Kafkaesque: Fourteen Stories - Hardcover

Kafka, Franz

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393635627 ISBN 13: 9780393635621

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2018

Synopsis

Award-winning graphic novelist Peter Kuper presents a mesmerizing interpretation of fourteen iconic Kafka short stories.

Long fascinated with the work of Franz Kafka, Peter Kuper began illustrating his stories in 1988. Initially drawn to the master’s dark humor, Kuper adapted the stories over the years to plumb their deeper truths. Kuper’s style deliberately evokes Lynd Ward and Frans Masereel, contemporaries of Kafka whose wordless novels captured much of the same claustrophobia and mania as Kafka’s tales. Working from new translations of the classic texts, Kuper has reimagined these iconic stories for the twenty-first century, using setting and perspective to comment on contemporary issues like civil rights and homelessness.

Longtime lovers of Kafka will appreciate Kuper’s innovative interpretations, while Kafka novices will discover a haunting introduction to some of the great writer’s most beguiling stories, including "A Hunger Artist," "In The Penal Colony," and "The Burrow." Kafkaesque stands somewhere between adaptation and wholly original creation, going beyond a simple illustration of Kafka’s words to become a stunning work of art.

About this title

About the Author

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) was one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. His major novels include The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika.

Peter Kuper contributes cartoons to The New Yorker and illustrated MAD magazine’s Spy vs. Spy. His graphic novels include an adaptation of Heart of Darkness and the Eisner Award– winning Ruins. He lives in New York City.

Peter Kuper contributes cartoons to The New Yorker and illustrated MAD magazine’s Spy vs. Spy. His graphic novels include an adaptation of Heart of Darkness and the Eisner Award– winning Ruins. He lives in New York City.

Review

“[Kuper] does what I love. Jazz. This book is a series of riffs, visual improvisations on short takes by the old master. It becomes a diverting, even daring, high-wire act, where Kafka’s stoic Euro-alienation meets and merges with Kuper’s thoroughly American rock-and-roll alienation.”
- Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize–winning cartoonist

“Brilliant.... The Kafkaesque humor is intact, even enhanced.”
- Wall Street Journal

“Kafka's work is opaque and ripe for reinterpretation, but it is Kuper's art that makes it so fresh.”
- Tom Tivnan, Times Literary Supplement

“Woe to the reader who tries to skim Kafkaesque.... [Kuper’s] faux woodcuts, with their explosive faces and grim chiaroscuro, cannot be easily digested ― a supreme virtue.”
- Vulture

“Kafkaesque has the quality of being not simply an adaptation but an artistic object in its own right.”
- John W. W. Zeiser, Los Angeles Review of Books

“Kafka’s timeless work has never hit so hard, nor more artfully.”
- Publishers Weekly

“In distilling Kafka's timeless themes, Kuper creates stark panels of disturbing truth and powerful warning.”
- Terry Hong, Booklist

“Kuper proves adept at using the synergy between text and image to both expand Kafka’s ideas and trim his word counts... A richly innovative interpretation that honors the source while expanding the material.”
- Kirkus Reviews

“A gorgeously illustrated collection that makes tales written nearly a century ago feel vibrant and vital.”
- Library Journal

“Kafka has found a perfect interpreter in Peter Kuper.”
- Hearst CT News

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0393635627
• ISBN 13: 9780393635621
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160