Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Kafka Americana

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3.2/5
AbeBooks

Publication date
  
November 1999

Followed by
  
The Fortress of Solitude

Country
  
United States of America

3.2/5
Goodreads

Language
  
English

Originally published
  
November 1999

Publisher
  
Subterranean Press

Genres
  
Short story, Pastiche

Kafka Americana t2gstaticcomimagesqtbnANd9GcQs1fa5rwcVZmUC2

Cover artist
  
Jacket design by Zwetana PenovaCover illustration by Perry Hoberman

Media type
  
Print (Hardcover & Paperback)

Pages
  
100 pp (first edition, hardcover)

ISBN
  
1-892284-43-X (first edition, hardcover)

Authors
  
Jonathan Lethem, Carter Scholz

Similar
  
Jonathan Lethem books, Franz Kafka books, Short Stories

Kafka Americana is a 1999 collection of short stories by Jonathan Lethem and Carter Scholz based on the life (and alternate histories) and works of Franz Kafka. Originally published in a limited edition by Subterranean Press, it was released as a trade paperback by W. W. Norton & Company in 2001.

The stories

  • "Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor" (Scholz)
    • A re-imagining of Kafka's uncompleted short story. First published in Crank! 1.
  • "The Notebooks of Bob K." (Lethem)
    • Batman is presented as Kafka's creation, with parodies of some of Kafka's famous aphorisms and stories, including "The Burrow", "A Crossbreed (A Sport)", and "The Vulture". A significantly different version of the story appeared in Gas 6.
  • "Receding Horizon" (Lethem & Scholz)
    • Kafka comes to America, changes his name to Jack Dawson, and writes screenplays in Hollywood. First published in Crank! 5.
  • "The Amount to Carry" (Scholz)
    • Kafka meets fellow insurance executives Wallace Stevens and Charles Ives. First published in Starlight 2.
  • "K. for Fake" (Lethem)
    • Parody of The Trial. First published in McSweeney's Quarterly 4.

    References

    Kafka Americana Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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