My faithfulness to allow myself 30 minutes of personal reading each night is not conducive to a reader's delight of being absorbed into the time, places, and characters of a book. The day I have successfully defended my doctoral dissertation I will immediately lock myself away with a pile of to-be-read books not to emerge until I have the most severe reader's hangover imaginable. You know what I mean, don't you? It's the hangover when you terrifyingly find you are on a first name basis with the pizza delivery person, and the person at the liquor store starts trying to find out the name and phone number of your nearest relative because you walk into the store with bloodshot, swollen, tired eyes in the same sweatpants and t-shirt you've been wearing for the past month, sporting uncurled hair and unmakeup'd face, to buy your regular box of Shiraz making it very obvious you need an intervention. Until that precious time, I get 30 minutes a night to get shake hands with people I've never met and visit places I've never been.

Some books are easier to read in spurts than others. This is one of those spurtiest of books. It was just as if Dora Diamant herself, described as passionate, funny, loving, intelligent, and hospitable, welcomed me back for a visit, complete with tea and treats, ready to pick up our conversation where we left off. She was a lovely, generous host. I enjoyed our time together. Dora talked to me of her passionate love for Kafka. I found it tragic she lived a life of love within a few short months. Kafka's tuberculosis ended their life together much too soon. Or, was the amount of time just right? I struggle with the answer to that question. I think Dora struggles with that question as well. Dora and I smile knowingly at each other understanding that there is time, space, and place for everything, and the time to ourselves only deepens the treasures in our hearts that we hold for those who meant the most to us. I was happy to have these chats with Dora.

Dora also explained to me that she tried to temper Kafka scholars' tendency make Kafka much too serious, much too morbid. Dora explained that Kafka had a playfulness in all things. She said he loved to pretend as much as he took joy in noticing the every day of everything. Kafka, she insists, was not a serious person except about his writing. In writing, Kafka felt the heaviness of the world within him. Placing that heaviness onto paper took diligence, pain, suffering, and torment. Yet, all of this was done out of love. And, when he emerged the following day, he was ready to enjoy the importance of making the tea just right for his Dora an/or his guests. Kafka was Atlas in the flesh.

Back in reality, I met Dora's biographer, Kathi Diamant, at a book talk at one of the cutest bookstores in San Diego - The Upstart Crow at Seaport Village - during a beautiful Spring evening. She enthralled us group of book lovers with the journey that led her to write this tribute to Dora. She is passionate about her dedication to Kafka's greatest and last love. I firmly believe Dora called to Kathi to find her and tell her story. Kathi has remained faithful to Dora in all things, traveling to Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Israel to look for the letters between Kafka and Dora, and Kafka's lost writings. It is a legacy Kathi knows Kafka and Dora meant the world to have. As her search continues, she takes groups of students to see and experience Kafka's and Dora's worlds. Kathi is a tremendously contagiously enthusiastic individual believing, as she wrote in the inscription she placed in my book, that we learn to love Kafka. It is not a love that is freely given. Kathi's book has opened the passage of curiosity so that Kafka and I can get to know each other. At present, it's a tentative flirtation. Yet, I hope to be one of the students in Kathi's group one day so that I may learn to love Kafka with a passion that time cannot diminish.

Book Trailer: https://vimeo.com/103604870
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For more information about the Kafka Project, a project of San Diego State University, dedicated to the preservation of the archives and search for the letters and lost writings of Franz Kafka, as well as registration information for Kathi Diamant's wonderful literary tours, visit http://www.kafkaproject.com. ( )