Completely Kafka

What an odd little book about the life of Franz Kafka! The artwork is simple, little undetailed drawings like the political newspaper ones from decades ago. There are snippets of dialogue that sound deranged but since you don't have the entire conversation to go by, may or may not indicate a weird personality. I compared his biography against Wikipedia and everything seems to mesh up however this book tells it in such a way that it feels like acts in a play. This unusual biography will appeal to fans of Franz Kafka's writing, it is quirky and offered like him.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

4/5 Stars
Completely Kafka is a short little comic biography about Franz Kafka, and it was so much better than I expected it to be. The artstyle is weird and wonderful and matches so well with the weirdness of Kafka’s life and work. I absolutely adored this book, but I wish it had been a bit longer and a bit more detailed (I get that it’s a comic biography, so it can’t be as detailed as a ‘normal’ biography, but still, I wouldn’t have minded this being 50 pages longer). Anyway, this book definitely made me want to go back and reread some of Kafka’s work.

This is a very artistic presentation of the life of Kafka. It is not an easy read as some of the phrases are rather advanced. So, maybe it is more suitable for KS3 students.

“You can’t achieve anything with this kind of body. I shall have to get used to its continuous failings.”

Nicholas Mahler in this unique graphic novel tells the life story of Franz Kafka.

This felt like such a strange yet interesting way to read his biography. The timeline of events which took place in Kafka’s life are told through snippets of dialogue and viewpoints from Kafka perspective.

What I liked were the simple illustrations which spoke volumes as his life story was being told.

His iconic works are discussed and critic reviews are shared along the way, his own battle with self doubt and how he tried to overcome his writer’s block.

This was a unique way to explore his life which made for an enjoyable read.

I had not engaged with Kafka beyond reading a few of his texts years ago in school (and an abandoned attempt of reading Letter to the Father a while ago). This is a strange little biography, yet it's highly entertaining. The illustrations mesh very well with the flow of the text. A thing which I found strange was the way this biography flows from, well a biography, to page long retellings of some of his fictional texts. This means there are spoilers for Kafka’s texts (fine by me). However, the transition between Kafka’s life and Kafka’s fiction wasn't as smooth as it could have been.
I did greatly enjoy the tone of this illustrated biography. It was witty, dry, and created a very melodramatic Kafka through contrasting his self-critical (loathing) writing with descriptions by his contemporaries and the illustrations. I would not call this a graphic novel or comic. There is text and then this text is broken up by the illustrations. The text is the main thing you are reading. The illustrations do a wonderful job of adding to the text, but they cannot really stand on their own most of the time. I cannot attest to the accuracy of the biography, but it does include a list of sources so I feel like it should be good. I’d recommend this to everyone who has a slight interest in Kafka as a person and a writer. It is a fun and quick read that serves as a good introduction to Kafka. It definitely piqued my interest in reading more of his prose.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this digtital ARC. All opinions expressed are my own and were not influenced.

I cannot be more glad to get this
ARC from NetGalley.

I love, love, love it to bits and I genuinely feel that Franz Kafka is my spirit human! The way he is so relatable in so many ways.

This book is perfectly Kafkaesque in every sense of the word. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it with all these drawings, excerpts from Kafka's work and in terms of his life story.

And I truly Ioved the dark humour, sarcasm and the irony of it all. It makes you think, it makes you laugh, and it makes you sad. In short, a complete package of a book that makes you want to read everything by KAFKA!

First of all Thanks to Nicolas Mahler and Alexander Booth and The late Great Pushkin Press (i have many works by Pushkin didn't read any yet lol) For allowing all the readers of NetGalley to read this beautiful Graphic Biography of Franz Kafka, i am not sure if it's still available for grabs, i didn't take that long to finish it, so it's probably still there.

<blockquote>Perhaps i should tell you a bit more about the evening, i was tired, empty, bored, beatable, apathetic, and from the outset wanted nothing but my bed.</blockquote>
It's Divine Poetry i finish this today for 3 hours i did nothing but read the rest of this biography, i was sick with the cold, my body feels weak, taken a medication that usually puts me to sleep but my body resisted this time, and so we read, enjoying the company of kindred soul in Kafka, all the quotes i ll share in this review i feel too all the time, Unlike Kafka i don't have a terminal disease to take me out, my journey might be longer, but it will not be more pleasant sadly, because these feelings we share together only get worse the older we grow.

