A review by emmalong
The Trial by Franz Kafka

3.0

Dark, twisted, weird, crazy, unreal, engrossing. In one word: Kafkaesque (obviously). There is something about reading Kafka that makes one feel uneasy and like they are peering into the soul of the author. Likely because of what he wrote in his lifetime, he intended to be burned but was instead published posthumously. The Trial is a story of a man accused of a crime he did not commit and his life thereafter. Neither the protagonist nor the reader is ever told what this alleged crime is, adding to the layers of absurdity and confusion. There is a fog over Kafka’s writing that obscures the plot and true meaning and must be fleshed out with time and patience (sometimes a lot of it). Although this did not emotionally impact me as much as The Metamorphosis, this novel brought up many fascinating discussions on bureaucracy, judicial systems, reality, and human behavior. It is all smoke in mirrors and our main character consistently gets lost in his attempts to follow the maze of his supposed crime and trial. The story ends abruptly and Kafka ends in the note that we will never truly understand the absurdity and illogical nature of life. Will continue to read and love Kafka for all he stood for.