Customer Reviews

Introducing Kafka

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As a longtime reader of Kafka, I found this book to be an unqualified delight, for it not only reviews his life and work with pinpoint concision, but also portrays it in evocative visual detail. The narrative by Mairowitz is sharp and insightful, with a zesty peppering of invective against pedants and philistines, while Crumb's gloomy pen drawings take the reader's eye into the heart of Prague and into the mind and imagination of its most anxious and self-conscious denizen. It is especially delightful to track down the original photographs that Crumb used for his models, for example in the book Franz Kafka: Pictures of a Life by Klaus Wagenbach, and then to see how he animates the figure of Kafka, presenting him now as an ordinary person in ordinary life (such as exercising by the window or chewing each bite of food more than ten times), now as a cartoon caricature in his own nightmares (zapped out and fleeing a succubus), now as an idealized figure in his fantasies (the healthy workman, the contented farmer). He also contrives to make the characters of Kafka's fiction resemble the author, but only slightly and appropriately. The loves of Kafka's life, especially Milena, emerge from their photographs as sexy, desirable women, then their images echo through his works. Crumb's portrayals of the stories and novels are not mere impressions, but careful and useful illustrations, since some scenes and particulars in Kafka are not easy to visualize, for example the machine in the story "In the Penal Colony." And, of course, Crumb is absolutely fastidious in basing his drawings on historical materials, so that we can see streets, buildings and dress, including uniforms, just as they were at the time. The presentation of Kafka's works necessarily reduce them to their storyline or plot and cannot do justice to his elaborate narratives, yet even here Mairowitz fixes on a crucial scene or a characteristic twist, which Crumb then illustrates in all its demonic glory. All in all, the book is a total pleasure, as perfect as it could be.

Only one quibble. I would not want a person to look at it first, before reading Kafka. It is much more suitable as a summing up, a personal vision and inspired collaboration of two mad devotees of Kafka. Read Kafka first, a lot of Kafka, then buy this book to sharpen your vision. It's a work of art, comparable to the Expressionism of Kafka's time.

There's an irreplaceable feeling attached to reading Kafka directly. Furthermore, Kafka himself probably would have hated the idea of images being made of his stories. That being said, I can't think of any better artist than Crumb to illustrate that over-used term "Kafkaesque."
This book is a great introduction - as titled - and a perfect blend in at least two ways: 1) The juxtaposition of Kafka's life and work presents the depth of his stories as well as some of the possible inspirations from his real life - like the role his overbearing father played in his creation of authoritative characters. And 2) as already mentioned, the at-times-terrifying-but-always-amusing art of Robert Crumb with the similarly dark-comedic styling of Kafka himself. (Kafka is said to have been inclined to laugh when reading his own work)
This is the only book of this introductory series I've read so far, but I would take this as an indication of a set of worthwhile books.

Mairowitz writes a lucid intorduction to the work of the great writer but the real treasure here is the copious artwork by R. Crumb. It's almost like he was born to illustrate Kafka. This is a fully satisfying three-dimensional consideration of the author, his times, and his postumous fame. *Not* just a comic book. Highly recommended, and not just for Kafka or Crumb fans, but anyone who loves writing and comedy.

I dug this book and I recommend it to everyone out there. Fans of Kafka and/or Crumb should really enjoy this.

I recall the first time I read Kafka's "The Metamorphosis", I was in my early twenties. I really hated it. I didn't really get it, nor did I desire to spend any time and mental energy trying to get it. Then again, what do you expect from a twenty-five year old bachelor? Enlightment? Nah, think again. Come to think of it, the only reason I read it in the first place was to impress some girl I was dating at the time. Needless to say it was a challenge for me trying to stay awake while reading it. I mean for one thing, how in the hell are we supposed to get excited, let alone even interested, about some guy who wakes up one day only to find that he's transformed into a giant bug. YAWN! Anyway, I did finally finish the book, however that was the first and last time I dared to pick up a novel by Franz Kafka again. The guy was just too damn doleful and morose for my taste. If I want to be depressed I'll start watching daytime television.

So anyway, about three weeks ago I was checking out this used book store in San Luis Obispo and just so happened to come across this little book. Now I have to tell you up front that I have never been a huge fan of Mr. Crumb's salacious sketches. No doubt about it, the man is one talented artist, incredibly original and a unique innovator. However, like I said, he just doesn't quite do it for me personally. So the million dollar question is - 'why would I purchase this book if I am not a fan of either artist?' The answer is simply because I have been promising myself for a while now that I need to try and tackle Kafka one more time (after all, I am so much more enlightened, open-minded, & mature now than I was fifteen plus years ago. At least that's what I keep trying to convince myself, others, like my wife for example, may beg to differ with me). Ergo, I was hoping that this short, breezy bio would educate me a bit on this rather unconventional writer. Also, I enjoyed the fact that this book was designed to be a bit humorous as well (hence Crumb's irreverent illustrations). God knows that Kafka is depressing enough, so this bit of humor (the author David Mairowitz also deserves credit for this as well) certainly helps.

