Bookshelf



Here I endeavour to show you what I am currently reading.

Description of a Struggle and Other Stories
by Franz Kafka 
Penguin Modern Classics edition 1982

A collection of short stories and vignettes, where the endings are never really endings in the conventional sense. My favourite from these sometimes surreal gems must be The Bucket Rider.
The narrator (Franz) is freezing, he needs coal and seeks to obtain a supply but without any money he must rely on generosity. To obtain the coal - he rides the bucket (coal scuttle). Drawing together elements of fear, death, and sadness. It really is a mini-classic.
'Coal-dealer!' I cry in a voice burned hollow by the frost and muffled in the cloud made by my breath, 'please, coal-dealer, give me a little coal. My bucket is light that I can ride on it. Be kind. When I can I'll pay you.'

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