Publishers Weekly
04/29/2024
This inspired anthology demonstrates the enduring influence of Franz Kafka’s fatalistic worldview and mordant humor. In the introduction, Becca Rothfeld muses on Kafka’s “mystifying” aphorisms and recurring theme of imprisonment, suggesting that “we might begin to sympathize with the cage looking for a bird, for we, too, are desperate to catch the fugitive flutter of comprehension.” Standout entries include “The Board,” Elif Batuman’s amusing tale of a woman who goes through bureaucratic hoops to purchase a basement apartment, and Joshua Cohen’s “Return to the Museum,” written from the perspective of a Neanderthal on display at a natural history museum as it reopens after a pandemic. Lingering pandemic fears also pop up in Tommy Orange’s “The Hurt” and Helen Oyeyemi’s “Hygiene,” though both fail to stick their respective landings. More successful is Yiyun Li’s “Apostrophe’s Dream,” which takes the form of a play staged by various punctuation marks about the gradual abandonment of their proper usage. Charlie Kaufman’s metafictional closer is equally clever, unspooling the story of an author who, after his book launch, learns he inadvertently copied Kafka’s language and sees his life upended. These stories will do the trick for the Kafka curious and diehard fans alike. (June)
From the Publisher
The Millions, A Most Anticipated Book of Spring
“A Kafkaesque frisson can be felt in [this] wide-ranging Catapult anthology.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
"Surreal, dark, often hilarious, and not unworthy of a volume dedicated to the memory of Franz Kafka." —Michael Washburn, National Review
"A Cage Went in Search of a Bird meets me in this insatiable desire for the Kafkaesque. The cage is the page that obliges his paradoxical ghosts." —Alina Ştefănescu, Electric Literature
"Mind-bending and consistently enjoyable . . . A Cage Went in Search of a Bird is a roller coaster ride that will delight the adventuresome reader . . . It’s easy to imagine Kafka paging through these varied and deeply imagined tales and nodding in admiration." —Harvey Freedenberg, BookPage
"Marking the hundredth anniversary of Franz Kafka's death, the 10 absurd tales in this multiauthored collection aspire to be Kafkaesque." —Booklist
"Inspired . . . These stories will do the trick for the Kafka curious and diehard fans alike.” —Publishers Weekly
"A boon for Kafkaheads everywhere." —John H. Maher, The Millions
“Franz Kafka died in June 1924, at the age of forty, but his fables of absurd transformation, macabre punishments, and human venality are alive and well . . . [The authors] offer narratives of baffling circumscriptions, illnesses, miscommunications, and technologies. But the stories also make space for potentiality, with characters witnessing change or glimpsing future possibilities—putting Kafka’s turn-of-the-century disillusionment into conversation with our own.” —Poets & Writers
