short story about a hapless immigrant, to an often hilarious litany of shatuponing at the hands of a system of fixed structures (including the German language itself), to a beautifully absurd final chapter that seems like the start of the novel it might have been. My guess is he never finished it because he realised he'd have to go back and re-write the whole thing from the beginning to incorporate the stuff he came up with as he wrote it. What's there is still worth reading, though.