Description
The Critical Case of a Man Called K is a novel of illness, the young narrator eventually diagnosed with leukemia and then undergoing treatment for it. Even before he is diagnosed, however, and then even beyond the physical illness, a crushing existential ennui is suffocating him. The title of the novel brings to mind Kafka — and, indeed, the narrator reads and relates to both Kafka and his characters — but the opening sentence (and paragraph) — “The moment I wake, I’m overcome by a feeling of nausea” — is a clear nod to the Sartre-novel, as this narrator feels, and deals with, a similar existential Angst (compounded — and somewhat blurred — here then by the disease (and the attempts to medically confront it) that is overwhelming him).
