'Amerika'

A most bizarre novel for a number of different reasons. First and foremost, you will not find another work from Franz Kafka quite like it. More realistic, Kafka admitted to taking cues from rereading Charles Dickens in addition to his own affinity for travel writing. This is more Jack Kerouac than anything else Kafka ever published.

Then again, Kafka didn't really publish Amerika at all. It was published posthumously by his executor, Max Brod, who disobeyed instructions to burn all unpublished works.

Amerika stems from a short story, "The Stoker," which serves as the novel's first chapter. The gaps therein, never completed by Kafka, are large. The questions unanswered turn maddening. Why exactly did his uncle -- who went through all the trouble of unexpectantly taking Karl in -- simply disown him for visiting another person? What was the intentions of Mr. Pollunder and Clara, especially in the scene involving Karl and Clara alone in the room and her fiancee lounging in the next bedroom? What were Karl's experiences with Delamarche and Brunelda, how did he escape?

Admittedly, these were never completed while Kafka was alive. And, by all accounts, we were never supposed to read this story in the first place to get so upset. So, I must blame Mr. Brod.