Is that Kafka?: 99 Finds - Tapa blanda

A Kafka bag full of surprises.

This collection, original and entertaining, is a masterful, exciting mix of diligent research and sophisticated literary gossip.

A playful new book from Reiner Stach, one that pulls together 99 facts and observations from the Czech author's life, all with the purpose of clearing the brush of falsehoods about the man that linger in the public imagination.--Jonathon Sturgeon

It is fitting that such a tricksy little maze of a book would bloom from the life of Kafka, whose work operates better in smaller spaces.

A mishmash of ephemera, curiosities and confessionals, the finds range from the banal to the deeply personal, yet collectively paint as engaging and illustrative a portrait of the artist as any I've read.--Pasha Malla

A beautiful display of unexpected wonders and curiosities, each one glittering with light from a source that will never be understood.--Jeffrey Zuckerman

Reiner Stach has curated a collection of artifacts from the author's life in his latest book, "Is that Kafka? 99 Finds." The book, translated from the German by Kurt Beals, is a crowd-pleasing encore to Stach's monumental three-volume biography of the writer. Along with minimal commentary, he submits ninety-nine numbered exhibition items--documents, photographs, objects, scribbles, and doodles--for our consideration. The result is a box of fancy Austro-Hungarian chocolates...--Avi Steinberg

Each turn Stach makes adds nuance to his skillfully collaged portrait of Kafka.

"Is that Kafka?" indirectly contributes to an on going scholarly project, in Europe and America, to revisit many of the assumptions about the writer and his work, in effect, to move beyond the myths and clichés.--Michael Dirda

In the course of compiling his highly acclaimed, three-volume life of Kafka, Reiner Stach made one astounding discovery after another: original writings, unexpected photographs, inconsistencies in handwritten texts, surprising excerpts from letters, and testimonies from Kafka’s contemporaries that shed surprising light on his personality and his writing.Is that Kafka? presents tasty morsels all about the real Kafka: he couldn’t lie, but he cheated on his high-school exams; bitten by the fitness fad, he avidly followed the regime of a Danish exercise guru; he drew beautifully; he loved beer; he read biographies voraciously; he made the most beautiful presents, especially to children; odd things made him cry or made him furious; he adored slapstick. Every discovery by Stach chips away at the stereotypical version of Kafka as the dark, sexless, tortured neurotic—and laughter, of all things, becomes the keynote.