Monthly Archives: September 2023

“I live on the boundary of the outside and the inside.”

Posted on September 29, 2023 by Kate Stover

I’ve always believed that the best way to take the pulse of a bookstore is to check out the display on the front table. Instead of best-sellers, this bookstore featured Czech poets – a treat for someone like me who … Continue reading →

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“I had lost my self-confidence where you were concerned, had traded it for a boundless sense of guilt

Posted on September 14, 2023 by Kate Stover

I’ve been thinking about Kafka’s story about turning into an insect this week, and why he would write a story about a young man who shamed his family by turning into a useless cockroach. A Czech bookstore had a book-length … Continue reading →

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“One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.”

Posted on September 11, 2023 by Kate Stover

This story about a man who turned into a type of insect has been called surreal, humorous. a horror story, neurotic, and “the greatest short story in the history of literary fiction.” I visited a museum devoted t0 Kafka in … Continue reading →

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