<blockquote>I am not doing well, what with all the effort i need to keep myself alive and sane, i could have built the pyramids, Franz.</blockquote>
as you guessed this review will be a little personal but fuck it, i feel like talking, because right now i don't feel alone, in a melancholic way.

<blockquote>You can't achieve anything with this kind of body.
I shall have to get used to its continuous failings.</blockquote>
Each time my father asks me to marry making the offer more enticing each time, i refuse, and i think in my head, since his reason is to keep the bloodline continue, i don't think this bloodline should continue, what's so good about it? why does he think that his bloodline is so good it should survive the trials of time? Me and His Father are the only readers in his vast family, what he does is sit all day watching stupid football, and argues about things he is too ignorant to even begin to comprehend, I think bad father is one more thing i share with Kafka lol

<blockquote>Youth's meaninglessness Fear of youth, fear of meaninglessness, of the meaningless rise of an inhuman life, this is Kafka's youth.</blockquote>
It's funny i always tell my older friends i can't wait to be old too, and i always fear that they might think i am making fun of their age, but really it's not, i really really just want to get there closer to the end, Youth is the age of expectation, the expectation you have for yourself, and the expectations the world puts on you and those around you put on you.
There is lies melancholy and depression, your body can't take on that huge weight you have put on yourself, it can't, it can't handle that character, it can't handle your goals, and the only way to even feel a little bit alive is to either have another unattainable goal that you think maybe you can reach it with your talent, or to let go of all of it, and just enjoy the rest.

<blockquote>I don't hide from people because i want to live quietly, but because i want to expire quietly.</blockquote>
You know i actually like for Kafka that he died so early, all his sisters died in the holocaust in the gas chambers, imagine that delicate soul going through the motions of being in a concentration camp, he was greedy for solitude, imagine not having any resemblance of solitude in a concentration camp, it's would have been way too much, mental break down too much...

<blockquote>He meant something seriously or whether he was joking Franz was particularly fond of straddling the line between seriousness and jest and did so with a high degree of virtuosity.</blockquote>
Again another thing we share, that i don't think anyone would really understand, the joking instead of being serious, it's literally where i feel most comfortable, and i do realize it might come out as awkward, because the other don't get it, but it's my comfort zone, it's what makes me able to deal with people in general.

<blockquote>The only complaint of Kafka's he recalls is that there are so many stations on the way to your death, it goes so slowly.</blockquote>
I totally get how Kafka faced Death stoically, it was over it was the end, When i was dying at one point i didn't shed a single tear, and when i survived i wept, did i weep because of the final feeling of loneliness or did i weep because it wasn't over who knows, we are going anyway...

<blockquote>I do not think not to have known Kafka is an advantage.
- Max Brod</blockquote>
Max thanks for being that man's friend, thanks for not burning his unfinished works like he requested he wasn't appreciated in life, but we all enjoyed his works sadly after his passing, and thanks for having such a high opinion of him, i might not have found my Max Brod yet, but maybe one day.

This odd and wonderful little book is as weird as I imagine Kafka to have been. The drawings are simple and whimsical and the content is appropriately dark. You will understand Kafka's life and major works if you read this. I absolutely loved how his works were described! It seems maybe Kafka also found his stories hard to understand. Even when I don't understand them, I'm always pulled into Kafka's stories, and I think this author feels the same. I highly recommend this to anyone who doesn't understand Kafka and for everyone who loves Kafka and his imagination. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

“At first glance, Kafka was a healthy young man, if strangely quiet, observing, reserved.”
(Max Brod)

I have to admit that I mostly know F. Kafka through excerpts of his love correspondence. That had left me curious about the author and about the man, as in these his sensitivity and sensibility to the world seemed deep and peculiar.

That short biography was for me the opportunity to have a first glimpse about the author and the man. I loved the minimalist and raw graphic –that I found very appropriate to the “character” and how he saw his surroundings. The text mixes Kafka’s works and correspondence, interviews from people who knew him and comments from the author. How the all is structured is almost like a tale, which fits that special way of thinking that apparently inhabited Kafka. His diseases, both mental and physical, are omnipresent, of course, like a wire connecting everything (work, moods, love, self-depreciation, etc).
It was, for me, a great way to start my journey with F.K. and I will, without a doubt, dig into the extensive bibliography in the future.

An intriguing linking of visual and prose — enjoyable for Kafka readers, those who appreciate cartoons, and readers who love the literary and absurd.

