《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评

Hayman's important biography of Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was originally published in Great Britain in 1981. A prolific playwright and biographer (his works include biographies of Thomas Mann, Sylvia Plath, Nietzsche, and Brecht, among others), Hayman presents Kafka as a man tortured by both childhood and adult sorrows. He suffered the early deaths of two siblings and the subsequent indifference of his overwhelmed parents. Perhaps the first truly "modern" writer, Kafka was continually revisiting and reexamining his own lifelong and multifaceted alienation: as a son, as a Jew in an increasingly anti-Semitic Europe, as a would-be husband, and, finally, as an invalid facing a premature death from TB. Hayman joins a long list of Kafka biographers, notably Kafka's friend Max Brod (Franz Kafka: A Biography, Da Capo, 1995. reprint) and Peter Mailloux (A Hesitation Before Birth: The Life of Franz Kafka, 1981). A well-researched yet highly readable portrait of a fascinating figure; recommended for literature collections. Diane Gardner Premo, Rochester P.L., NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.