Forgiving the Angel: Four Stories for Franz Kafka

182 Pages·2014·0.82 MB·English

by  Cantor Jay

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Copyright © 2014 by Jay Cantor All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A.
Knopf, a division of Random House LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada
Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random House Companies.
www.aaknopf.com
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cantor, Jay.
[Short stories. Selections]
Forgiving the angel : four stories for Franz Kafka / Jay Cantor.
pages cm
Summary: “From one of our most admired and thought-provoking writers: a brilliant,
beautifully written, sometimes heart-wrenching gathering of fictionalized stories that center on a
circle of real people whose lives were in some way shaped by their encounters with Franz
Kafka”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-385-35034-1 (Hardcover)
eBook ISBN: 978-0-38535035-8
1. Kafka, Franz, 1883–1924—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3553.A5475A6 2013
813′.54—dc23
2013016747
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Jacket illustration by Guy Billout
Jacket design by Chip Kidd
v3.1
For Stanley Cavell—to acknowledge, with gratitude, the sustaining friendship of someone
whose life and work have seen so deeply into the nature of friendship, acknowledgment,
and gratitude.
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Forgiving the Angel
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
A Lost Story by Franz Kafka
Lusk and Marianne
Part I
Chapter 1
Part II
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Part III
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Part IV
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Part V
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Part VI
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Milena Jasenska and The World the Camps Made
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Author’s Note
A Note About the Author
Other Books by This Author
FORGIVING
THE ANGEL
1
MORE THAN ONCE, Franz Kafka told his close friend and
literary executor, Max Brod, that when Kafka died, Brod was to burn all
his unpublished manuscripts. Brod, though, disobeyed his friend’s
instructions, and not long after Kafka’s death, he arranged for the
publication of Kafka’s abandoned novels, and then, over time, his stories,
parables, and even his diaries and letters.
The things of Kafka’s that Brod had never published are now in safe-
deposit boxes in Jerusalem and Zurich, and will remain there until a
court decides who owns them. At dispute is whether Brod left the papers
to his secretary, Esther Hoffe, as an executor who was to carry out Brod’s
wish that they be conveyed to the Israeli National Library—if that was
his wish—or if he left them as her property, which she could sell, if she
wanted, to whoever might pay the most, even to a library of the German
nation.
In the Jerusalem courtroom, lawyers speaking on behalf of Esther
Hoffe’s daughters (who have inherited the papers from their mother, if,
that is, they have, indeed, inherited them) have argued that no one
should open the boxes before their ownership is determined, or even for
a time afterward. They propose to sell the manuscripts unseen—if there
are manuscripts in the boxes. “If we get an agreement, the material will
be offered for sale as a single entity, in one package. It will be sold by
weight.… There’s a kilogram of papers here.” The material might be new
stories, diaries, or minor things altogether (for Brod prized every scrap
by Kafka, even the notes from when Kafka was so sick he could not
speak, was perhaps no longer making sense, and wrote things like a top
hat made of water.)
“The highest bidder,” the lawyers said, “will then be able to open the
boxes and see what’s there. The National Library can get in line and
make an offer, too.”
Absurd perhaps, though as we’ll see, that’s not altogether the fault of
the lawyers. But to tell you how the papers came to be in sealed boxes
that are to be sold by weight, I must tell you a story.