KAFKA: A Graphic Novel Adaptation is just...perfect.

KAFKA: A Graphic Novel Adaptation
NISHIOKA KYODAI (tr. David Yang)
Pushkin Press
$19.95 paperback, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Two cult-favorite Japanese artists present eerie graphic adaptations of 9 classic Kafka short stories, with hypnotic illustrations that will appeal to fans of Junji Ito

Franz Kafka’s work is given vivid new life in this collection of manga adaptations of 9 of his greatest stories.

With spectacularly detailed, otherworldly illustrations, the brother-and-sister duo known as Nishioka Kyodai create a haunting, claustrophobic visual world for Kafka’s surreal masterpieces.

Features adapted versions of:

The Metamorphosis

A Hunger Artist

In the Penal Colony

A Country Doctor

The Concerns of a Patriarch

The Bucket Rider

Jackals and Arabs

A Fratricide

The Vulture

Among the standouts are "The Metamorphosis" and "A Hunger Artist," which present absorbing moments for their unique art style to offer vivid entry points into Kafka's world and which take the immersion experience to a whole other level.

Story Locale:Kafkaesque Eastern Europe

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: This is a surreal reading experience. Kafka is, famously, a surrealist author; then one translates his surreality into Japanese, a language that seems to me (a non-speaker) as very surrealism-friendly and pairs it with manga-style illustrations, again a style famously surreal in every particular; and REtranslate the lot into English from Japanese.

...I need a lie-down...

Dizzying as all this sounds as I try to explain it, the reality is more dizzying still. The more I read, the more I felt the odd out-of-body sensation that Kafka induces in me at all times. It was more powerful than usual because the art is so exactly the visual representation of the story that I, a highly visual reader, create for myself when reading Kafka. The "author" named for this manga is actually a pair of siblings...the name is literally Japanese for literally "Nishioka siblings" and are described by Pushkin Press as:

...the brother-and-sister manga duo of Satoshi Nishioka and Chiaki Nishioka. They debuted in the weekly magazine Morning in 1989 and have since produced more than a dozen works and have become well-known for their surreal illustration style and dark psychological themes.

There's no part of that I could argue with. The translator, as one would expect, is:

...a Ph.D. student in Japanese Literature at UCLA, having previously received a B.A. in German Literature and Cultural History from Columbia University. He translates from Japanese, Chinese, and German.

...handily explaining how and why he came to be the one to make this fascinating project come to life. Talk about a rare bird! This is someone who understands the literature and the language of the original, the translation, and the translation of the translation!

...my head hurts...

Look at these images:

If that isn't your inward-eye image of Kafka, I can see it being so wonderfully surreal on its own that it wouldn't matter.

I think the reality-bending nature of a manga adaptation of a translation of a translation would've appealed to Kafka. As a Yule gift, a beautiful item to sit quietly and absorb on #Booksgiving as you sip your chili pepper-infused cocoa beside the meat-draped skeletons of your loved ones' ghosts, makes this an excellent gift.