A Cage Went in Search of a Bird

April 29, 2024
This inspired anthology demonstrates the enduring influence of Franz Kafka’s fatalistic worldview and mordant humor. In the introduction, Becca Rothfeld muses on Kafka’s “mystifying” aphorisms and recurring theme of imprisonment, suggesting that “we might begin to sympathize with the cage looking for a bird, for we, too, are desperate to catch the fugitive flutter of comprehension.” Standout entries include “The Board,” Elif Batuman’s amusing tale of a woman who goes through bureaucratic hoops to purchase a basement apartment, and Joshua Cohen’s “Return to the Museum,” written from the perspective of a Neanderthal on display at a natural history museum as it reopens after a pandemic. Lingering pandemic fears also pop up in Tommy Orange’s “The Hurt” and Helen Oyeyemi’s “Hygiene,” though both fail to stick their respective landings. More successful is Yiyun Li’s “Apostrophe’s Dream,” which takes the form of a play staged by various punctuation marks about the gradual abandonment of their proper usage. Charlie Kaufman’s metafictional closer is equally clever, unspooling the story of an author who, after his book launch, learns he inadvertently copied Kafka’s language and sees his life upended. These stories will do the trick for the Kafka curious and diehard fans alike.