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Excavating Kafka (Hardcover)

by James Hawes (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
RRP: £14.99
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Excavating Kafka + Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life + My Little Armalite
Price For All Three: £31.29

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Quercus Publishing Plc (7 Aug 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1847245447
  • ISBN-13: 978-1847245441
  • Product Dimensions: 20.2 x 13.4 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 275,399 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Review

James Hawes has matured into a wonderful satirist...a comic novelist of considerable stature - Guardian. Comparisons with Evelyn Waugh are not misplaced - Sunday Telegraph. Undeniably an exhilarating read. The heresy helps but so does Hawes's pacy, non-academic prose and his sharp eye for fascinating snippets of literary history - Daily Telegraph. A revelation and a scream, this wonderfully irreverent book ends up paying Kafka a greater compliment than that of the 'Kafka-myth', 5 stars - The Scotsman. - combination of zeal and cynicism is irresistible - Daily Telegraph.


Sunday Telegraph

Comparisons with Evelyn Waugh are not misplaced
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Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars search for the historical kafka, 5 Dec 2008
By P. Thompson (Oxford, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
It seems to me that what the reviewers above have done is to actually fixate upon the media furore about James Hawes book rather than actually read it for what it is. In my opinion, as an academic working in the field and who teaches Kafka at undergraduate level, this book deals a double-headed blow to both the "death of the author" dogmatists on the one side and those who reduce the texts simply to the psychological workings-out of some pre-existing psychological trauma within Kafka himself on the other. Now, this is a hard line to tread and Hawes does it very successfully, so that at the end of the book one feels that one has had certain prejudices undermined, been informed further about both the historical and intellectual context of the work but also had the quasi-saintly and untouchable status of Kafka healthily rebuked. This kind of "search for the historical Jesus" approach is long overdue and very welcome. Of course there are exaggerations and problems with it but the porn issue is actually a very minor part of the book. I find it interesting that those who protest so much about it have elevated it to the central point. I wonder why? This is a great and valuable addition to the literature on Kafka and should be welcomed as such.
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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Kafka was human after all, 24 Sep 2008
By M. H. Watson (Lichfield, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I agree that Hawes does overdo the "revelations" a bit but this book does make worthwhile reading to any lover of Kafka.
I hadn't read Kafka for 30 years but after reading this I do want to go back and read him again to try and put his writing into context of the time as described in this book. I was also surprised by some of the influences on Kafka's writing which are both social and literary. Too many of the biographies are influenced by Brod's interpretation of the great man and too much emphasis placed on the relationship between Kafka and his father.
The use of footnotes is somewhat irritating: the book tries to be a piece of academia which it isn't. The book is actually written in a very chatty "Daily Mail" sort of style which I suppose is intended to add to the drama of the revelations. Prior to reading this it does help to be aware of some of Kafka's life and how history has perceived him. What we conclude at the end is that Kafka wasn't such an enigma after all but he was a great writer.
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6 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Warning!!, 15 Sep 2008
By John Frawley - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This book is "Frequently bought together" with Hawes' 'Why Read Kafka before you Waste your Life'. Amazon should stop this: they are the same book! Maybe worth a quick read once, it's certainly not worth buying two copies under different titles.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Excavating Kafka
This is a fascinating and infuriating book that adds to our understanding of Kafka in places and massively over eggs its own pudding in others. Read more
Published 3 months ago by David Power

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