Wonderfully odd, just as Kafka himself was. Pleasant and quick read, full of illustrations so well suited to Kafka’s life story. I’d highly recommend it to anybody who has ever read anything by Kafka.

A fun and very accessible short biography of Kafka with doodles/drawings throughout. Even though it is concise and brief, I feel like it well encapsulated his life and career. The spectre of his father looms large over his life - always comparing himself to his angry domineering father and feeling that his father was the standard by which the world measured him. Throughout, we learn about his phobias - to schools, mirrors, bad teeth, commitment. Kafka comes across as someone who is not comfortable "in his own skin." The author, Mahler, effectively utilizes diaries, writings and interviews to tell his story. He also included reviews of Kafka's writing. One of my favorite interviews included at the end, was Max Brod (a friend of his) who was interviewed in 1968 about how misunderstood Kafka was and is. There are also more in depth citations and a bibliography at the end of the book. Not only was the information really good but it also evoked a feeling about who Kafka was and his life. Extremely well done.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

This is a quirky illustrated novel about the life of Franz Kafka. Admittedly I don't know much about his life, and I didn't fact check the work, but taken as a little story it's entertaining. It was not a traditional graphic novel, at least not the Kindle edition I read, but more like a story with illustrations throughout. The illustrations are simple, but effective. If you are a Kafka enjoyer, or interested in learning more about his life through a humorous, narrative format, check this out.

[Thanks to NetGalley & the author for providing me with this ARC]

I am in love. As a fan of Kafka, I’m always up for a book that presents his struggles and achievements and talent to the people in a way that’s less intimidating than what people often expect when talking about his works. It’s a beautifully illustrated book which shines a light on his difficult life and how his upbringing shaped him into the man and writer that he became.
I’m very excited to share this with my friends and hopefully acquire some new Kafka readers.

Disclaimer: The ARC was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The ARC category in no way impacts the rating of the book. All of my reviews contain my honest opinions.

A strange and enjoyable little meander through Kafka's life. Somehow it manages to be both emotionless in its factual retelling, yet empathetic in the extreme with the circumstances of Kafka and his thoughts. I think this due to the combination of text and illustrations (which are so quick and simple that they feel more like a moment of emotion than a representation of any event, person, or location). I am a Kafka fan and have read several books about him, including a fully illustrated graphic novel biography. I still found much to appreciate in this new book. A nice addition to a Kafka collection. Also a non-threatening way to dip your toe into Kafka's life story without sitting down to read a massive tome.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Pushkin Press for an advance copy of this new graphic novel biography featuring the words of one of literature's great writers illustrated in sometimes disturbing ways.

Writers can be an awkward. I don't think that this would be a surprise to anyone. What makes sense on the page is sometimes hard to deal with in the real world. A bon mot that makes a reader giggle might stop a dinner conversation cold, when told to new acquaintances. Writers also spend so much time with themselves thinking of the perfect character, they might find dealing with humans that need air, not ink to live, never measure up to what they can create. And of course many writers deal with the fact that parents always wonder when they are going to get a real job, and constantly "bug" them about it. Franz Kafka had many of these problems, and chose to write down many of his thoughts, feelings, views on events as well as create some of the most unsettling and downright odd works of fiction. Completely Kafka:A Comic Biography written and by Nicolas Mahler, translated by Alexander Booth is an illustrated guide to the works, the history doubts and fears about the man, told in his own words.

Mahler draws from fiction, diaries letters, and notes from Kafka, his family, his love interests, and of course his friend and literary executor Max Brod. The book begins with a rabbi creating a golem, which becomes Franz's father. We follow young Franz growing up, taking a job, being awkward around people, and his thoughts about himself. Women were a mystery to Franz, who idolized one, but complained to her about her teeth, a comment that ended the relationship. The book looks at the works from of course Metamorphosis and In the Penal Colony, and the works that went unfinished, like Amerika. There is a little bit about his relationship with Max Brod, a writer himself, and his breaking his promise to Kafka about destroying certain works after Kafka died. This is still one of the great literary dilemmas, that happens even today. When does the rights of the writer end and the reader or fan begin. If work is unfinished, should it be released. Finished by other hands. The graphic novel follows Kafka's life up to the end, with added comments from others and the author artist.

