The tourist shops of Prague sell dozens of items commemorating Franz Kafka. You can drink a latte in the Café Kafka, add sugar to it from a packet with Kafka’s face on it, and then light your cigarette from a box of Kafka matches.
Franz Kafka died in obscurity in 1924, publishing only a handful of bizarre stories in little-known literary magazines. Yet today he persists in our collective imaginations. Even those who have never read any of Kafka’s fiction describe their tribulations with the Department of Motor Vehicles as being Kafkaesque.
Kafkaesque explores the fiction of generations of authors inspired by Kafka’s work. These dystopic, comedic, and ironic tales include T. C. Boyle’s roadside garage that is a never-ending trial, Philip Roth’s alternate history in which Kafka immigrates to America to date his aunt, Jorge Luis Borges’s labyrinthine public lottery that redefines reality, Carol Emshwiller’s testimony by the first female to earn the right to call herself a “man,” and Paul Di Filippo’s unfamiliar Kafka—journalist by day, costumed crime-fighter by night.
Also included is Kafka’s classic story “The Hunger Artist,” appearing both in a brand-new translation and in an illustrated version by legendary cartoonist R. Crumb (Fritz the Cat). Additionally, each author discusses Kafka’s writing, its relevance, its personal influence, and Kafka’s enduring legacy.
Industry Reviews
"All I really want to do, at the moment, is embrace the unsuspecting editors in a massive, spine-crunching bear hug."" --Los Angeles Times "on "The Secret History of Science Fiction" "Oh, these stories! . . . Don't stop until all have been read." " --Booklist "on "Feeling Very Strange" "Superb." "--SciFi.com "on" Feeling Very Strange" ."..sixteen inspiring, mind-altering stories...and every story in the bunch is a knockout." --"BoingBoing.net "on "Rewired" "Highlight: Lethem's crack-smoking aliens." "--Entertainment Weekly "on" Feeling Very Strange" "Leave it to Tachyon, one of the most exhilarating and intellectually probing small presses, to put out a book like this." "--Time Out Chicago "on" Feeling Very Strange" "Sixteen inspiring, mind-altering stories . . . and every story in the bunch is a knockout." --"BoingBoing.net "on "Rewired" "A delight to read. . . . The extremely varied and entertaining stories ["Kafkaesque"] contains help clarify Kafka's literary legacy." --"Czechposition "(October 2011) "[An] eclectic, mind-blowing collection." --"Publishers Weekly "(October 17, 2011) "Grade: A" --"Sci Fi Magazine "(December 1, 2011) "A surpassingly excellent anthology in its own right. An ideal introduction as the stories capture the strangeness, wonder, despair and humour which Kafka's work exemplifies." --www.SFSite.com (January 2012) "All of the works collected in Kafkaesque prove both edifying and entertaining.... A fine, intelligent, and exquisitely bizarre collection of fiction."
--New York Journal of Books "Eclectic, mind-blowing collection"
--Publishers Weekly
"A delight to read.... [T]he extremely varied and entertaining stories [Kafkaesque] contains help clarify Kafka's literary legacy."
--Czechposition
..".a surpassingly excellent anthology in its own right. An ideal introduction, as the stories capture the strangeness, wonder, despair, and humour which Kafka's work exemplifies."
--SF Site
"Grade: A."
--SciFi Magazine
"So very good...one of my favourite anthologies."
--BiblioBuffet
"A smart and provocative anthology...superb."
--Underwords
"It's an extremely rich and potent collection...."
--Functional Nerds "All of the works collected in "Kafkaesque" prove both edifying and entertaining.... A fine, intelligent, and exquisitely bizarre collection of fiction."
--"New York Journal of Books"
"Eclectic, mind-blowing collection"
--"Publishers Weekly"
"A delight to read.... [T]he extremely varied and entertaining stories ["Kafkaesque"] contains help clarify Kafka's literary legacy."
--"Czechposition"
."..a surpassingly excellent anthology in its own right. An ideal introduction, as the stories capture the strangeness, wonder, despair, and humour which Kafka's work exemplifies."
--"SF Site"
"Grade: A."
--"SciFi Magazine"
"So very good...one of my favourite anthologies."
--"BiblioBuffet"
"A smart and provocative anthology...superb."
--"Underwords"
"It's an extremely rich and potent collection...."
--"Functional Nerds"
