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

Alright, this is a tough one to write but let's see.. I haven't read anything from Kafka before and went into this completely blind without any expectations. I have also seen people mentioning it's a
dry, bizarre, anticlimactic read and while there's merit to that criticism, I wasn't bothered much by those issues at all in the end, which is rather surprising for me. It's hard to talk about this book further without getting into spoilers so I will mention these first. For me, both the writing and the events that transpired were simply entrancing regardless of how boring it may appear on a surface level. I can't say I loved it top to bottom, but it felt like such a unique experience which I will not soon forget, and whatever flaws it had can be mostly attributed to it's unfinished state, due to the untimely demise of the author. Below are the unfiltered spoiler thoughts of mine so feel free to stop here if you haven't read the book.

So the general theme seems to be oppression and corruption within the Law / Justice system and here's my 2 cents about it ( I do believe there's more to it than that though ). The protagonist K is arrested and let go in the first chapter and we never find out why or if he's truly innocent regardless of his claims. We see him deteriorating throughout the course from a charming, confident, successful gentleman to a weak, paranoid, shadow of his former self, who eventually meets an unceremonious end in the middle of nowhere. We see a man who finds the trial to be nothing but a mere affront at first, going as far as to explicitly mock the judicial system that's always placed at the most unusual places. However, he soon realizes that it's a system that everyone acknowledges and obeys, but never questions, and he cannot hope to change it or free himself from it, not unless he bows to the whims of several people who mostly contradict each other. He has to submit to the authority of someone so that he won't suffer from an unfavorable outcome that derives just from inaction. Regardless, he eventually decides to live his life while fighting on his own terms, no matter how futile it might be. I got the impression that the priest was referring to K himself as well with that parable, where K can keep going / fighting by entering new doors with stronger guards / obstacles, but he will never reach true justice that way.

I thought it was fascinating to see how Kafka captures the essence of such a man slowing losing himself, dealing with a seemingly perpetual event that's mentally taxing. The whole book had a certain dreamlike quality to it, realistic and unrealistic at the same time, leaving you with lots to ponder about. The long-term anxiety, the suffocation that K felt literally and figuratively, it was all very palpable and masterfully written. Besides the oppression, it also signifies how far humans will go fighting injustice in their own ways, even when the majority may succumb to pressure. We all are defendants in various trials that may or may not be official in life. It does feel nihilistic somewhat with resistance being futile and K dying without attempting to escape, but I can't deny that it was such a captivating journey that had me questioning the vagaries of life. The only thing I found somewhat distasteful was K's uncanny ability to woo the women at first sight and the disjointed structure of the narrative, but the latter is understandable considering it's unfinished material.

Anyway, I finally have an inkling about the term 'Kafkaesque' and I look forward to reading his other works in the near future. 🙂

Content Warnings