Oh my goodness - Kafka is just too much. How to even try to review this book? I can't. It's so weird and interesting and beautifully written, it's a whole world unto itself, with its own rules.

I'll just say two things. First, that opening line, so often reproduced, really is just about perfect. Second, after reading this I think I have been wrong to allow any connotation of fearfulness to attach to my understanding of "Kafkaesque". Neither Gregor Samsa here nor K in The Castle is ever really afraid. The world is absurd, their situations are maddening, there is no escape, all can be lost (or gained) at any moment, but they are not really terrorized, so much as appropriately vexed.

I hope to read this a few more times in my life, and of course now I need to read more Kafka. Amazing.