Books: But Not For Him

FRANZ KAFKA, PARABLE AND PARADOX (376 pp.)—Heinz Politzer—Cornell University Press ($6.50).

Franz Kafka died of tuberculosis in 1924, at the age of 41. In crippling distrust of himself, he had published almost nothing, and he died little noted, leaving instructions to burn all his work. His closest friend disobeyed his will and published Kafka's three unfinished novels, his letters, diaries, parables and tales. These included The Trial, The Castle and Amerika—in effect, the chief body of his work. The generation that has passed since then has been deeply marked by the friend's good sense in preserving these records of...