Kafka 100: a parade of men with no appetite from a writer consumed by thoughts of nourishment

There is a rather potent image of failure which recurs in the short stories and novels of Franz Kafka, the Czech writer who died of tuberculosis 100 years ago. The image is of a young man brimming with self-assurance who, without warning, is assailed by some irreproachable authority. He protests, but his fate is sealed. The verdict is guilty. His sentence is death.

That this young man’s sudden misfortune is often foreshadowed by a sudden loss of appetite reflects a persistent theme in Kafka’s work. He is consumed by the problem of finding adequate nourishment.

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