Metamorphosis itself was wonderfully dark and depressing. Through Gregor’s slow realisation that something is seriously wrong and how the people around him react there are so many things to consider. Gregor himself is the one affected by the metamorphosis, but he seems constantly to worry only about his family, despite their increasingly neglectful and hostile reaction to him. Very much a morbid story, but one i found rather fascinating.

The next three stories, The Great Wall of China, Investigations of a Dog and The Burrow, are where my problem with this book really lies. Rather than stories, i found them to be in the style of essays. Told mostly in first person (though occasionally drifting into third), these pieces discuss and analyse various concepts. Two of them from the point of view of an animal, but i think drawing on ideas from human life and putting them in an alternative context. I actually found the concepts discussed and Kafka’s general approach to them very interesting. However. I found the overall writing and the failed attempt at a story-like narrative rather dull. With no driving plot, no characters and no no dialogue, the entire pieces dragged. I mean really, when one paragraph stretches over four pages, it’s just ridiculous.

A slightly longer review can be read at my book blog: Marvel At Words.