Recensioni dei lettori

• .monkey.-1

  (3/5)

  My second Kafka, and I am now pretty sure he is indeed not my cup of tea. I think the ideas in his works are interesting, the surrealism/absurdity is something I enjoy at other times and it does work, but somehow I just find it quite tedious to read in Kafka. The story-lines intrigue me, but getting through them takes effort. I think he's worth reading, but at the same time I hesitate to recommend him.
• nx74defiant

  (2/5)

  Well, I read it. A very strange story. I found it hard to care about K and his problems.
• natek_23

  (3/5)

  First thing.. this book was unfinished and published after his death, and it reads that way. I can't imagine this is what Kafka would have wanted the world to read. But here we are. The only thing I would like to add to what has been written already is that our protagonist K's behavior is rarely mentioned. He's an idiot. The system he is in is oppressive and capricious but his own behavior is inexplicable and frustrating. I can appreciate this book for its historical context in literature but it's not a "good read".
• shanaqui_1

  (2/5)

  I started reading this aaaages ago, and finally finished it by skimming through. I don't know what it is -- maybe the translation, maybe just Kafka's style -- but I found it more infuriating and frustrating than anything. I enjoyed the dark humour, but I don't think this style of completely absurd situation is for me, and I couldn't judge on the quality of Kafka's writing from this translation. Maybe if, someday, I learn German...
  
  It probably doesn't help that I'm in bed recovering from food poisoning, so perhaps you should take my opinion with a pinch of salt. Still, however important it is in a literary sense, I can't say I enjoyed it.
• kawgirl

  (4/5)

  Kafka writes in such simple German, yet he uses the language in subtle ways. For those who can, you should definitely read the German version.
• araridan

  (4/5)

  As the Trial is somewhat of a classic, I really don't have much to add. Overall I really liked the book and its sense of paranoia and futility in the face of bureaucracy. If you are familiar at all with Kafka, you'll neither be surprised nor disappointed.
• cmbohn

  (1/5)

  I hated this book. I know it's all meaningful and symbolic, but I hated the main character so much that I didn't care what happened to him! I kept dragging my feet on finishing this book and had to force myself to finish. Well, I'm done. Glad that's over.
• axya_4

  (4/5)

  Good book, very well-written. The style of composition sterile, the story twisting and elaborating, the air suffocating, which serves the point well. Kafka is still beyond my grasp though =.= he makes me fall asleep.
• truechic_1

  (5/5)

  Kafka's clever take on complex beauracracy is a fascinating if challenging read. Waiting to have the crime he is accused of revealed as we read is in itself a ploy that leads to the reader experiencing a small measure of the ever increasing frustration and bewilderment that the character is experiencing. My first read of a Kafka novel, and now a confirmed fan.
• tonem_4

  (3/5)

  There was something about this book that kept me from connecting with it in an emotional way, perhaps if this is a life experience that you can relate to on a personal level this story would quickly entice you, if not there is no real structural criticism to novel that is overtly distracting. Yet I found myself wandering and wondering subconsciously if there were allusions or aphorisms that i was not privilege too. This is still an excellent read, don't over think it.
• peppuzzo_1

  (4/5)

  Great fear is waking up as K did, and finding yourself wrapped in a absurd trial. Pure horror novel, K searches truth, freedom and justice, only to find procrastination, condemn or apparent absolution. Even not women nor love could save him, as there was only corruption and seduction.
• bkinetic_1

  (4/5)

  At least as I understood it, The Trial is a black comedy that contrasts the disconnectedness of individuals from larger societal agencies. As governments and corporations have become larger and more powerful, the world has become increasingly Kafkaesque, surreal and full of bewildering mini-trials to accompany their big-brother trials. Humans evolved under social conditions where tribal elders were accessible, but mass culture leaves people isolated without power, and unable to form relationships of reciprocal influence. Kafka portrays all this in a way that reveals the absurdity of the modern individual's plight.
• poplin_1

  (3/5)

