The Trial (1925)

I am glad I listened to this one as I am not sure it would have held my interest in print. However it does keep begging you to get to the end to find out what happens. ( )

Excerpts from my original GR review (Sep 2012):
- Here's an obvious case of "What else is there to say?" Here's something: We of course have Max Brod to thank for this, and most of Kafka's works, seeing the light of day. After Kafka's early death, his good friend reworked the unnumbered manuscript pages into a finished product. (In German, the original) Later translated by Willa and Edwin Muir, and my edition of that translation is further revised and given added material by an E.M Butler. I tell you all this because it is worth considering whether the final-final-final novel is very close, or very far, from the mind's eye of the author. We'll never know, unless the very recently court-opened files of Kafka's, kept locked away by Max Brod's secretary's daughter for many years in Israel, contain papers that shed any light on The Trial. Stay tuned. In the meantime, I'll continue to chew on Titorelli the painter, and the unfinished reality, and feel, of this book. ( )

Read this in one day - which is probably a major insult to Kafka. Is it about the dilemma between domestic life and dedication to writing - what is it about? There are so many possibilities in any world - and in our world of CCTV and algorithms. This was a re-read and I am pretty sure this is another of those books that I thought I had read in full but hadn't. ( )

The Trial is a compelling read, but also frustrating. Questions are never answered and your left scream WHY???? K wakes up to find out he is being arrested, he is never told why, he is free to go about his daily life as long as when he is summoned to the court he comes. He tries to dismiss the trial as nothing more than a shady court system trying to get a bribe out of him. More people learn of his trial and he begins to take it more serious. K explores options and meets other people on trial. The ending will mess you up.

So what is the point of The Trial? There are lots of meanings that can be placed to what is read. Bureaucracy, a variety of metaphors the trial represents, or simply nothing but the text that is provided. Either way its a great short read that is interesting til the end. I didn’t know how I felt at the ending, was just kind of lost for a feeling, but I think that feeling of not know what I am feeling fits well with The Trial. ( )

In today’s world, which feels so much less clear and more upside down to me than the one I used to know, this book seems more prophetic than science fiction. An exploration of the absolute absurdity and uselessness of life and the total breakdown of any sensible justice system, it makes you shiver a bit. Does it make sense to struggle when there are no answers (in fact, not even questions that can be put to anyone other than yourself)? Seeking to understand what is going on around you, what is being done to you and what is expected from you is tantamount to insanity, for there are no explanations and no rules that you are allowed to know. There is less justice for those who seek to understand their human predicament, and more leniency for those who just happen to stumble upon the right approach or the right judge. Even the lawyers are clueless, and I don’t even want to try to make sense of how religion fails in this novel.

What, indeed, is K’s crime? It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t know what he has done, we don’t know what he has done, but living, alone, is crime enough. There is nothing to believe in in K’s world. If there are higher-ups, he is never able to reach or understand them, in fact they seem to exist in theory only. The only people he ever meets are lowly officials. If the higher powers do exist, are they of any use to him? I wonder how much of what he is saying about “higher powers” is truly Kafka grappling with the concept of God. Other people seem to believe in them, there are rumors that they have done things, made rulings, but K finds no evidence that they exist. Every person K meets is part of the court system, which must mean he is being judged by humanity itself rather than something outside of humanity.

This book is so psychologically dense and complicated that I am sure I only walked away with a fragment of what Kafka was trying to convey. It certainly serves to humble one when encountering the mind that is needed to produce such a story.

However, and this is a big however for me, I hated reading it. It pushed and pulled and stood still. I didn’t care what happened to K except in that larger sense that he seemed to represent mankind--if it can happen to him, it can happen to you. My second Kafka, and I find him far too challenging to enjoy, but important because he makes you think and will not allow you to look the other way.

If I were rating this on any pleasure grid, it would get 1-star from me. But rated on a meaning grid, it probably deserves 5-stars. I have compromised and given it 3.5.
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