Heeb

As a German Jew in Prague, Kafka developed a rhetoric of alienation, tied closely to the cold prose of German, but was also drawn inexorably to the emotive Czech lanugauge from which he was excluded. How strange that the man with the most insurmountable outsider complex is now the most most popular girl at the dance—being courted and claimed by The Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain and most recently…the state of Israel.

Bohemia’s number one self-loathing Jew is rolling in his grave again this week as a custody battle is waged over his last unpublished papers.

When Franz Kafka died, he bequeathed his literary estate to friend Max Brod, who blatantly disregarded the author’s last wishes by editing and publishing the influential body of works that includedThe Castle andThe Trial.

Now, Israel wants a piece of the action, and the heir to what remains of Kafka’s literary estate (Brod’s Israeli mistresses’ daughter as it turns out) is fighting tooth and nail. The New York Times spoke briefly with the lady herself, to whom it’s all about the Benjamins.