/lit/ - Literature

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Let's talk about this. Has anyone here read it? How did it leave you feeling? What did you think of the prose? The structure?

I just finished it, but it's quite a difficult book to formulate a definitive opinion on. It seems to be basically a continuation of Beckett's ethos, using Kafka's set of symbols. I suppose what saves it is the originality of its language - he copies neither Kafka's delicate beauty, nor Beckett's extremely personal filth, but rather maintains a sort of prophetic tone, wherein he is removed from the characters but seems to know their destiny from the beginning and have an intimate familiarity with their fluctuations - which is quite fitting, considering the nature of the ending.

As for the structure, I see the plot as examining a spectrum of ways of approaching reality, with Etsi on one end and Imirias and Petrina on the other (I get the sense that K views the pragmatist and the nihilist as two sides of the coin). The others fall somewhere in between in terms of both hope and goodness, and all their trajectories end ambiguously, but still without absolute salvation. The doctor's approach, of course, is removed from the spectrum. The first part consists of introducing the perspectives, and the second part consists of examining how they are preserved and changed by the vicissitudes of life. In particular, I find the mirrored fates of Etsi and Imirias to be quite poetic.

In terms of K's other works, does anyone have recommendations? I plan to read them all, but I'd love to hear opinions on them nonetheless.