The Diaries of Franz Kafka (The Schocken Kafka Library)

Kafka’s Diaries make for difficult reading; not least because of the fact that they’re not really diaries but more of a writer’s journal. Combined within one text are drafts of short stories, reviews of theater, brutal self-examinations as well as what are more or less journal entries.For me, Kafka is somewhat of a paradigmatic figure. Through his novels and short stories he described the loss of the individual in the mass of totalitarian ideologies that so dominated the twentieth century. And so, this writer’s journal should enable us to see within Kafka’s soul and understand how he could express mid twentieth century experience some forty years before it transpired.To some extent, it does. His agonizingly broken relationship with his father, his feeling as both an insider and outsider due to his Jewry, his expressions of futility at establishing any kind of loving relationship…all these obviously contributed to works like the Trial and the Castle.But either because the journal is so disjointed—for example, literary criticism followed immediately by extraneous autobiographic details—or because of the fundamental complexity of his makeup, Kafka’s work does remain somewhat enigmatic. Its indisputable worth as literature surpasses the man making casual remarks about life in early twentieth century Prague.Despite its difficulty, despite the depressing tone of a man gradually succumbing to Tuberculosis while failing in all his human relationships, it’s a work worth reading for all trying to see into the darkness that was much of twentieth century Europe. Not an uplifting read, but an invaluable one.

It is an important development to have Kafka’s diary translated in full. You receive a better understanding of his time and place as well as how his literary mind worked.

Stellar work from Ross Benjamin. The diaries come alive like never before in English.

Translations are fascinating, and they can change everything. When you've worked long enough in a field that runs on translation, you become painfully aware of that. This is nothing new in the world of literature. Any translator who touches a project, either through action or inaction, makes a statement about the work they're doing. The first translation of Franz Kafka's diaries, as we learn from Ross Benjamin's foreword, took liberties. Removing less "acceptable" thoughts, tweaking unfinished work to tuck in the frayed edges... all things deeply misrepresentative of an author in the midst of his own thoughts.This new translation is a ramble—a series of rambles. There's joy in the disjointed, meaning in the meaninglessness. Ideally, a reader sees a writer at their best, with their tags tucked in and their hair brushed and the lipstick stains off their teeth. But The Diaries of Franz Kafka is glorious in its honesty.At times, he rambles to himself about his inability to love or be loved. Some days are people-watching: snippets of description, like an artist capturing a pose. Some entries are the same passage, over and over, refining the prose. Occasionally there are careful account of Kafka's day. The plays he takes in, the reading he himself is doing, vacations he's taken.Sometimes—most meaningful of all—are short, agonized sentences admitting to once again having written nothing.Benjamin has done a beautiful, difficult service: knowing when is the time to straighten an author's tie, and when to let him appear as he is, real and disheveled, to the world. There's something beautiful and personal in seeing this reality. For the authors among this book's readership, it's relatable and a relief. Writers are writers, no matter the level of fame, no matter the time period.For a scholar of Kafka's works, it is likely a must-read. But for any author at all, of any level, it is hugely important. In these pages, Kafka ceases to be an untouchable luminary and becomes what we all are: a person doing their best in the world, navigating turbulent feelings day to day, and wondering what mark they'll eventually leave.

Showed up like this out of the box