  I began reading The Trial mostly because it is the sort of book that you feel you should read, and that impression was mostly unchanged upon finishing it.The plot of The Trial is probably well-known even to those who have never read it. On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, Josef K. is arrested. The charges are never revealed to him, and Josef K. must attempt to defend himself against unknown charges in the face of an obscured and foreboding legal system.Ultimately, The Trial is a book about which I have little to say. It was certainly a worthwhile read if only to gain a greater understanding of what it means to be “Kafkaesque.” Perhaps my biggest complaint is that Kafka’s purpose seemed to be to make a point rather than to make a point through telling a story. Of course, the fact that The Trial remained unfinished on Kafka’s death more than likely contributes to this feeling.In short: when I read the last page of The Trial, I was glad to have read it, but I was even more glad to have finished it. And that probably says everything that needs to be said.
• gingermama-1

  (2/5)

  While I can't say I enjoyed it, I certainly got more out of it this time than I did 30 years ago in high school.
• nosajeel

  (5/5)

  Re-reading The Trial in the Breon Mitchell translation of the restored edition was a big improvement over the original Muirs' translation. Although I still prefer Kafka's shorter, published work like The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony and The Hunger Artist, all of which seem perfect to me while The Trial has a lot of rougher edges. One can only wonder what Kafka would have done with them if he actually published the work.
  
  This reading of The Trial also had considerably more farce and humor, especially in all of the descriptions of minutiae, and felt more like a successor to Gogol than I had previously remembered. And it is also a reminder that just about everything that anyone terms Kafkaesque is capturing at most one or two facets of the very multidimensional, strange original combination that Kafka himself provided.
• raggedprince

  (5/5)

  I was forced to read this book because I was in a long queue, which kind of fits in with its content! It's since become one of my favourites and I must recommend the new translation by the American chappie. The chapter later on with the lawyer in bed is one of the high points of literature. Thank goodness for long queues!
• nicolehc_1

  (5/5)

  It's a mind-warp. The ending feels so profound. And, yet, the hopelessness of it all...
• ibkennedy

  (1/5)

  Sorry, I didn't get it. One of the greatest writers of the early 20th century....beats me!!!
• jody12-1

  (3/5)

  The question ‘Have you read Kafka?’ can now be answered in the affirmative for our group, much to our relief. No one found Mr K’s story comfortable, and the absurdity of the whole situation confusing and bizarre. This could well have been the author’s intention, and if so, he certainly succeeded!There were some who found the use of language clever, with economical sentences and a few well conceived lines that went directly to the point. But to truly understand what was happening and why, was a difficult task. The lack of information (both to Mr K and the reader) was a challenge for all of us, and if we thought everything would become clear in the end … well ... think again!Was Kafka sending a warning of what was to come in Germany? The Trial was written in 1914 and published in 1925, so Hitler’s reign was yet to come, but the clear government control and insane bureaucracy seems too prophetic to be a coincidence. There are moments when you are not even sure Mr K is sane, or even if he is caught in a nightmarish dream. Our curiosity led to some interesting research on Kafka himself and one brave soul even dove into a second Kafka story, America, simply to see if there was another side to his peculiar style. Apparently not.The Trial has been listed under a number of genres, including philosophical fiction, Dystopian, Absurdist or even Paranoid fiction. After our discussion, we could safely say any or all would fit, and the most intriguing part of reading Kafka is … why?
• bookomaniac-1

  (4/5)

  Indrukwekkende klassieker, blijft nog altijd zeer bevreemdend. Belangrijk thema is zeker de onmacht van het individu tegenover de anonieme maatschappelijke macht, maar nog belangrijker is dat van de menselijke relaties: wie ben ik en hoe wordt ik bekeken in de ogen van de anderen?
• heidilove_1

  (5/5)

  ugh. but good anyway.
• briandarvell_1

  (3/5)

  This was quite a unique book in the way the author describes the events surrounding the main character. Very surreal in a way and you get the impression that the author is trying to show his impression of things in more ways than the direct occurrence of what he's writing about. It's not an easy read but I found many of the passages very interesting and absorbing.
• steadfastreader

  (2/5)

  Listening to unabridged audio.
  23 Feb 11: Praise be. I'm done listening to this. It was torture. I get (I think) what Kafka was trying to say that the law is so complex at times that it is completely inaccessible to 'normal' people, even smart successful ones. Or maybe he wasn't trying to say anything at all.
  