All in all, this turned out to be an excellent little read. It's not going to blow your mind. It's not abstract or esoteric by any stretch. However, it is interesting. It is a tad educational as well. To sum it all up in one cliche line - it's a clever, pithy, picturesque little bio that is sure to assist anyone who is brave and intelligent enough to tackle Franz Kafka.

Well written by David Zane Mairowitz. And of course the illustrations by Crumb are absolutely amazing and for him, very, very tame. PG-13 tame in fact. This is the first book of this introductory series I've read so far, I am definitely interested in checking out the others in the series real soon.

Enjoy!

As I read through this delightful summary of Franz Kafka's life and work, I was struck by the fact that both the Czech writer and the cartoonist R. Crumb have the same anguished yearning for determined young women. Curiously, these all have the strong legs, broad beams, and statuesque torsos of Crumb's fantasy women from Zap Comix to today. Perhaps, Crumb and Kafka have more in common than meets the eye.

They are all there: Gregor Samsa's sister, the luscious Milena Jesenska, the Advocate's "nurse" Leni, Olga and Frieda from THE CASTLE, and the ravishing Dora Diamant. These women are all more durable than both Kafka and Crumb, who are wispy and likely to blow away in the next puff of wind. (I recommend that you see the excellent film documentary of the cartoonist's life, called, appropriately, CRUMB.)

When one concentrates on the women in Kafka's life and work, the result is curiously enlightening. "None of his female characters seems to have her own existence," writes David Zane Mairowitz, "but is spawned in his imagination in order to distract 'K' or 'Joseph K,' to tempt and ensnare him. Kafka's sexual terror is put to the test time after time, yet these same women provide something more.... The outcome of these relationships is rarely 'intimate' (Leni being an exception) and has more to do with power than personal feelings. Kafka's talent would mostly SUGGEST erotic encounter, rather than indulging his characters in that act which he found 'repellent and perfectly useless.'"

Perhaps Mairowitz and Crumb do not provide a measured and scholarly study of the writer, but within a mere 175 pages they have done more to rekindle my interest in Kafka than anything else I have ever read about him. This book is a perfect gem and a work of art in its own right.

The "Introducing..." series is quite uneven: there are some great books in it, but also some very dull ones. In general, books about authors are good, since they can combine the life of the writers with part of their stories. I love the one about Proust and the one about Camus; those about Joyce and Tolkien weren't so good on the other hand. The one about Kafka is one of the best, and this is due in no small part to the drawings of author Robert Crumb, who was able to bring to life (sorry about the cliche) Kafka's perverted imagination (yes, perverted is the right word) as probably few other artists would. Strongly recommended.

INTRODUCING KAFKA is a great way to enjoy R. Crumb artwork without feeling slimed by his unfortunate obsessions with perversity, and you will learn a lot about the life of the very famous author named Kafka, too.

Most of the pages have more space given to the artwork than the body text, drawn in the typical R. Crumb style, cute with edgy content.

Overall, after reading this book, I realized that I no longer am interested in the type of work done by Kafka, which is story writing that is VERY depressive and dreary, though imaginative.

I used to be a much more involved reader of R. Crumb, but I have since lost interest in his pornography overloads, so this INTRODUCING KAFKA book is a nice little souvenir of R. Crumb that I can safely keep in the house, without fear of upsetting anybody if they should ever find it.

There is very mild "adult" content in R. Crumb's artwork, especially mild compared to R. Crumb's independent, anything goes, usual work.

This book is a perfect fit for a biography of oddball author Kafka, presented and illustrated with R. Crumb work, doing a rare, non-offense project, for most mainstream readers' sensibilities.

Crumb was definitely the perfect illustrator for this book. Wow! The stories are "broken down" and visually interpreted, which really enriches the reading experience of the actual stories later (if you choose to do so). Overall, a very interesting look inside the life of a mysterious, dark-minded writer that most people don't know too much about. I'm really glad I read this book, I learned a lot!

In a format making the discussion easy and fun to read, this book covers much of the life and creations of Franz Kafka. One could argue with some of the statements made and whether they were accurate historically, but overall, one finishes this book with a rather profound understanding of the cultural background from which he created and suffered. It can be considered a good introduction to Kafka, but only as a stimulus to reading his works.

For those who came to look at/buy this book via Ian Buruma's passing mention in the New York Review of Books (4/6/06), in which he states the "the book does [Crumb and Kafka] both a disservice": Don't believe it. As another reviewer said, I found this book strangely moving; and the Illustrated Classics reference is unfortunate. The enforcement - sometimes passive - of the high-low cultural dichotomy is very boring, very 20th-century, and not of much use in reading a book like this.