Name: Amerika
Rating: 3.958333333333333 (36 reviews)
ISBN: 9780805210644

Franz Kafka

Depicts the tragicomic misadventures of a young immigrant in New York.

Amerika

Warum hab ich das Gefühl, dass das hier mein nächstes Schuljahr beschrieben wird, ohne dass ich überhaupt Kaffee mag? Da hat Kafka wohl mal ziemlich treffend was festgestellt, treffender als seine geografischen Beschreibungen von Amerika

Jana

"Ja, schlafen!" sagte der Student, "schlafen werde ich, wenn ich mit meinem Studium fertig bin. Vorläufig trinke ich schwarzen Kaffee."

Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir. Pref. by Klaus Mann. Afterword by Max Brod. Ill. by Emlen Etting

ikkychan

Author Philip Roth once confronted by George Plimpton about the influence of 1950's stand-up comics in his writing, but instead he shrugged it off and answered, "I was more strongly influenced by a sit-down comic named Franz Kafka." Yes, he is a sit-down comic and this novel is the opulent proof of his genius sense of humour. Amerika (or originally, 'The Missing Person') tells a story of a young man named Karl Rossman who one day---suddenly, for no obvious reason---meet a bunch of strangers coming into his life and conspiring to ruin it all for him. The same formula constructed this novel as I read before in 'The Trial'; the same young man, the same helpless situation, the same society with its continuous harassment and defamation; they may have different names, but they are the same. Oddly, it never bore me. There's always something in there lurking, waiting to surprise me. I never know what's about to happen nor what to expect---but one thing I strongly believe is that when you think it couldn't get any worse, surprise surprise, it could. There are certain appeal that everyone could relate on and can't help but sympathize as they watch our hopeful, optimistic and righteous hero Karl Rossman as he fights against this toxic damaging society. Little did they know, right there lays the basis of Kafka's dark humour. Humanity has its weakness to believe in perpetual banality we see everyday; "We're going to be okay!", "Love what you do, do what you love!", or simply "Follow your dream in the pursuit of Happiness!" these catchphrases are actually what Kafka is making fun of in his writings. We hardly realize that things we labeled as 'pathetic', 'ridiculous', 'idiotic' and 'preposterous' is basically what is happening to us. The moment we see the unavoidable truth that we're doomed to fail is horribly hazardous, as it is tremendously funny.

La condena

Paula Villoria

No soy muy fan de Kafka, me suele dar bastante grima. Pero este no me ha disgustado.

clara

William Martinsson 

François Declercq

nope

Klassiker aus dem Jahr 2008 im Fachbereich Germanistik - Neuere Deutsche Literatur, Veranstaltung: -, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Der Heizer - Als der sechzehnjahrige Karl Romann, der von seinen armen Eltern nach Amerika geschickt worden war, weil ihn ein Dienstmadchen verfuhrt und ein Kind von ihm bekommen hatte, in dem schon langsam gewordenen Schiff in den Hafen von New York einfuhr, erblickte er die schon langst beobachtete Statue der Freiheitsgottin wie in einem plotzlich starker gewordenen Sonnenlicht. Ihr Arm mit dem Schwert ragte wie neuerdings empor, und um ihre Gestalt wehten die freien Lufte. >So hoch!

Amerika

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