“the trial” by franz kafka

i’ve always considered kafka a fantastic writer, so i was shocked when I realized that i've based this opinion having read only two of his shorter works, “the metamorphosis” and “in the penal colony". i figured it was time i had a go at one of his novels.

“the trial” is about a bank employee named josef k, who is one day arrested for an undisclosed crime. i was under the impression that the whole book would be in a court room, but k. is a free man during his trial and the story follows him as he consults with inept lawyers, falls behind in his demanding job, and gradually lets the trial take over his life. it’s absurd with a dash of magical realism, and i found myself comparing it to kazuo ishiguro’s “the unconsoled” (though the comparison should be the other way round, and p.s. I hated that book) where characters talk in monologues and doors open into places that are neither expected nor ordinary.

there are all sorts of interpretations regarding this novel. one i find particularly interesting is jean-paul sartre’s , which he discussed in “anti-semite and jew: an exploration of the etiology of hate”; (spoiler alert)

"This is perhaps one of the meanings of The Trial by the Jewish Kafka. Like the hero of that novel, the Jewish person is engaged in a long trial. He does not know his judges, scarcely even his lawyers; he does not know what he is charged with, yet he knows that he is considered guilty; judgment is continually put off -- for a week, two weeks -- he takes advantage of these delays to improve his position in a thousand ways, but every precaution taken at random pushes him a little deeper into guilt. His external situation may appear brilliant, but the interminable trial invisibly wastes him away, and it happens eventually ... that men seize him, carry him off on the pretense that he has lost his case, and murder him in some vague area of the suburbs." [88, Schocken Books].

“the trial” was just a draft when kafka died of tuberculosis, so it’s unfinished and rough around the edges. i’m sure had he lived to finish it, it would be a very different novel. while i won't rush to re-read this novel, i'm glad i did. i feel closer to kafka because of it and more justified in my opinion of his writing.