Review: A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka

Pages: 86 pages
originally written in : 1922; in German
publisher: Twisted Spoon Press (1996)
ISBN-10: 8090217117
ISBN-13: 978-8090217119

This part is added by: Dark Smurf
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The name’s Thuraya Lynn. I don’t do well with introductions so, I’m going straight to my first review. A short story by Franz Kafka; A Hunger Artist.

How many nutti I give this (out of 5 nutti):

Completely satisfied.
I recommend anyone interested in existenism to read this text.
Or in other words; drowning in yourself.
(That’s meant mentally, not physically.)

Excerpt

“Just try to explain to anyone the art of fasting! Anyone who has no feeling for it cannot be made to understand it. The fine placards grew dirty and illegible, they were torn down; the little notice board showing the number of fast days achieved, which at first was changed carefully every day, had long stayed at the same figure, for after the first few weeks even this small task seemed pointless to the staff,”

I was going to write about my favorite author and personal role model, but since most of the latest reviews are of translated Japanese books, I thought I’d try another work and postpone my champion to a later day.

I’m going to write about Bohemian writer, Franz Kafka’s short story “A Hunger Artist“. Like many of the protagonist in his earliest texts, it’s a reflection of Kafka himself.
He is a man who feels victimized by the mass public and their neglegence.

I did my best not to spoil crucial moments of the story so, bear with me if I spilled some milk.

The plot deals with a fasting-artist.
Yup, he’s starving for the sake of art and entertainment. Throughout the story, we see a change in the evolution (or deterioration) of his condition, his mentality and of his emotions which ultimately causes him to look deeper into his own existence parallel or not with those around him.  The tiny-steps in which action takes place in the story are very attractive, the language used is rich and confident.
The sense of alienation, boredom and despair in the story is thoughtful and sincere. What I enjoyed the most was how he concentrated on the individuality, and what that really means: what’s in stake, ways of believing and how to create a whole self. Sounds like a good self-help book.
But, we see paradox when time brutally forces the artist to look at how absurd his life has turned out to be. Learning of the pointless meaningless seeds of living and trying to.

There are online texts of it online, read it.
If you like it enough, buy it! Worth it.

• source: photo – book quotation