The Metamorphosis

I did not expect the book I read to be anything like it was… with that, I really enjoyed Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.   Having read, and thoroughly enjoyed, his book The Trial, I was not expecting this!  But if you really think about a metamorphosis, and what it signifies, this would do it.  When your family relies on you too much (hear this, Christian and Alex – my kids), Dad could transform just like Gregor did in the novel.  When the family becomes self-reliant then poor Gregor is no longer needed and guess what, he transforms back.  Kafka is brilliant.  The story has many levels and I am sure I missed some of them.  The traveling salesman who becomes a “bug” and hissed away, like many salesman do, and like the traveling salesman of yesteryear, they have evaporated, “shriveled away” (I’m being dramatic here!), just like our friend Gregor.  I thought the ending was great.  Poor sister Grete doing the family work and finally her parents realize how beautiful she has matured.   Being captured in a cocoon with no escape, similar theme to that in The Trial (which I listened to on books on tape – a great listen! while Kindling this one).  The translation on both books were well done.  How I would NOT like to be a translator.  Put this one high on the list.  Makes you think how we “use” our family when we need them, and disregard when they become a burden.  I hope we all ponder that one for awhile.