“What if I slept a little more and forgot about all this nonsense?”
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka is one of those writers who makes you think, “Wow, this guy had a lot on his mind.” Born in 1883 in Prague, he’s best known for writing stories that make you feel like you’ve stepped into some weird fever dream where nothing makes sense but also kind of feels like real life. People call his style “Kafkaesque,” which basically means dark, surreal, and stressful, but in a way that gets you thinking about how complicated life is.
Kafka’s life wasn’t exactly a joyride. He grew up in a Jewish family with a super strict dad who made him feel small and unimportant—something that pops up a lot in his writing. He was shy and kind of awkward, which probably didn’t help. He ended up studying law because, you know, stable job, but writing was his real passion. Still, he was pretty harsh on himself, constantly feeling like his work wasn’t good enough. Relatable, right?
What makes Kafka so fascinating is how he dives into themes that are still super relevant today—stuff like isolation, bureaucracy, and the feeling of being trapped in situations you can’t control. His most famous story, The Metamorphosis, is about a guy named Gregor Samsa who wakes up one day as a giant bug. Yeah, it’s as gross as it sounds, but it’s also this deep metaphor about feeling alienated and unworthy, especially in your own family. Another one, The Trial, is about a dude who gets arrested but never finds out why, which is like a nightmare version of dealing with the DMV.
What’s kind of sad, though, is that Kafka didn’t get famous during his lifetime. He died in 1924 from tuberculosis at just 40 years old. Before he died, he asked his friend Max Brod to burn all his unpublished work, but Brod ignored him (thank goodness) and got it published instead. That’s how we ended up with these incredible stories that make you question everything.
So, yeah, Kafka might not be the easiest writer to read, but once you get into it, his work hits hard. It’s like he took all the messy, confusing parts of life and turned them into art.
