Kafka Was The Rage

Anatole Broyard

Kafka was the Rage

The book contains two parts, one called Sheri and the other After Sheri. This is narrated by the author himself, as he tells the about is life after the famous World War II had concluded. The year was exactly 1946 in New York City, and Broyard had just moved in with an attractive painter named Sheri Donatti. Throughout the first part, he is pretty interested in Sheri, wanting to be more than just roommates. Sex fills the man’s head, stating that after the war, he needed some of it, but of course books are the only things that helped control this desire. Explaining most of the things he did during his stay Sheri, along with the opening of his bookstore. He became interested in art, but was that was because Sheri inspired him to do so, in a way. As the first part progressed, they had a serious relationship with each other and even grew to love each other.

Of course, it wasn’t rare for a woman like Sheri to easily fall in love, after a while they both separated and Broyard went his way. In the second part of the book, Broyard talks about his times away from Sherry, and decides to go off on his own. “It’s a plea, a cry, an appeal for the survival of city life.” A quote Broyard said, indicating the “adventures” he had gone through during his times alone. Towards the end he states that he needs a “normal sex life” and decides that he needs the feel like an ordinary man who sleeps with a ordinary girl.

The first part that made it compelling to me was when Broyard was getting into so much detail of how much he wanted sex. It was interesting how people had the need for sex after the war, and how books pretty much “entertained them” long enough to stay away from it. The second part was how Sherry was described as a beauty, yet she wore no underwear, I found it awfully weird and kind of disgusting for a lady to be walking around like that. The third part was when Broyard defended his “woman” from the two men tried to take her away. In a way, I saw this interesting because Sheri wasn’t even into him at that time and Broyard already viewed her as his girlfriend.

The fourth was when Broyard opened a bookshop on Cornelia Street; he mentioned how the books seemed to be the only thing that entertained the people at the