The Castle

Rating:
Summary: Not his best
Review: I disagree with many of the reviews of this work. "The Castle" is deliberately cumbersome to get across the feeling of bureaucracy; this makes it perhaps a good read when you've got nothing to do and are feeling a bit philosophical or pessimistic, but it's not something you can read after work. I liked "The Trial" a lot; it blended a bleak view of the world of guilt, punishment and self-righteousness with some good humour ["Are you a house painter?"] There is much less humour in "The Castle" and Josef K's character does not develop anywhere near as fully in this book. It is hard not to put this down to the fact that it was far from finished and the text breaks off mid-sentence, whilst "The Trial" [though still unfinished] has an ending and was nearer completion. There is still the surreal interactions with women in this book and the stubborn conversations that don't go anywhere, but they are in a much less animated tone. Also, the chapters where the procedures of bureacracy are described or K's "story so far" gone over are terribly boring. Some may say that this is to build up a sense of the bureacratic nature, but doing it in this way was no better than just reprinting the criminal code of Russia. I'd say the last few chapters are amongst the best, such as when he talks to an official that can never get to sleep.

Rating:
Summary: Enter At Your Own Risk
Review: Outside of the Russian authors it's hard for me to think of an author I like more than Kafka. I own everything he's every written, whether I have read all of his stories is a different matter lol. I have read "The Trial", and have read some of his short stories. I even did a school paper on two of them, "The Vulture" and "Home-Coming". But, "The Castle" is somewhat disappointing.

When I first read "The Trial" I had a lot of ideas as to what it represented. I felt a connection with the main character, but, here with "The Castle", I'm debating what is this book about? My first guess was\is the castle clearly represents the government. But I wouldn't call "The Castle" a political book. As with all of Kafka's novels, they are incomplete. I noticed this bothered some people when reading "The Trial", but I thought the book was a masterpiece. I've also noticed some people are bothered by this book being incomplete as well. While I'm not really upset over that, I will admit, I did think about it more. Many characters are just forgotten. We have no clue what will happen to them. The last chapter I found unnecessary. And hated the last sentence in the book.

But would I call this a bad book? No. Maybe I just like Kafka so much I can't be hard on him. I do think there is some substance to this book, it just takes a while to absorb it, but, I don't think it's as rewarding as "The Trial".

Would I encourage someone to read this book? Only if your a Kafka fan. In order to "test the waters" read some of the short stories and "The Trial", I haven't read "Amerika" yet, so I can't comment on it, but "The Castle" should not be your introduction into Kafka's world.

Bottom-line: For me, simply not as thought provoking as other works by Kafka. I enjoyed it to a point, but was left somewhat disappointed. Has a sloppy ending and seems as if it doesn't resolve anything.

Rating:
Summary: Readable at last!
Review: Translation means everything! Over the years I've read much of Kafka especially during adolescence and into my early twenties when his worldview spoke most directly to my own attempts to understand how the world really worked. Of all his books only The Castle totally defeated me. I must have begun it five times in my life, only to abandon it partway through. Now I know why. It wasn't Kafka. It was the translation.

Mark Harmon's translation brought Kafka close to my ear and heart, the way he used to when I was younger. I could see the darkness of his interiors, feel the cold of his snow covered wind blown exteriors, smell the stale beer of the taproom, taste the small meals and strong coffee served, sense the animal []attractions of his characters. Most of all I could really hear the voices of his people as they simultaneously revealed and concealed themselves through their stories.

Sometimes I laughed out loud. Sometimes my hair stood on end at the dark realities which this book unveils. The Barnabas family stories in particular chilled me. Especially in this time of fear and shunning by powerful majorities of the 'others'in our societies and in the exhaustion of the 'cleansings' and genocides of the last century, the fall of that family made me feel like I was inside a hateful part of our past, present and future.

I've now lived part of my life within bureaucratic organizations, even as an 'official' and I understand as I couldn't as a youth how absolutely Kafka has gotten to the deepest truths about how our power structures work. What it's like to be enmeshed as part of them, and-or to be at their mercy. It is hard to find free space in the world.

I used to think Kafka was a genius and an artist of the highest rank. Now, reading him in an excellent translation I understand that he was also a prophet.