Dearest Father

Conflict between father and son is one of the oldest themes inliterature, and in this open letter to his father - a letter whichwas never sent - Kafka tries to come to terms with one of the mostdeeply rooted obsessions of his troubled soul. Written as a long,tense and dramatic confession in which writer and man are gatheredtogether in front of an ambivalent figure of authority, "DearestFather" is a desperate attempt to retrace the origins of aturbulent and highly conflicted relationship between an unflinchingparent and an extremely sensitive child. Both a mercilessindictment of his father and an impassioned appeal to him, Kafka'sinspired work is one of the most lucid and touching psychologicaldocuments of the twentieth century.