The Trial in Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

From the Bookshelf of Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die…

The Trial

Franz Kafka

Start date: June 15, 2011

Finish date: July 15, 2011

Discussion: 1001 Monthly Group Read

Why we're reading this: June 2011 Group Read
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What Members Thought

May 22, 2011 Amanda rated it it was ok

I am glad that I finally finished this book--if only so that I can move on to more pleasant literary experiences. This book is June's reading selection for the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die group.
What didn't I like? As we all know, it's an incomplete book--Kafka didn't finish writing The Trial and it was published posthumously--and in some cases that's ironically good. Kafka left one particularly tortured chapter near the end of the book unfinished. The action halts abruptly, and I act I am glad that I finally finished this book--if only so that I can move on to more pleasant literary experiences. This book is June's reading selection for the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die group.
What didn't I like? As we all know, it's an incomplete book--Kafka didn't finish writing The Trial and it was published posthumously--and in some cases that's ironically good. Kafka left one particularly tortured chapter near the end of the book unfinished. The action halts abruptly, and I actually found myself pleased at the full stop, thinking "that couldn't have been going anywhere good anyway." Sexuality is an overpowering theme in the book, as the main character, Josef K., has numerous encounters or near misses with a whole host of subordinate-type women. But it's not entirely clear where the author is going with this theme. Perhaps Kafka in leaving this element ambiguous hopes to add to the general milieu of frustration. If that's the case, then it was a success! Otherwise, I would have expected the author to have focused the allusions somehow in a later edit. I also do not rule out that there would have been further development of this theme if the book was completed. This experience and another recent read of a friend's unfinished novel cements my deep dislike of reading unfinished books.
What was good? Kafka's sentence structure and ability to convey thoughts neatly is very beautiful. In the short literary criticism section at the beginning of the version I read, it said "Milan Kundera refers to the essentially surrealist humour of Kafka as a main predecessor of later artists such as Federico Fellini, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Fuentes and Salman Rushdie. For Garcia Marquez, it was as he said the reading of Kafka's The Metamorphosis that showed him 'that it was possible to write in a different way.'" I see how that Kafka could certainly be an antecedent to Garcia Marquez, and I was pleased to have experienced this connecting link in literature.
Overall, reading The Trial was uncomfortable but not fruitless. And I certainly wouldn't do it over again. ...more

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