The Castle (1926)

"The Castle" takes place in an unknown time within a remote village called “the Castle of Count WestWest”. It’s a land where every decision - including who is allowed to stay the night - is ruled by unknown authorities in an unreachable allusive castle. Imagine getting a job offer situated in this village and upon arrival, alone on foot, it is freezing cold and snowing heavily. The entire village takes on an eerie quality. The people are bland and nondescript and you are tired, confused, and frightened.

That is the opening scene of "The Castle". A character simply known as K. enters this surreal village where nothing is as it seems and answers are unattainable. First he is told he must leave immediately. There is no job for him. Nevertheless, he is assigned two assistants - caricatures who look like twins and act like a vocal Harpo Marx - absurd and grotesque, performing inane antics while they wait for an assigned task. “The assistants were embracing each other, cheek to cheek, and smiling, whether in humility or mockery, one could not tell.” (Pg. 22)

But like a bad nightmare in which one cannot awake and move forward, K. is stuck in the village determined to reach the Castle, to speak personally to a person of authority, get some answers, do his job, make some money, and live a normal life.

Kafka’s black comedy is about isolation and alienation. Perhaps the peasant landlady at the taproom said it best, “You’re not from the Castle, you’re not from the village, you are nothing.” (Pg. 48) It’s a bureaucratic nightmare as you’ve never experienced before.

And as in Kafka’s other unfinished classic, "The Trial", you are never quite sure where the plot is going - or why. Every answer K. receives turns into another question. Every accomplishment - a mere illusion of success. Every offer of assistance - filled with selfish ulterior motives. Every scene presented in the Kafkaesque quality of keen awareness and surreal distortion. On the surface It is both eerie and funny... a unique combination told in mesmerizing vivid detail you will never forget and it makes an entertaining, enthralling read.

If so inclined, scratch the surface and delve into the mystery of deeper meaning. What point was Kafka really trying to make? Does man really have free-will or are we destined to a predetermined fate? Was the Castle a symbol of out-of-control bureaucracy or something else? Despite the fact that "The Castle" was published 87 years ago, the enigma remains... a study of Kafka’s philosophy is currently being conducted at the Oxford Research Center. Maybe they will find the answers.

In the meantime, "The Castle" is a must read, and I recommend the new English translation by Mark Harman based on the restored text which is proclaimed to be the most authentically translated publication to date. ( )

A primer on how not to behave upon moving to a new city to look for work.

This book is like reading a dream. I'm not sure whose dream it is though. The Castle is the story of K who was summoned to a village as Land-Surveyor and his trials and tribulations trying to work through the bureaucracy of the castle's politics. Void of any consistent punctuation (paragraphs go on for pages) I found both K and the villagers to be nonsensical and irrational. This must be the most contrary town ever written about. The situations are inane, but Kafka's style is still engaging where I wanted to find out what crazy direction the story would take next. Had Kafka ever finished this work so it wasn't such a burden to read, it definitely would have earned itself more stars. ( )

Hated it, but I think I was supposed to hate it. ( )

There was a news article today suggesting that two thirds of people questioned lie about the books they have read to appear more sophisticated, so how do you know I'm telling the truth...



This was somewhat strange. It's never quite clear what is true and what isn't. Everything is open to interpretation. The main character is an incommer, who views the situation in the village very differently from the locals. There are many rules and customs that make the villagers seem brainwashed in comparison to the incommer. The presence of the castle - the seat of power - is always mysterious and threatening, even sinister. ( )