Investigations of a Dog: And Other Creatures

There are 3 aspects worth discussing about this edition:1. The Book's ConstructionThis book seems rather well made for a paperback. Its cover seems to be tougher than most other paperbacks, and it even has French flaps, which is a nice touch. The fonts and page layout make it easy to read, which is very important for an author who uses paragraphs so sparingly.2. The TranslationAll of the stories in this edition are translated by Michael Hofmann. Kafka is notoriously difficult to translate because he made frequent use of the fact that sentences in German end with a verb. This usually means that translations of his work are full of run on sentences consisting of lists of dependent clauses before finishing with an independent clause. Some translators are better able to handle this than others, and Michael Hofmann lies somewhere in the middle. His translations are not the easiest to follow, but they sound much more "modern" than most others. I can't compare these translations to the original German, but it may be possible that he is more accurate than other translators, hence the lack of absolute clarity. In short, these translations are not only serviceable; they provide a legible and intriguing reading of Kafka.3. The Stories ThemselvesI use the term "stories" loosely here. If you are just getting into Kafka or are expecting coherent narratives, look elsewhere. With a few exceptions (such as "Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor" and "Investigations of a Dog"), none of the fragments here constitute stories. This volume is interesting because it allows the reader to focus more on Kafka's style of writing than on narratives or characters. It is similar to the way that one reads poetry differently from prose. For most authors, a collection of fragments would be of little value, but Kafka has always had an intriguing style of writing. One only needs to read fragments like "The Bridge" or "Night" (both included in this volume) to see how poetic Kafka's surrealism can be.

I can't deny that I enjoyed some of the stories.But alas, his relentless implosion of cleverness mixed in with a tortured timbre was something from a summer writers workshop .

‘Investigations of a Dog & Other Creatures’ is another collection of short stories by Franz Kafka. I had read another collection of his work that featured the story ‘The Metamorphosis’. This collection was a let down in my eyes. The stories, and some were more just statements did not connect with me. I struggled through most of this book, and unfortunately did not enjoy this collection. I was disappointed after enjoying the prior collection.I would suggest readers interested in Kafka to give The Metamorphosis collection a try first.