Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis [graphic novel]

It's eerie enough that this book published in the early 1900's seems more valid now than ever. A society anesthetized on callous mediocrity exists on the pages of Metamorphosis. It's a warning of the not so distant future that encompasses a society; busy keeping their heads down and working nonstop, they begin to lose their humanity.

Gregor Samsa, the main character, begins as a vital male worker, a traveling salesman who clocks countless hours to provide for his mother, father and sister. He is never able to fulfill his family's sense of entitlement. They accrue more debt and never show a drop of sympathy for his back-breaking work loads. Instead of any love, they depict a detached tolerance for Gregor.

Then, one day, he wakes up to find show more himself metamorphosed into an insect. A beetle, to be exact. The story is powerful and moving. It causes the reader to feel a deep sorrow for the helplessness of a dehumanized and neglected man.

For the entire review, please go here:
http://bookendchronicles.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-metamorphosis.html show less

Kuper's adaptation of Kafka's work manages to humanize Gregor's dehumanization and while simplifying the text, enhances the story in the stark black and white drawings reminiscent of wodcuttings free to occasionally break the bounds of their square boundaries. While Gregor's plight can ultimately be viewed as depressing and nearly pointless, Kuper manages to focus on the deadpan humor throughout the story. While this ultimately doesn't change the fate of any of the characters, it does seem to make for an easier read and pondering of the story of the entire Samsa family.

This adaption of the classic work by Franz Kafka was my first encounter with Metamorphosis. I've seen the book thousands of times, of course, but never read it. I could make a wild guess what it was about and was in no hurry to read about a giant insect! However, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to read this adaption. It was definitely a quick read, filled with black and white illustrations. I honestly fill like the illustrations and the lack of color set the perfect tone for this story. While I can't say that I love the story, this adaption did compel me to finally read the book. I think it's a good quick read, but I was left with so many questions.

This graphic novel is a great visualization of Kafka's work. The heavy-handed, dark artwork matches Gregor's existential crisis, getting progressively darker throughout the story. Some of the framing is excellent! I especially liked the one scene where the narration scuttled around the page as Gregor did so around his room.

This book is an interesting twist on a classic short story. It is presented here as a graphic novel. The textual adaptation is well done and quite faithful to the original. The dark, moody drawings add to the gloomy atmosphere of the narrative. However, in some of the scenes, the sister is depicted as seeming a lot angrier and aggressive than I recall her being in the original story (although I did read that some five years ago now, so perhaps I am remembering incorrectly). Also, the beginning pictorial representations of Gregor as an insect seem more comic than I would have hoped for given the pathos of this story. However, as the story goes on and Gregor’s condition worsens, the resulting drawings of the insect Gregor do look more show more lamentable so that makes up for the cartoonish beetle we see in the beginning. show less

Who has not at least heard of the plight of Gregor Samsa, though probably not knowing the name, who awakens one morning to slowly realize he's turned into a cockroach. There is a problem around which to construct a plot! This story was written by Franz Kafka and published in 1915. The characters and settings and conflicts all had to be mentally visualized by the reader. Kafka created the story with words. Just words.

But The Metamorphosis is extremely visual, so it is only natural it would be embellished with illustrations by some publisher. Storyteller and cartoonist R. Crumb published an illustrated biography of Kafka, and he included in it a version of The Metamorphosis in a comic format.

Illustrator Peter Kuper adapted the story as a show more graphic novel. Very effective, with shifting framing and viewpoints. Kuper has a heavily inked style and packs a lot of emotion—mostly angry emotion—into his drawings. I don't particularly like his style, but that didn't keep me from reading/viewing the entire book. It is, of course, consumed more quickly than Kafka's text, but it leaves less to the imagination. It's okay. show less

Classic story well rendered. Artwork suitably dark and expressionistic-ish though not completely to my taste. Requirement of the form that there is some slimming of the story but the artist Kuper does a solid job hitting the key emotional notes though the music never quite soars.