A Cage Went In Search of a Bird
by Various Authors
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.
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