The metamorphosis is a dangerous book. I am serious, it can shake you from inside, just like it did to me. They way in which Franz Kafka writes it is just wonderful, it contains a bit of nihilism, a bit of hope, a bit of hate, a bit of injustice and maybe most important of all, it contains a bit of familiarity.

It is that familiarity that destroys you, how you can relate to Gregor Samsa, this hard working individual which is betrayed by a lack of fortune. It takes your perception of reality back on the ground, just like “100 years of solitude”, its magic is used not to fantasize about possible worlds, but rather to make a big contrast between the causes and consequences of reality.

The metamorphosis of Gregor is just that. A way to show how unexpectable, vicious, awful and uncertain the world can be. How our entire way of being can be disrupted literally in the course of one night. The version I read contained a introduction from David Cronenberg. He, very brilliantly deduces that the metamorphosis Gregor experiences is an analogy of aging. I genuely think that this is a very good interpretation of the book, but I also have my own that I like to share with you.

The translator Susan Bernofsky talks about of the word in German to refer to magic transformations is Verwandlung, but in English metamorphosis is used to talk about both magic and natural transformations. I see this of vital importance. The change I experienced within myself was not natural, it did not brought satisfaction, it brought pain, despair and suffering.

I know it sounds exaggerated. If I were reading this words I would not believe it, but I can assure you I am not lying. When I was reading through the middle part of the book I literally started sobbing and went to my room to calm myself talking to my then girlfriend and watching cat documentaries. I do not know if it was a sensation reserved to myself, but I know it was real. I know that reading metamorphosis literally made me went trough one. Just like Gregor, I did not have idea of what was happening, did not know how to react, did not know what I was winning or losing, I only knew that I was different, a irreversible process in which I could not simply see reality with the same eyes.

And that is, the deepest meaning I found on metamorphosis. It is the quintessential example of the irreversible transformations. Just like aging a metamorphosis is not a new perspective, is literally a new way of living, a permanent awareness of reality and his deep, dark eyes. It goes beyond just feeling it inside, you also can see it in our behavior. Our gestures change, our words change, the way we interact with others change. Anyone who has a meaningful tattoo knows, at least unconsciously, knows this: the idea has manifested itself in your body.

I am not saying that everyone who reads metamorphosis is going to experience one, it was maybe only my case, maybe you can experience it with other books or activities, but paraphrasing the advice I read in the preface of Man’s Search for Meaning “If a book has the potential to change you, then is worth reading at least once.” and I can assure this book has changed me just like any other in the fiction literature realm.

So, the score I am going to give it is not based on the external or internal aspects within the book itself, rather I will qualify its relationship with me. How I interacted with this book -and hopefully you also too.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. Five stars, the highest score.

Please be free to share your thoughts and if the book has also had a deep resonance with you. Without nothing more to say, I leave.