Enrique Vila-Matas
ON ONCE again re-reading the penultimate fragment of Robert Walser's —the part where Herr Benjamenta and the narrator go off traveling together, dreaming of absolute freedom—I sense a possible family resemblance with “The Wish to Become an Indian,” one of the short prose pieces in , Kafka's first published book. In that brief, indecisive piece of juvenilia, Kafka reveals his genuine desire to be an Indian, always on the alert and riding his horse at full gallop through the wide world. While it an indecisive piece, and dates from very early in his career, there, in
