The Trial - Franz Kafka Reviews

I don't think Kafka is ever an easy read. I always think of "The Trial" as "Catch-22 without any humour". It is a hard going tale about a man who makes up morning to find he has been accused of a crime. He just doesn't know what the crime is. Suddenly he finds himself in a bizarre world of red tape and bueraucracy trying to ...  Read the complete review

The more I go to cinema/ TV adaptations of literary classics to save time, the more time I waste in the long run. As an inveterate veteran movie goer, I vowed to myself one day, firstly, to exercise ultimate care when choosing a movie, and, secondly, to sit out any trash to the end once I get there. Well, the recent English adaptation of The Trial ...  Read the complete review

"Somebody must have made a false accusation against Josef K., for he was arrested one morning without having done anything wrong" And so we enter the dark underbelly of Kafka's mind. The novel follows the realizations and imaginations of Josef K. as he comes to terms with what has happened. The trial is definitely an ...  Read the complete review

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 ...  Read the complete review

I'm writing this mainly for people who may not have tried Kafka before. If you have, and you haven't read the Trial, do so at once - to me it is simply the best example of what he does. If you haven't read Kafka, I would strongly recommend reading the Trial and Metamorphosis first - they are hugely important works of his, but both are ...  Read the complete review

Kafka's "The Trial" could not be regarded as anything less than a bewildering book,even to the most discerning of readers.It is a book in which the protaganist,K, is accused of a crime, what crime he does not know. This book is chiefly about the attitudes of people in power,the emotions of a condemned man and the attitude of ...  Read the complete review

A man is accused of a crime, but not told the nature of the crime he has comitted. He must appear in court and defend himself. He struggles to find out what he has done, to get aid, to protect his name, but learns that each step he takes to preserve himself is only increasing his difficulty. The world around him closes in, friends of old seem ...  Read the complete review

I think that this tale of incredibly tortuous bureaucracy, mind-freezing ritual and unfairness and sadistic, pointless persecution is just like real life, but then again, I do work in local government. Joking aside, the glory of 'The Trial' is the way in which Kafka's evident paranoia heightened and distorted the way in ...  Read the complete review

Don't read this book if you want to end up with a feelgood happy ending and a rosy glow inside. It is a chilling, unnerving, unsettling novel that will make you want to glance over one shoulder as you go down quiet streets, and for the week after you have read it you will wonder whether that guy on the Tube was following you or not. ...  Read the complete review

Kafka's story of faceless bureaucracy and an inevitable fate, like other of his books, has influenced our ideas of society. The character, known only as K, gradually becomes aware that the immense and unfathomable system of government is accusing his of some unknown offence. At first dismissive and contemptuous, he grows to realise the vast ...  Read the complete review