Kafka: The Decisive Years Paperback – Illustrated, June 9, 2013

Poor K deserves his space. I've been slow to approach these three volumes because I feel the guy didn't really want the scrutiny. And as with many artists, if the art doesn't tell you who he is what's the sense...? This succeeds though, and I felt not unlike one of his friends who wished they could have done more or done something differently. And in the end perhaps the subject is still inscrutable and we just are looking at ourselves in new ways. But I did much enjoy this and did relate it somehow to my years of reading K. It didn't seem like a separate and superfluous thing like most biographies. Now the problem is I'm open to reading biographies again. Ugh. Wish all were executed as well.

Not only a superb book about the young Franz Kafka, but a clear window into his native city-- Prague--- with all its complex political, linguistic, and religious fault lines of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Reiner Stach, the author, provides the reader with a well-researched and fluidly written description of both Kafka and his early family life and other forces, such as education, friends, travel, and early career, that served ultimately to shape the great prose writer.This is one volume of a three volume biography; I have not read the first two volumes, which were earlier published out of sequence. Strong chapter notes and extensive bibliography are provided. The translator, Shelly Frisch, seems to have done an excellent job; although not knowing German myself, I will leave it to others to bestow more reliable praise.

This book was a marvelous read—so well written!

Easily the most exhaustive Kafka biography in English, perhaps even in German. Stach famously waited to write this volume (1) last just so he could access the archival material he needed. Lucid translation, too.

good

A trilogy has to be well written to be appreciated and kept with. This is a good example of that. Very interesting not only for Kafka, but for the history of the time and place.

A way of writing really clear and warm

It has brilliant, enlightening moments. It has very boring and confusing moments. And it has moments in which you have no clue why what it is being said is being said. There are no sources, no quotations, only speculation, and a constant dismissive attitude towards other Kafka scholars. The writing leaves to be desired, at times.

As expected.

The three-volume essay by Stach, of which this is the second one, is a must-have book for anyone seriously interested in Kafka. In particular, to the best of my knowledge, no one so far has provided an equally comprehensive account of the historical, cultural and family background that shaped Kafka's personality. By perusing the original German text, I realized that rendering such a dense prose in English must have posed a formidable challenge. Not the least merit of this book for English readers is the magnificent translation by Ms Frisch.

Novelistic, deep, penetrating and insightful. The detail is exhaustive, and I'm sure there must be a small measure of poetic license taken on Stach's part. This middle volume of a trilogy covers Kafka's most productive years and the writing of his best known works, his tragic relationships with women, and his already failing health. There's also new light shed on the often difficult relationships with his family, and his minor travels, excursions to conferences and attempts to get published. Stach is smart enough to avoid any cod-psychological analysis, but places Kafka's writing firmly in context of his life events, leaving us to draw our own conclusions. It's a known truth that far more has been written about Kafka than by him, but this is a major addition to that constantly growing canon.

The best and only comprehensive Kafka Biography.I will go back and read all of Kafka's work again!Excellent book!

This is the middle of a three-volume definitive biography of Franz Kafka (1883-1924), which is in fact the first proper and full biography of the writer ever published. Dealing with the middle years in Prague of Kafka's short life, it is as gripping as a novel, and the translation from the German is superb. Indispensable to anyone who has come under the spell of Kafka's compulsive idiom, including the three completed novels, the short stories and the Diaries. Kafka defined the 20th century both in terms of life and of literature; he is for all of us.