  Like I said before, I disliked the characters - all of them - and I found the on-going conspiracy - reaching the edges of everything - irritating.
  
  Has anyone else read this one? Maybe they want to explain it to me?
  18 Feb 11: Ch. 7? 8? : I totally hate all the characters. This may be part of the reason I'm feeling lethargic about law school -- it reads a bit like 'Alice in Wonderland'... in court.
  
  
• kthxy

  (5/5)

  Kafka. I fell in love with his writing in high school and never finished any of them. Now I did. Going to do it again.
• gbill_7

  (2/5)

  The idea of being unexpectedly arrested for unspecified crimes and hauled away to stand trial is one we’re used to from reading about totalitarian regimes in history, particularly over the past 100 years, and from the arts. “The Trial” was published in 1925, a year after Franz Kafka’s death, and presages that. There is a dark undercurrent knowing Kafka was a Jew in Prague shortly before Hitler would put the entire race on trial; Kafka didn’t live to see the Holocaust but his family did, and many of his relatives perished in concentration camps. This amplified the message and meaning of the book for me.The frustration of battling an unseen legal bureaucracy is a much darker take on “Bleak House” by Charles Dickens; here “K” is battling for his life. As Steiner puts it in the introduction to this edition, “To live is to be sentenced for living.” However, despite all that great existential darkness, as with “The Metamorphosis”, it’s a book I didn’t particularly enjoy or would recommend. It’s a bit like required reading, only less creative than “The Metamorphosis”, published posthumously and unfinished, and painfully longer … so if you want a book of Kafka’s to read, I would recommend it instead of “The Trial.”
• charlie68_1

  (4/5)

  Sparsely written, mostly just plot and dialogue, very little description, but still well-written. Tale in an unspecified city in an unspecified country, takes on a surreal tone; dare I say Kafkaesque?
• deadmanjones_1

  (3/5)

  One day K. is arrested. Yet he is not incarcerated and never told his crime. Little by little over the coming year he discovers nuggets of information about the workings of the anonymous court.There are two aspects that are popular among reviews of this book, and both are equally valid. On the one hand this is a bleak satire of "law", or of any of the processes that humanity governs itself by. It is a satire made all the bleaker when you realize that no matter how surreal Kafka makes the proceedings, they are only as surreal as our real world's rules and traditions. The second view is that K's journey is a psychological and philosophical one, a parable on human nature. What the meaning of the parable might be is open to discussion. Personally I found that on Kafka's voyage to the Heart of Darkness, Kurtzs' Horrors are replaced by a glum void for which K. never allows himself to admit guilt. Irrespective, the book's success rests on how easy it is to imprint differing interpretations onto the text. The narrative constantly questions itself and reinterprets every action and event. It is the book's greatest virtue, but also it's greatest fault.
• fuzzy_patters

  (4/5)

  I'm not sure what to say about The Trial that hasn't already been said. It's elusive, infuriating, and beautifully dark. Parts of it reminded me of my wife. I'm not sure what that means.
• wcarter_66

  (3/5)

  Densely dark, and difficult to read because of extraordinarily long paragraphs, but it gets you in, and makes you read to the end. Morbidly funereal plot, and should not be read by anyone who thinks "they are out to get me".
• annthatcher

  (5/5)

  "all good fiction does not necessarily depict reality as much as it uncovers truth." Dark Comedy and Dead seriously - Its a Journey -- a rough trip. The moral of the story, to elaborate a cliche', is that it's only futile to resist when you have no idea what you're resisting. --"The Trial", I am intrigued by the mind that conceived it... "Kafka" -- an absurd mystery that literally trips itself up. But uncovers a Truth ... as just as many, he doesn't know how to defend himself, or get any information about his trial. Abstract, however, a fascinating account of the modern human condition.