5.0

Having now read the trial and the castle which literally ends mid-sentence, I can now say that the trial feels much more unfinished than the castle. The translation that I read (breon Mitchell) even included unfinished chapters at the end of the story under a section called “fragments”. That being said, Kafka’s brilliance in satire and absurdity continues to shine. There were several moments where I laughed out loud from the recognition of our own justice system that he was describing; the flaws of its ridiculous and frankly arbitrary rules/process was pointed out very expectedly through comedy and parody. It all feels like a fever dream and Kafka manages to capture that perfectly. One of my new all-time favorite writers. He just Gets It.