{"product_id":"9780889227439","title":"Kafka's Hat","description":"In Patrice Martin’s ticklish tip of the hat to the writing of Franz Kafka, we follow the misadventures of a bureaucrat – aptly named “P.” (pun intended) – as he embarks on the illustrious task of collecting the titular headgear. “P.” expects that the accomplishment of this seemingly simple task will grant him both a professional and a personal promotion. But Martin’s eager protagonist has overlooked the systematic difficulty in modern bureaucracies – as well as in some of twentieth-century’s best fiction – of getting things done. And so Kafka’s hat is increasingly unreachable: express elevators get stuck between floors, rooms full of suitcases must be searched, unsympathetic bureaucrats must be confronted, and then there’s the rather unanticipated discovery of a fresh cadaver in the library … Naturally, “P.” knows that every hero has his coming-of-age trial to go through; trouble is, he’s no modern Ulysses.\u003cp\u003eNever departing in tone and timbre from a somewhat amicable and farcical, obstinately absurd storytelling style, \u003ci\u003eKafka’s Hat\u003c\/i\u003e assembles a pleasant labyrinth of intertextual references, which make room for the diverse imaginary worlds of Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, and Paul Auster. Living in a different city, wearing new clothes, but still immersed in the part-tragic and part-comical ambience of Franz Kafka’s best existentialist literature, Patrice Martin’s “P.” is the compelling alter ego of a not-so-distant “Joseph K.” – still contemporary, still relevant.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInvoking some of modern literature’s most meaningful authors, Martin’s prose playfully reminds us that we do not create new work without reintroducing past fictions inside our present desires.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Talonbooks, Limited","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47019494179056,"sku":"9780889227439","price":12.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780889227439_p0.jpg?v=1763851479","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780889227439","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}