The metamorphosis

The metamorphosis / Franz Kafka; adapted by Peter Kuper.—New York : Three Rivers Press, c2003.
77 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Translation by Kerstin Hasenpusch
ISBN: 1400052998

1. Family -- Fiction. 2. Graphic novels. 3. Insects -- Fiction. 4. Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924 -- Adaptations. 5. Metamorphosis—Fiction. 6. Short stories, Austrian -- 20th century.

I. Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924. Verwandlung. English. 2003.

741.5973

Traveling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning transformed into a giant bug. This makes it very difficult to get out of bed and impossible to get to work. It also makes for very awkward family dynamics. Kuper’s adaptation of one of the most famous literary works of the twentieth century scrupulously follows Kafka’s original story. What Kuper adds with his dark shadings and heavy lines is a feeling of dark and claustrophobic gloom. It gives his cartoons the feeling of the work of some of Kafka’s contemporaries in the visual arts, the Expressionists. Gregor’s father looks like he could have stepped out of a drawing by George Grosz and the atmosphere of crushing suffering is reminiscent of the works of Otto Dix or Käthe Kollwitz. And while this is not the only interpretation of the story, it is certainly a valid one that Kuper illustrates very successfully.