The tourist shops of Prague sell dozens of items commemorating Franz Kafka. You can drink a latte in the Caf Kafka, add sugar to it from a packet with Kafka's face on it, and then light your cigarette from a box of Kafka matches. Franz Kafka died in obscurity in 1924, publishing only a handful of bizarre stories in little-known literary magazines. Yet today he persists in our collective imaginations. Even those who have never read any of...