Reviews with content warning for Death - The Trial: A New Translation Based on the Restored Text

The amount of times I fell asleep reading this is unprecedented, and it’s another mark against posthumous publishing from me.

I appreciate critique on bureaucracy and the complex legal system, but I really disliked the way it was executed here. It’s incredibly dense and difficult to engage with, and I think this book could’ve benefited from ‘less is more’. It also didn’t help that I found Joseph K. to be a very irritating character and at certain points I wanted him to just get arrested already so that he would stop talking. I also really disliked how the only purpose the few female characters had were to serve and seduce the men.

I much prefer The Stranger by Albert Camus.

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nunchikoi's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Look, I get it, Kafka is dry and literally nothing happens for too long before everything happens in one fell swoop. It's unpleasant either because its boring or the subject matter is untoward.

This shit is still hilarious.

It is by design that K. is unlikeable, that he endlessly struggles for answers that will never arrive, and that the otherwise setting follows a sort-of surreal, dream logic that is inaccessible. Kafka's concern with the long-winded legal and bureaucratic systems is made evident through all of these features and amplified. It's like capitalism is literally reinforcing itself and pressing down upon me, and all I can do is laugh. And I totally get how that is NOT the vibe for some readers, but for myself I applaud Kafka's ability to conjure such dread and absurdism in his deadpan prose-style.

On a more heartfelt note, the epilogue with Max Brod's note is bittersweet and it provides a bit of context for the surreal and endless purgatory K. (as well as many of Kafka's other characters) finds himself in.

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