Rating: 
Summary: A chilling nightmare in a world of absurdities
Review: A man named Josef K. (often just referred to as K., short for Kafka perhaps?) is arrested for reasons never explained to him (or the reader, for that matter), but still allowed to live a normal (?) life. Not only is his crime never explained, but the authority by which the arrest took place is never given. The title of the book is ironic, because there never is an actual "trial". He is told to report the following Sunday, but never given the specific time or place, and when he finds the location (a very unlikely location, in a huge, labyrinthine tenement) K. is informed that he is late, and nothing is resolved. During the course of the book, it seems like almost everyone he meets is connected with the court in some way (even the annoying young girls that bother him on his way to see the court painter), but even the influential people are unable to exert their influence in any meaningful way. The ending of the novel is somewhat shocking, but not really surprising.Josef K. represents much of humankind in general. Most of us have that vague feeling that we have done something wrong but actually cannot pinpoint what it is. There is a general feeling of guilt from what theologians might call "Original Sin". The trial to which K. is subjected takes place in his very soul. Franz Kafka was not a religious man, but he knew that universal feeling of guilt, and, in my amateur opinion, "The Trial" was Kafka's way of expounding on that guilt. Of course, that is only one level of meaning one could gain from this novel. The fact that the book works at so many levels is why many consider it a classic. It's not the best book ever written, but it is certainly not a waste of time, especially to those who take time to compehend Kafka's nightmarish vision.
Rating: 
Summary: The Greatest Book Ever Written Bar None
Review: Dense, atmospheric and truly haunting, Kafka's The Trial is quite possibly the greatest book ever written. The tale of one man's futile battle against bureaucracy, it is even more applicable to our meaningless, frustating modern existence than it probably was to turn of the century Prague. This new translation manages to capture Kafka's dark wit in a way that has never been done before - showing the author not only to be a true visionary, but an eccentric, funny human being as well. There is no doubt that it is complex and hard going, but the rewards that you may reap from perservering are more than worth the effort. And for those that fail to understand it, I suggest you take some time out for introspection - for this book may very well be the greatest comprehensive biography of our century.
Rating:
Summary: a new translation
Review: First, if you don't want to know what happens at the end of the novel, don't read the translator's preface before reading the text. He may be an enthusiastic and exacting translator but not the most sensitive reviewer. As for Kafka's story, I want to offer a somewhat different interpretation that might perhaps attract readers who are not interested in another despairing man against society theme. I think Kafka is telling us that we are free yet we are obsessed by our accusers and allow them to control us. The bad news is we choose to not to resist but to grumble and suffer subserviently. The good news is we don't have to. The interesting news is what we as a society who reads Kafka will choose to become. Do we read it and say, yep that's the mire we're stuck in? Or do we read it and realize that he is arming us with the power of insight, assertion, and choice in facing our lives. Don't miss the last 30 pages or so including the chapter titled, "In the Cathedral". The story the priest tells K. and their ensuing discussion is fascinating and still has my mind whirling. If you know what it all means, tell me. Is there a support group for this book? I must say that the "Fragments" included after the story lent little to my understanding of the whole. If you want more, it's there; if you don't, you wouldn't be missing anything by skipping it. But don't skip the rest of it, particularly if, on one level, you just want to see a great writer's insights into the labyrinthine constructs of his own legal profession.
Rating:
Summary: a new translation
Review: First, if you don't want to know what happens at the end of the novel, don't read the translator's preface before reading the text. He may be an enthusiastic and exacting translator but not the most sensitive reviewer. As for Kafka's story, I want to offer a somewhat different interpretation that might perhaps attract readers who are not interested in another despairing man against society theme. I think Kafka is telling us that we are free yet we are obsessed by our accusers and allow them to control us. The bad news is we choose to not to resist but to grumble and suffer subserviently. The good news is we don't have to. The interesting news is what we as a society who reads Kafka will choose to become. Do we read it and say, yep that's the mire we're stuck in? Or do we read it and realize that he is arming us with the power of insight, assertion, and choice in facing our lives. Don't miss the last 30 pages or so including the chapter titled, "In the Cathedral". The story the priest tells K. and their ensuing discussion is fascinating and still has my mind whirling. If you know what it all means, tell me. Is there a support group for this book? I must say that the "Fragments" included after the story lent little to my understanding of the whole. If you want more, it's there; if you don't, you wouldn't be missing anything by skipping it. But don't skip the rest of it, particularly if, on one level, you just want to see a great writer's insights into the labyrinthine constructs of his own legal profession.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, I am just so mad!
