The Trial

Rating:
Summary: Hardly "absurd": Familiarity is not Reality
Review: Despite the prevailing habit of describing Kafka's work as "allegorical", this book is not written in code, is not an encryption to be decyphered into a more familiar story. Joseph K's world is our world; Kafka has shown that it is we who live in a dream. The novel appropriates the most common, most familiar phrases from a semiotic regime still in place today; it thereby reveals the hidden function of the court, the church, the artist, the investigation, the file, the documented subject -- functions hidden by our "normal" uses of such phrases in the service of a disciplined society. This is possibly the most important novel of the 20th century.

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Summary: The best story of all time???
Review: Franz Kafka languished in live, dead of TB in 1923. He died wishing that his masterpiece, The Trial, be destroyed. Thank the lord that Mr. Max Brod thought otherwise and saved it. This novel probes the depths of Kafka's surreal understandings of the madness and of the sadness of all of our journeys through existance. What meaning shall we make of this lunacy? Our hero, Joe K. is Kafka. He is guilty. He shall be punished. Aren't we all punished in life? Are not we all guilty of some sin, inheirent in our inaction? Facing the Absurdity of his life, Joe K cracks. Kafka attacks K's barren existance. I see ameriKa today in this novel. I see the court and mankind. At the turn of the millenium what can be more important than who we are and what we will become. Kafka sees the absurdity of life and questions the meaning. Read this booki!

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Summary: We feel what we live.
Review: Kafka`s brilliance and ability lie way beneath the surface.He doesn`t throw the facts in your face, there are no facts, and if there were, he`d let you dig them up yourself and feel bad.A quick glimpse won`t enlighten you, but thinking and feeling will.The Trial cheers you up on a good and pushes you closer to the edge on a bad day.

Rating:
Summary: Ahhh...What would Harold Bloom say?
Review: Or Judy Blume, for that matter. What is there to say? What Kafka gives rise to here is beyond the chemistry of Rilke, surpasses Schroedinger's equations, and dwarves Boyle's simple yet unparalleled brilliance. It is drinking tea with Bernstein, but without the symphony as a topic of discussion. And logic? To take the words out of the prophets mouth, "Logic is doubtless unshakable, but it cannot withstand a man who wants to go on on living." Logic is not needed here, for it is everywhere, and Kafka sees to its prosperity. His logic defies logic itself, thus becoming logic as we know it; the logic to end all that is illogical. The problem is no longer a problem, and the solution is only a distant memory, ringing in the craniums of our elders, but ringing ever so softly. When first asked by the author himself to read the work, fear inevitabley crept in. Was this his farewell to life's harbor, or just a gob of spit in the face of mankind? Could he have spent the most creative years of his life on his own practical joke? But as the pages turned themselves, so did doubt turn itself away. Imagine Judas and Milton wiling the night away by candlelight, and still that horribly does inadequate justice to this novel to end all novels. If fear did have a sound, it would sound like this, and if Bernstein or any other maestro has a piece to offer in the midst of thunder crashing, so be it. Andrew Marvel may have done it more beautifully, but interpretations of materials only familiar to those who masquerade through life wearing the costume of contentment know that beauty is dated, as are Descartes' astute observations. Whether in the Ptolymic universe or in that of Newton's, it is certain that truth answers only to itself, but through "The Trial", may it console Kafka in his grave, and haunt all us in our most terrible dreams. Donne would have it no other way, and for that matter, neither would I. Emma Burger, will you marry me?

Rating:
Summary: A book about the trial of life
Review: To truly appreciate the Trial you have to give it some serious thought. The real events of the book are below the surface. A reader can find the story entertaining, but what makes this story great is the thoughts hidden below the surface.The Trial is really an account of living,dying, and a search for order in a seemingly chatoic universe. If you have ever thought that your life is a trial sometimes, then this book is for you

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Summary: pointless dumb story!!!!!
Review: I had to read this for extra credit, only that!! I was totally bored with this. it was meaningless, had no real point, confusing and maybe just plain stupid. sorry to say, but I barely managed to finish it I don't truly see what was so great about this book.

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Summary: Revolution in the Head
Review: The Trial has nothing to do with modern bureaucracy. Read it again and again. Look at it a different way.

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Summary: A chilling reflection on the modern bureaucratic state.
Review: Kafka's work stands as the best literary expression of one of the key pathologies of the bureaucratic form of organization: the marginalization of basic civil liberties and the denial of individual dignity. Prophetically, Kafka relates the inaccessibility of the judicial apparatus to the lay public. Relatedly, THE TRIAL is perhaps most valuable for what it does not afford the reader - a precise understanding of the circumstances facing Joseph K. In short, the reader's exprience with THE TRIAL mirrors that of its main character. Kafka never fully reveals his purpose, offers only glimpses into the structure of his own thought, and torments the reader with details that are at once compelling yet excruciatingly tangential to reader's principal concern: ascertaining the exact nature of Joseph K.'s predicament. The result is a novel that speaks to our most personal fears and asks us to reconsider the purposes of civil government.

Rating:
Summary: The greatest/most depressing book I have ever read.
Review: I wasn't really suprised by the despair reflected in Kafka's writing because I've read some of his other work (try "The Metamorphosis" or some other short stories.) All in all, it was a really excellent book. PS: Before you decide to write a review, please check your spelling. Thank you...

Rating:
Summary: in one word: horrible
Review: possibly the most boring and pointless book ever written. anyone interested in existentialism, read The Stranger by camus. its 10 times better and not to long.