David Zane Mairowitz Books

"What do I have in common with the Jews? I don't even have anything in common with myself." Nothing could better express the essence of Franz Kafka, a man described by his friends as living behind a "glass wall." Kafka wrote in the tradition of the great Yiddish storytellers, whose stock-in-trade was bizarre fantasy tainted with hilarity and self-abasement. What he added to this tradition was an almost unbearably expanded consciousness. Alienated from his roots, his family, his surroundings, and primarily from his own body, Kafka created a unique literary language in which to hide away, transforming himself into a cockroach, an ape, a dog, a mole or a circus artiste who starves himself to death in front of admiring crowds. David Zane Mairowitz's brilliant text and the illustrations and comic panels of the world's greatest cartoonist, Robert Crumb (himself no stranger to self-loathing and alienation), help us to understand the essence of Kafka and provide insight beyond the cliché "Kafkaesque," peering through Kafka's glass wall like no other book before it. The book is a wonderful educational tool for those unfamiliar with Kafka, including a brief but inclusive biography as well as the plots of many of his works, all illustrated by Crumb, making this newly designed edition a must-have for admirers of both Kafka and Crumb."--Back cover

"The words that can be said about this book are merely tentative asides. A person must glean for himself line by line how the ominous severity of the final verdict emerges from an often lovely coexistence of irony and reverence. With this book he has now fully emerged into the domain of great, timelessly prophetic art, of a Dante, a Hölderlin. That which remained denied to a faltering, stammering generation, and that for which it ecstatically bled itself to death: in these fragments all this steps into the light of our time in artistic perfection." (Hand Sahl)

Retells the classic story of a murderer and the psychological punishment he endures before he finally comes to trial, in graphic novel format.

A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis - an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life - including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door - becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral.

Adaptace Chantal Montellierová a David Mairowitz. Proces, slavný Kafkův román skvěle adaptovaný do komiksové podoby, je ponurým příběhem prokuristy Josefa K., kterému v den jeho třicátých narozenin vniknou do bytu dva neznámí muži a zatknou ho pro neznámé provinění. Ze začátku pokládá celou věc za nedorozumění, ale postupně poznává zkorumpovanost a nepostižitelnost soudu, jehož případy uzavírá pouze smrt obžalovaného. Kafkův portrét byrokratického soukolí, které drtí životy svých občanů, je dnes bohužel stejně aktuální jako v době svého zrodu. Jednomu nakonec nezbývá než smířit s poměry. Hlavně nevzbudit pozornost! Držet jazyk za zuby, i kdyby to člověku bylo hodně proti srsti! Pochopit, že ten velký soudní organismus setrvává věčně ve stavu pružné rovnováhy.