#754 Mr. Kafka- Bohumil Hrabal
Mr. Kafka: And Other Tales From the Time of the Cult (of personality) has only recently been published in English. Mostly written in Czechoslovakia in the 1950’s when Prague was still recovering from the war and a Stalinist government was reeking havoc on their culture. There is something both dark and intensely human about these stories, something that could only be crated behind the Iron Curtain.
“This book is an expression not only of my own evolution, but of a part of society’s evolution as well, a society I live is that, like me, wishes to live in habitations where humor and the possibility of metaphysical escape reign supreme.”
There is such an intensity of mood and a richness of language that comes from oppression. But creativity will never be suppressed. This reads like a cold war echo of Henry Miller, living a wild life that’s both surreal and intently deliberate. Of course you have to love a story that references both Kafka and Job.
Notable Passage: “It’s good to live in anxiety, good to hear one’s teeth chatter in fear, good to push life to the brink of ruin and start fresh the next morning. It’s also good to part forever and praise misfortune.”
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