The Trial by Franz Kafka Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Trial
Book Review: A beatifully crafted prophesy
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is an extremly complex journey through the mind of Franz Kafka. The ideas are all masterfully crafted and although the text itself is rather easy to read. The story has a timeless feeling to it and is a prophesy to what would happen in Germany soon after this book was written. The diologue can be confusing though, being that there are no line breaks for character changes. This is the one thing that brings the book down.Book Review: A book about the trial of life
Summary: 5 Stars
To truly appreciate the Trial you have to give it some serious thought. The real events of the book are below the surface. A reader can find the story entertaining, but what makes this story great is the thoughts hidden below the surface.The Trial is really an account of living,dying, and a search for order in a seemingly chatoic universe. If you have ever thought that your life is a trial sometimes, then this book is for youBook Review: A case of misunderstanding
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading some of the other reviews, I realize that people have misunderstood Kafka's book almost entirely. No one should be discouraged from reading this book just because one never finds out what Josef K. "did" or what crime he committed (in fact, the other reviewers should not even have GIVEN that AWAY in their reviews!). Since the cat has been let out of the bag, I will comment. The point is that it does NOT matter what Josef K. did (ready?)......because he DIDN'T do anything. Kafka foresaw modern bureaucracy and totaletarian government; he had the insight to see what the future held, and expressed it in this symbolic novel. To call the book frustrating is akin to calling sugar sweet. Ask someone who lived in Vienna Germany or Russia in the 1930s (or all of Eastern Europe since and before WWII, for that matter) , if the book really has so little to do with the real world. Also, take a look at Arthur Koestler's classic "Darkness at Noon"--a not unsimilar novel about a Russian revolutionary who is captured and accused of crimes by the government he once served. Take a close look at Koestler's introduction to the book, where he states that the novel has its basis in ACTUAL EVENTS. Then, maybe certain reviewers will know how to approach Kafka's worldview and body of work.Book Review: A chilling reflection on the modern bureaucratic state.
Summary: 4 Stars
Kafka's work stands as the best literary expression of one of the key pathologies of the bureaucratic form of organization: the marginalization of basic civil liberties and the denial of individual dignity. Prophetically, Kafka relates the inaccessibility of the judicial apparatus to the lay public. Relatedly, THE TRIAL is perhaps most valuable for what it does not afford the reader - a precise understanding of the circumstances facing Joseph K. In short, the reader's exprience with THE TRIAL mirrors that of its main character. Kafka never fully reveals his purpose, offers only glimpses into the structure of his own thought, and torments the reader with details that are at once compelling yet excruciatingly tangential to reader's principal concern: ascertaining the exact nature of Joseph K.'s predicament. The result is a novel that speaks to our most personal fears and asks us to reconsider the purposes of civil government.Book Review: A different book everytime you read it
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished reding it a second time and instead of a story of isolation and opression, it was a dark comedy, and although tragic at times also surprisingly funny. You take from this book what you want to, and can find something new, or look at something differently almost everytime you read it. Some of the sentences run-on and there are almost no paragraph's but that's because the book wasn't ment for publication (refer to kafka's letter to Max Brod) but once you get past that it isn't an overly difficult book to read compared to some of his other writtings and it's length isn't very long so pick it up from the library first, and if you like it buy it because I'm sure you'll read it again