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A review by sfaizan
The Diaries of Franz Kafka by Franz Kafka
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
Franz Kafka was a major influence on me as a teenager and has played a role in my poetry as well as my sense of humor so the diaries have been a delight to read in a very saddening way. I've never read such dark emotions expressed with so much clarity before. Part of me wants to laugh, while another wants to cry for him when I read something like, "Utter despair, impossible to pull myself together; only when I've become satisfied with my sufferings can I stop."
I skipped chunks of the book, and skimmed through several sections, however I am categorizing it as 'read' because this is a real life person's private diaries, as opposed to an adventure novel, so its full of mundane records, and I feel like I got the overall essense of the book even if I didn't read every literal thing that Kafka did in his day to day life. There were also several parts that were just confusing because I didn't have enough context. I still loved reading it but I think the book would be a bit more approachable if there were footnotes and editorial explanations or if it was contained like just a curated subset of his diaries.
I skipped chunks of the book, and skimmed through several sections, however I am categorizing it as 'read' because this is a real life person's private diaries, as opposed to an adventure novel, so its full of mundane records, and I feel like I got the overall essense of the book even if I didn't read every literal thing that Kafka did in his day to day life. There were also several parts that were just confusing because I didn't have enough context. I still loved reading it but I think the book would be a bit more approachable if there were footnotes and editorial explanations or if it was contained like just a curated subset of his diaries.