Thank you to Catapult Press, Penguin Publishers, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview this unique compendium of stories from some of my favorite authors. I was very excited to learn about this anthology, and even more excited to see that Yiyun Li and Tommy Orange are among the contributors. I also was interested to learn more about what these Kafka-inspired tales would be like. It’s been a while since I’ve read Kafka, and I remember being challenged by some of Kafka’s short stories and tales, especially those that were somewhat allegorical. Apparently, this collection was somewhat inspired by Kafka’s notebooks among his other writings. Although this book is also published around the 100 year anniversary of Kafka’s death, it’s amazing to see how relevant some of the themes and ideas from his writing are to today’s society. While I liked some of the stories in this collection, I felt like it was a little uneven. The earlier stories were not as strong as those later in the book. I really enjoyed Elif Batuman’s story. As someone who has lived in different states, it’s interesting to see the kinds of rules and processes that are involved in buying and selling a home, as well as the kind of written and unwritten rules that go into home ownership and joining a community. The narrator of this story faces the kind of absurdity of needing experience of home ownership/property ownership to become a home owner. I think it speaks to that kind of uncertainty of buying a home, but also the kind of challenges that people experience when trying to own a home in today’s economy. Keith Ridgway’s story was also a kind of strange narrative about home and identity, where the narrator interacts with his landlord. However, his landlord seems to define him, mispronouncing his name but eventually questioning his preferred name. There were also interesting views of the landlord’s wife, and her anxieties about war—being worried that there is no war for young men to fight. It kind of added to the absurdity and paradox of modern society. I think that Leone Ross’s story was also one of the strongest in the book. Anyone who has experienced the kind of bureaucracies and red tape of health care can appreciate Kinshasa’s experience. While there were some strange and absurd experiences with the doctors, nurses, and paperwork, the ending of the story was especially terrifying considering the kinds of barriers and inequalities that women and minorities experience with health care. I also really enjoyed Charlie Kaufman’s story that ended the book. I was surprised at how entertaining this one was—it reminded me, at times, of a Murakami story, with the narrator and character exchanging places and almost fusing. I loved how the main character seemed to suddenly arrive at his own book signing, unaware of what exactly was in his book. It’s definitely reminiscent of Kaufman’s film work like Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, blurring the lines between fiction and real life. Both Helen Oyeyemi and Yiyun Li have stories that experiment with form. Oyeyemi’s story traces the relationship between 2-3 people through instant messaging and email, bringing in some lovely poetry towards the end of the story that one of the characters questions. It also kind of presents this absurd idea of how we use technology to communicate, but also raises questions about how we qualify relationships. Yiyun Li’s story was creative, imagining a discussion among different punctuation marks, attempting to organize and promote their use and continued existence in language. I was amazed at how she imbued the different marks with character and individuality that represented their purpose by only using dialogue. The story is written almost like a play. Overall, there were some interesting stories, and I could see using some of these stories in a class. However, not all of the stories stand out. If anything, it was really interesting to see how relevant and applicable the themes and ideas from Kafka’s writing remain over 100 years after his death.

A good idea, an interesting anthology, but I admit I did expect more based on the stature of the contributors. I enjoyed the stories by Elif Batuman, Helen Oyeyemi, and Joshua Cohen. Some others were forgettable. I'm not sure I "got" Ali Smith's story although I usually like her, and I think it was unfair on one of the contributors, who is a less well-known and clearly less talented writer (I won't name them as it feels mean) to be included among such heavyweights. Becca Rothfeld's introduction is excellent and made me feel more interested in her essay collection than I had previously been.

I am so thankful to the publisher, NetGalley, and the Author for granting me advanced access to this one before June 11, 2024. This one wasn't for me, but I am still really thankful for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

there was big variation in my enjoyment of these, and also in how kafkaesque they actually were, but some of these stories (especially elif batuman's and leone ross's) will stay with me for a long time!

I've never been a big fan of short story collections:. I often find them inconsistent in style and content, which makes reading them rather tedious. The authors featured in the collection, however, were simply irresistible. Charlie Kaufman's contribution was my unexpected favorite; I also really enjoyed the stories by Elif Batuman, Naomi Alderman, Tommy Orange, and Yiyun Li. They gave me the exact kind of existential absurdity I was craving and quite frankly expected from a self-proclaimed Kafkaesque collection.

I found most of the other stories in this collection rather forgettable, unfortunately, which lends to my general disfavor of short stories. That said, the best stories here are so re-readable and annotatable that I will probably be adding the title to my wishlist of physical copies.

Like a lot of collections, this one can be a little hit or miss. I feel some authors may have taken the message of writing like Kafka to be weirdness for the sake of weirdness. For me, the Charlie Kaufman piece is the highlight. I enjoyed this piece so much it might be worth the price of admission by itself.

Obviously, if you're not a fan of Kafka, I think this collection probably won't be for you. But if you are, this is a wonderful contemporary spin on Kafka-type stories. Or if you're a fan of Charlie Kaufman, you'll definitely want to read this!

I received a digital advanced copy of this book in return for my honest review.

In her Introduction to A Cage Went in Search of a Bird, literary critic Becca Rothfeld notes that this collection of ten short stories was written to honour the hundredth anniversary of Franz Kafka’s death, explaining that many of these stories, “treat precisely the kind of entrapment that obsessed him: the kind that follows us wherever we go.” I found some of these stories ironically funny, some claustrophobically intense or recognisably “Kafkaesque” in their arbitrary, indomitable bureaucracy, and some…were less successful for me. My favourites were from Elif Batuman (The Board), Keith Ridgway (The Landlord), Leone Ross (Headache), and Charlie Kaufman (This Face Can Even Be Proved by Means of the Sense of Hearing), and as I’ve never read anything else by these authors, I am delighted to have sampled their writing here; I’ll be looking for their novels. As for the concept behind this collection: Most of the authors used their space to make commentary on the absurdities of modern life — or the absurdity of all human interaction — and I think that for the most part, they recognisably build on Kafka’s work. It’s an interesting mix and I am happy to have picked this up.

Some dark and surprisingly humorous stories by a variety of authors that show a variety of styles and stories.