An interesting idea, using mostly the words of the writer to tell about one's life, and it works well. Mahler mixes the life of the author, as well as his tales,well, giving a very good look at well complicated and difficult man in many ways. The artwork is very good. Art that looks simple, told only in blue, but as one reads the art really reflects not only the words, but the thoughts and ideas the words are trying to share. I would like to see this done with other writers as I really enjoyed the whole project.

Recommended for people who like nonfiction graphic novels, fans of Kafka, or really enjoy the interplay of words and images to tell a story about a man of gifts, sharing what he sees in his head. This can be said about both Kafka and Mahler.

I knew little of Kafka before reading this new book. I really enjoyed it! Learning of Kafka opened a world of mental illness, anxiety and illness that he suffered. He seems to be a literary legend before his time.

What a raw and open book about depression and mental illness. Though he was a person with real problems his life is told through doodles and writing. It is very deep. I knew nothing about Franz Kafka before reading this book but will definately be reading more about him.

Thank you, Pushkin Press and NetGalley, for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 
In this work, we are introduced to the life of Franz Kafka in a fun way, full of funky illustrations. It takes a closer look at who he really was, his upbringing, loved ones, work, and ups and downs. I found it really cute and a quick read. This format is very simple and could be helpful for those who would like to get to know this timeless author better or have no knowledge about him at all.

"Completely Kafka: A Graphic Biography" is a whimsical journey into the life and mind of Franz Kafka, perfectly timed for the centenary of his passing. Through the clever lens of Nicolas Mahler's graphic novel style, Kafka's story unfolds with wit and originality, much like the author's own prose. Mahler's minimalist illustrations mirror Kafka's love for drawing, offering a unique visual narrative that captures the essence of Kafka's existential struggles and creative fervor. Drawing from Kafka's own writings, Mahler delves deep into the intricacies of the writer's life, from his battles with self-doubt to his eccentric dreams of publishing cheap travel guides. This delightful homage is not just a biography, but a playful exploration of Kafka's enigmatic world, inviting readers to experience his genius in a fresh and engaging way.

I loved this short graphic novel biography of Kafka. Lots of quotes from his work and letters make it a really enjoyable quick read.

Last year I read a graphic novel of the Metamorphosis written by Kafka, so it has been good to follow that up by reading about Kafka himself. This is an illustrated memoir about him and it is a really good read, especially if you don’t wish to wade through a book.

Kafka comes across as a really peculiar but gifted man. From this book, we learn about his father, members of his family, love life and friends. He had a career as a lawyer working for an insurance company, he had various romances that didn’t seem to go anywhere, he was a prolific writer but not everything he wrote has been published or even completed. He died at the age of 40 from tuberculosis. His sisters died in the holocaust as did others of his family and friends.

The artwork, black and white inky style drawings, lend themselves to the peculiarities of the man. This is an excellent introduction to Kafka, which I enjoyed reading.

Copy provided via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Completely Kafka offers a fresh, witty, and engaging take on the life of Franz Kafka, the iconic writer known for his surreal, existential works. Published to mark the centenary of Kafka's death, this graphic biography dives into the complexities of Kafka's life and psyche, brought to life through Mahler's unique minimalist style.

Not only was Kafka one of the most significant writers of the 20th century, he was also passionate about drawing. Mahler captures this lesser-known aspect of Kafka’s creative expression, using a graphic novel format to reflect the author's minimalist aesthetic. By weaving together elements from Kafka's fiction, letters, and personal diaries, Mahler paints a vivid portrait of a man who struggled with self-doubt, creative blocks, and the pressures of everyday life.

The biography explores Kafka’s major life events as well as humorous and absurd details, such as his failed venture into writing travel guides. It also reflects on his relationships, his career as a bureaucrat, and his alienation from society—all themes that found their way into his famous works like The Trial and The Metamorphosis.

Elements
- Graphic Biography
- Kafka’s Inner World
- Minimalist Art Style

Perfect For Fans Of
- Graphic novels and biographies with a distinctive artistic approach
- Kafka enthusiasts looking for a fresh, humorous take on his life
- Readers interested in surrealism and absurdity, presented through both literature and art

Completely Kafka offers a delightful and insightful tribute to one of the most enigmatic and influential authors of modern literature. Nicolas Mahler’s combination of witty illustrations and poignant biographical details makes this a must-read for Kafka fans and graphic novel lovers alike. Whether you’re already familiar with Kafka’s works or new to his world, this comic biography sheds light on the man behind the metaphors, blending humor and depth in equal measure.