{"product_id":"anxious-pleasures-a-novel-after-kafka-9781593761356","title":"Anxious Pleasures: A Novel after Kafka","description":"\u003ci\u003eAnxious Pleasures\u003c\/i\u003e takes Franz Kafka's profoundly haunting and sad comic novella, \u003ci\u003eThe Metamorphosis, \u003c\/i\u003e and reanimates it through the vantage points of those who surrounded Gregor Samsa during his plight. All the familiar characters are here, including the hysterical mother, stern father, faithless sister, and the pragmatic household cook. But we are also introduced to, among others, the would-be author downstairs who daydreams of the narrative he may someday compose and a young woman in contemporary London reading Kafka's slim book for the first time. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOr do they all comprise a few of the disturbing dreams from which Gregor is about to snap awake one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin? In the tradition of Michael Cunningham's \u003ci\u003eThe Hours\u003c\/i\u003e and John Gardner's \u003ci\u003eGrendel, \u003c\/i\u003e Olsen's novel not only represents a collaboration with a ghost, but, too, a celebration, augmentation, complication, and devoted unwriting of a momentously influential text.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLance Olsen\u003c\/b\u003e is author of more than 20 books of and about innovative writing practices. His short stories, essays, poems, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of journals, magazines, and anthologies, including \u003ci\u003eConjunctions\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBlack Warrior Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFiction International\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eIowa Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHotel Amerika\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eVillage Voice\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTime Out New York\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBOMB\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGulf Coast\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMcSweeney's\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eBest American Non-Required Reading\u003c\/i\u003e. He is a Guggenheim and an N.E.A. fellowship recipient, winner of the Berlin Prize and a Pushcart, and former governor-appointed Idaho Writer-in-Residence. His novel \u003ci\u003eTonguing the Zeitgeist\u003c\/i\u003e was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award. Olsen currently teaches experimental narrative theory and practice at the University of Utah.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Catapult","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50473976824082,"sku":"9781593761356","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_6e926320-54c3-4ecf-973c-2fa21e84f057.jpg?v=1730209706","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/anxious-pleasures-a-novel-after-kafka-9781593761356","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}