Questions In A World Of Grey (The Trial - Franz Kafka)

Member Name: Hunting_Bears

Product:	The Trial - Franz Kafka
Date:	04/06/02 (410 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: terrifying, masterful, bizarre

Disadvantages: confusing in places

I first read "The Trial" last winter. I couldn't think of a better time to read it. I had bought the book from a local bookshop and put it on my shelf for the near future. There it sat covered in a thin layer of dust. I picked it up one cold night and entered the world of Mr. Franz Kafka.

I can honestly say that I have never read anything like this. I too am a writer and Franz Kafka has had a huge influence on my own writing ever since.



Franz Kafka


Franz Kafka was born in 1883 in Prague. He received a degree in Law and then went on to work for an insurance firm. It is very interesting because he did not live the romantic life of the writer like say Ernest Hemmingway. Writing was something Kafka did as a recreational activity. He was only published a few times during his life. In 1917 he contracted tuberculosis and in 1924 died. He asked that his work be destroyed. These works included his unfinished novels: "The Trial", "Amerika" and "The Castle". His friend Max Brod did not comply with Kafka's wishes. The novels were published in the years following his death. Since then Kafka as become one of the most influential writers of all time.


"The Trial"


This story is very odd indeed. It tells the tale of Josef K. who one morning is woken up by the police and arrested. He is confused because he claims he hasn't done anything wrong. "The Trial" features one of the best opening sentences ever written: "Somebody must have made a false accusation against Josef K., for he was arrested one morning without having done anything wrong". The book follows Josef's attempts to find out what the hell is going on.

The best thing about this story (that doesn't feature a linear narrative in the classical style) is that the characters and setting are so well detailed and so bizarre. Kafka takes you into
a world that is not like our own. In Josef K's world the legal system is an insane hierarchy of judges, hearings and procedures that are baffling and complicated. The chapters that deal with Josef in the courts are fascinating. Kafka treats the story like a nightmare that sees our hero Josef K., lost in a bureaucratic hell. Josef is a man who is waiting for a judgement that is prolonged and tormenting. Then one day out of the blue, judgement comes.

Kafka creates a suppressive atmosphere and I imagined it with clarity, the slums, the cathedral, the courts and Josef's lodgings. Josef's world is grim, gothic and colourless.


Franz Kafka torments the reader by never letting us know Josef's crime (if indeed there is one). This is what makes the story memorable and even haunting. It is like a prophecy for the plight of people in Stalinist Russia or many other dictatorships, in which millions were arrested and murdered for imaginary crimes, but Josef is not a political figure, he is an ordinary man caught up in bizarre circumstances.


That reading of the book is merely interesting after the fact because there is some mysteriously personal about "The Trial". Kafka was judging himself. There is a brilliant introduction in the Penguin book of "The Trial" that explores this personal aspect of the story. In one of Kafka's diary entries it says; "Back from Berlin, was tied hand and foot like a criminal. Had they sat me down in real chains, placed policemen in front of me, and let me look on simply like that, it could not have been worse. And that was my engagement party". Kafka wrote "The Trial" because he felt guilty over his inability to get married to the woman he loved. That is a very interesting reading by Idris Perry who translated the book.

Another great element of this novel is Josef's paranoia. Throughout the story Josef is always thinking about wh
at other people might be thinking or doing.

The best example in the book of Josef's paranoia is towards the end of the book, in which Kafka describes the imagined scenario of what the deputy manager at Josef's bank gets up to when he is not around:

"He imagined that the deputy manager, who was always on the watch, was entering his office from time to time, was sitting at his desk, rummaging through his papers, receiving clients who have been K's friends for years and luring them away".

Another terrifying element of the book is that nobody can explain the court system. Towards the end of the book Josef seems consigned to his fate. My favourite part of the book is when Josef meets a prison chaplain in the Cathedral. Josef understands that he cannot prevent his judgement but what is truly bizarre and scary is when the chaplain says: "You are considered guilty. Your case may never get beyond the lower courts". It is scary because of the tormenting and uncertain nature of Josef's world. He proclaims his innocence at the end but understands that he cannot change his fate.



Conclusion


I highly recommend "The Trial" because it is a work of fiction that is deep, intricate, terrifying, paranoid and strange. The novel creates a suppressive atmosphere and a brilliant hero in Josef K. Despite not knowing what on earth is happening, he plays detective and at least tries to understand.

I have never read anything like "The Trial" before. I understand Orson Welles made a film version. I much prefer "The Trial" to be left alone in the future. Steven Soderbergh made "Kafka" in 1993 it is a strange little film. "Kafka" starred Jeremy Irons and Ian Holm. The film puts Kafka in his own stories and it was a bit weird but very interesting. I don't think Franz Kafka stories work on film (judging by Soderbergh's effor
t) because they are too psychological. It's a much scarier world in the mind. I like Albert Camus' quote on "The Trial": "It is a work that offers everything and confirms nothing". Franz Kafka was a great writer and should be read by everybody. That's my opinion anyway.

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