K is for...

Kafka

I've never read any Kafka, yet I've used the phrase Kafka-esque many times. I've always understood it to mean overly bureaucratic or Byzantine levels of management. Yesterday someone pointed out that most people who use the term Kafka-esque had probably never read any of his work though. He's right, I thought.

Then, later that night...I was reading The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster when two of the characters starting talking about Kafka, and what a fantastic writer he is, how well he understood the nature of humanity, and retell the moving, true, story of the doll and the girl in the park (you can read about that part of his life here, with reference to Auster's inclusion of this tale in the book).

So after this bit of serendipity I think I will seek out a Kafka or two, probably The Trial, and give it whirl, and then see what I think. If I am still using the phrase Kafka-esque after that I guess it means I was right all along.