A prisoner, a maker of bladed weapons and an acute reader of Kafka, dies, without pain or glory, at the hands of a seasoned but uneducated elderly prisoner. His soul, nevertheless stubbornly refuses to leave the prison.

A prisoner, a maker of bladed weapons and an acute reader of Kafka, dies, without pain or glory, at the hands of a seasoned but uneducated elderly prisoner. His soul, surely sharpened by contact with Kafka's literary universe, nevertheless stubbornly refuses to leave the prison. In fact, the enthusiastic entrepreneur ultimately behaves like an endearing Melville character.