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#214099 in Books Princeton University Press 2013-06-09Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.22 x 1.25 x 6.23l, 1.96 #File Name: 0691147418552 pagesPrinceton University Press | File size: 62.Mb

Reiner Stach : Kafka: The Decisive Years before purchasing it in order to gage whether or not it would be worth my time, and all praised Kafka: The Decisive Years:

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. tough subjectBy B. Roth PhDBrillianT writing, tough subject always wanted to know more about Kafka and this is my chance to learn about him0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy C. L. AndersonBrilliant, no other words cut it. Buy the book.1 of 5 people found the following review helpful. UnevenBy Felipe AngelesIt 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.

This is the acclaimed central volume of the definitive biography of Franz Kafka. Reiner Stach spent more than a decade working with over four thousand pages of journals, letters, and literary fragments, many never before available, to re-create the atmosphere in which Kafka lived and worked from 1910 to 1915, the most important and best- documented years of his life. This period, which would prove crucial to Kafka's writing and set the course for the rest of his life, saw him working with astonishing intensity on his most seminal writings--The Trial, The Metamorphosis, The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika), and The Judgment. These are also the years of Kafka's fascination with Zionism; of his tumultuous engagement to Felice Bauer; and of the outbreak of World War I. Kafka: The Decisive Years is at once an extraordinary portrait of the writer and a startlingly original contribution to the art of literary biography.

From Publishers WeeklyStarred . We know Kafka better than almost any other literary figure. His tormented psyche has been on view for decades, not only from his great stories and novels but also from countless letters and diary entries, his own as well as those of lovers, and his friend and editor, Max Brod. Oddly, he has not commanded a great biography. German editor and author Stach enters the breach with the first volume of a planned trilogy, now published in an excellent English translation. Stach begins with a superb meditation on the art of biography, including the pitfalls of the empathy a biographer establishes with his subject. He picks up Kafka's life not in childhood, but in 1910, the fitful beginning of his literary career, and follows it only until 1915. But these were the years when Kafka produced some of his greatest works, including "The Metamorphosis" and The Trial. We see the writer in all his torments, but also his moments of triumph, however fleeting. Most impressive is Stach's recounting of the creation of his subject's writings. The biographer is not deluded by the simplicity of Kafka's prose. His language was elegant and finely honed and, in personal relations, could be used to great manipulative effect. Stach's own writing is wonderfully expressive, a trait that hopefully will be carried through in the next two volumes. 32 pages of bw photos not seen by PW. (Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.From Booklist*Starred * A voracious reader of biographies, Kafka himself eluded the attention of capable biographers for a very long time. Finally, in 2002, Stach published this probing first volume of what--when completed in two more volumes--will stand as the first definitive biography of a modern genius. Fortunately, the skills of a gifted translator now permit English- speaking readers to share in Stach's achievement. The text begins just before the young adult writer manifests his astonishing literary powers. Though much of the external life of this fastidious insurance agent might appear tedious, Stach recognizes that for a man who declared, "My stories are me," what counts is the hidden unfolding of the creative imagination. Thus, in Kafka's obsession with personal hygiene and Spartan furnishing Stach detects the same relentless asceticism that runs through all of his literary art. More tellingly, in the tortured course of an abortive courtship, Stach probes the mind of a man who deeply craved intimacy but who finally insisted on an emotional martyrdom that would preserve his aesthetic solitude. Within that intensifying solitude, readers glimpse the radical alienation that incubated the dark masterpiece "The Metamorphosis." Nor does Stach neglect the larger context, convincingly linking Kafka's personal turmoil to the deepening gloom pervading pre-World War I Europe. Kafka was thus crystallizing both his private distress and a global premonition in plumbing the ominous mysteries of "The Penal Colony" and The Trial. Essential reading for all Kafka devotees. Bryce ChristensenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved One of The Guardian Best Books of 2013, chosen by Colm Tóibín"Most impressive is Stach's recounting of the creation of his subject's writings. . . . Stach's own writing is wonderfully expressive."-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)"A scrupulous, discriminating, and highly instructive account of Kafka's life."-- Robert Alter, New Republic"[S]uperbly tempered. . . . [T]hrough this robustly determined unearthing he rescues Kafka from the unearthliness of his repute. . . . Shelley Frisch, Stach's heroic American translator, movingly reproduces his intended breadth and pace and tone. . . . In this honest and honorable biography there is no trace of the Kafkaesque; but in it you may find a crystal granule of the Kafka who was."--Cynthia Ozick, New Republic"Stach aims to tell us all that can be known about [Kafka], avoiding the fancies and extrapolations of earlier biographers. The result is an enthralling synthesis, one that reads beautifully…. I can't say enough about the liveliness and richness of Stach's book…. Every page of this book feels excited, dynamic, utterly alive."--Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World"Stach's is a splendid effort and will be hard to surpass."--William H. Gass, Harper's Magazine"A masterpiece of inspired biographical writing."--Choice"Probing. . . . Essential reading."--Booklist (starred review)"Magnificent."-- Die Zeit"Stach develops the various elements that play a role in Kafka's life brilliantly."--Der Spiegel"The first great biography of Franz Kafka ... exciting and instructive from the first to the last page."--Tagesanzeiger"This extraordinary biography fills the empty spaces between Kafka's own writings and the writings of friends, family, and contemporaries with so much empathy and imagination that one can't put it down."--Frankfurter Rundschau"[M]onumental. . . . [A] superb English-language translation by Shelly Frisch . . . now reprinted in a handsome paperback by Princeton. . . . In this first volume, Stach sifts through that rubble with huge amounts of energy and discretion (and Frisch follows him without a misstep; it feels like exactly the book I read ten years ago in its original language). . . . His letters and journals are marshaled with sometimes breathtaking ingenuity, and the sheer scope of the work allows Stach to be expansive when painting his backgrounds. . . . Always in these recountings, Stach is searching for his elusive subject, trying--as all previous biographers have tried, though none so well--to hear Kafka's strange, singular voice in the noise. . . . Kafka: The Decisive Years was greeted with a loud chorus of praise when it first appeared in English, and the passage of almost a decade has cast no doubt on that verdict. Princeton has re-issued this classic so that it can stand next to the following volume, Kafka: The Years of Insight, newly published in hardcover. No one interested in Kafka (or, by almost inevitable extension, 20th century literature) should miss either."--Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly"[F]lawlessly translated. . . . [A] wonderfully intelligent and perceptive portrait of a uniquely powerful writer."--PD Smith, Guardian"Stach reads the work and the life with minute care and sympathy. He has a deep understanding of the world that Kafka came from and this is matched by an intelligence and tact about the impulse behind the work itself."--Colm Toibin, Irish Independent"[T]he definitive biography."--Jonathon Sturgeon, Flavorwire"Superbly translated from German by Shelley Frisch. . . . Illuminating facts and intelligent commentary. . . . The three volumes are so carefully composed and densely woven--blending history, literary analysis, psychological insights, quotes and commentary from others--that it would be practically impossible to produce an abridged version in a single volume."--Alexander Adams, Spiked

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