Cook Coleridge

"Be grateful, I say. I once knew a man who woke up a cockroach." - Franz the Policecat.

I have a soft spot for Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. I have a strong feeling that it has less to do with my love of depressing literature (of which I have none) and more to do with the fact that it was the first book that I got on that level deeper than, "Wow, this guy turned into a bug!"

In this mashup, Gregor has turned into an adorable - but humongous - kitten. His sister coddles him, his mother is show more scared of him, and his father hates him. I'm not sure who can hate an adorable kitten but there it is.

It follows the trials of Gregor Samsa as he tries to figure out how to adjust to being a kitten and all the new sensations. Not being a kitten myself, I can only speculate that Cook figured it out. The kitten in my house agrees.

Funnily enough, this book actually takes symbolism and insults it. Literally. Josef K goes on and on about it in chapter three (or four).

But it's not a bad book. It deviates from the original, as it most certainly must, in long rambles of why Gregor is a cat. And why he is convicted of being a bad one. And why that doesn't mean much in the cat world. In a few places, the book earned a few chuckles because there are obvious references to both the original novel, other novels by him and Kafka himself.

But be warned - just because there is now a cuddly giant kitten, this book is not happy. Nothing Kafka writes can really be said to be "happy." And, I think that since Samsa was a kitten this time instead of a bug, it made the family's treatment of him all the more poignant.

As a lover of the original work, I will put this book on my shelf beneath it (because there is no room beside it) and point to it as, "And that's the cutsey cat version." show less

The Meowmorphosis is the latest from Quirk's hugely successful line of mash-ups of classics, this one penned by a fantasy writer writing under a pseudonym. This one is a gutsier step than some of the previous mash-ups: no staid Austen here. This time, we're doing the Kafkaesque as Kittenesque, which is a whole new liteary territory (modernism) taken to a whole new level of surreal.

What works well is that, for the most part, Cook doesn't just try to swap out "kitten" for "bug." The show more Metamorphosis plot trajectory is there, but there's not a one-to-one identification, which would have been simplistic and would have left out a lot of good jokes (such as Gregor's sister's overwhelming adoration for her cuddly kitten brother). The book fortunately didn't go for the LOLcat humor, as I feared it might, which would date an otherwise "classic" mashup. It takes advantage of Kafka's gloomy modernist glumness and sense of the absurd and makes us see them through the eyes of a tortured kitten's soul, and the results are hilarious.

There's a departure in the middle of the book that lampoons The Trial. For readers who are familiar only with The Metamorphisis, this is going to be confusing and potentially boring. I wouldn't edit it out because it adds absurdist meat to the text and builds up Gregor's character and his torments, but readers who are only casually interested in Kafka may want to be advised.

The biographical note on Kafka at the end deserves special note; it's a riot. Satirical and biting, it finds a shocking thread in Kafka's life (cats!) and lampoons modernism at large. Don't skim over it-- it's a nice little treat waiting at the end of this novel.

Quirk does it again. show less

Coleridge gets kudos for chutzpa, the cover and blurb that actually had me hooked enough to pick it up.

Having never endured the original, I can honestly say that the adaptation was at once cuter and more fluffy, and still just as horribly deep and depressing as I expected. I admit, I skipped ahead to assure myself that yes, indeed, Gregor met the fate I expected. Despite the advance knowledge, I found myself caught up in the flowing prose as the tale unfolded - although I was ultimately left show more with absolutely no desire to ever re-read it. Bizarre and outrageous as the original must be, the sheer, unbearably adorable ridiculousness of Gregor's feline predicament lends a macabre sense of the absurd to what otherwise must be a supremely bleak and horrid classic. (Gregor certainly meets a predictably pathetic end, although arguably I expect his sister will get what's coming to her, as well.)

And of course, the afterword in which the reader is invited to picture Kafka running a Eastern Block version of the Fight Club? Priceless. show less

Too much mash up, not enough substance. Sort of? I think this is one of the better literary modifications lately, and with it's relatively short length, more approachable. The author is clearly familiar with Kafka, and perhaps more importantly, respects him as an author. But there's not enough to justify the adaptations.

The novel starts off strong, presenting an interesting twist when Samsa, rather than being transformed into a horrifying bug, becomes a small, fluffy kitten. However, the show more addition of "The Trial" is confusing, unnecessary, and off-purpose. Samsa's journeys are prolonged and muddled, with varying descriptions of his cattish size and surroundings. He remains unlikeable - despite being a kitten, something more understandable when he's a bug - and his own attitude is no different from his original's. And for that reason, the book just staggers until it finally dies, much like our protagonist.

Honestly, if you want all the gloom and despair inherent in Kafka, and if you want kittens go look up pictures on the internet. I fear that while well done, this mash-up brought very little to the table - nothing quirky, nothing terribly clever. If you haven't read the original works, this will make absolutely no sense, and perhaps even leave you a bit bitter. show less