Review: I giving the book 5 stars, because it's a really good read. Not having read any other translation, I must take other reviewer's word that it compares well. Read the other reviews, they are correct about this books quality. Now, here's why I am mad. I read the introduction. Then I read the translator's notes. The translator is quite full of himself and his cleverness. Thus he points out the sections where he was particularly clever. In doing so, he gives away the plot, the ending of the novel, and why we should think about it the way he translated it, and not trust earlier transactions. This should have been an afterward, not before the text. I reviewed the plot, including the ending, before reading the text. This somewhat ruined the experience for me. Skip the translator's notes, and you'll have a fine edition of Kafka's influntial novel.
Rating:
Summary: This book is incredible.
Review: I quite like this translation. I simply cannot understand how this book could be boring to someone. It is a lovely and haunting story. It also might be interesting for anyone who has visited Prague.
Rating:
Summary: Bowled Over by Breon Mitchell's "K"
Review: I welcome Mr. Mitchell's work to the literary table. His translation of the masterwork is a crisp one. His skill is reflected best in the central character, the terribly over-accused and often hungry Joseph "K". While other translators have spoon-fed us simple serial descriptions, Mitchell does far more. Indeed, Breon Mitchell's K is a special K, and one I will long remember.
Rating:
Summary: The Process on Trial: Kafka's Essential Point
Review: In Franz Kafka's novel 'The Trial', Joseph K., an upstanding citizen of a civilized state, is arrested in his home on charges that are never disclosed. His accuser is never disclosed, nor is the law explained. The dehumanizing bureaucracy and arcane, corrupt legal process is, despite the bizarre character of Kafka's novel, both comic and chilling. Among other things, 'The Trial' is a warning to good people everywhere who, through their failure to act against usurpations of authority and abuses of power, are complicit in the illegal or unethical actions of those exercising control over their society. Joseph K. is undone as much by his insistence on maintaining perfect decorum and civility as he is by accepting the notion that he has no right or agency to ignore or overcome the ridiculous and immoral process through which he is destroyed. Kakfa's expressed fears remain relevant today even for those who, living in a democratic nation, assume that due legal process guarantees justice, the protection of individual privacy, and subsequent civil liberties. Copyright 2003 by Brian D. Sadie, executive director, The Joseph K. Foundation. Used by permission. Also recommended: To Kill A Mockingbird The Unbearable Lightness of Being Catch-22 The Name of the Rose
Rating:
Summary: Welcome, my son, to the machine
Review: Kafka crafts a sometime eerie, sometime funny, but always fascinating work that details the criminal legal system's prosecution/persecution of a "Josef K." The book's famous first sentence ominously forebodes the grinding machine that slowly devours Josef: a nameless, invisible bureaucracy that is omnipotent in its reach and accountable to no one. Although many novels written in the 20th century have appropriated similar versions of totalitarianism (1984, Brave New World, etc.), it should be noted that The Trial provided the template and, if you ask me, continues to stand without peer in its brilliant construction of terror caused by absurdity. Indeed, this book is, unsurprisingly, the prototypical example of the 'Kafkaesque:' feelings of guilt and alienation triggered by menacing forces that are bound by their own impenetrable logic. Anyone interested in 20th century literature ought to do himself or herself a favour and read The Trial, since the Kafkaesque informs so many of the themes and approaches to writing adopted by the century's top stylists.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome, my son, to the machine
Review: Kafka crafts a sometime eerie, sometime funny, but always fascinating work that details the criminal legal system's prosecution/persecution of a "Josef K." The book's famous first sentence ominously forebodes the grinding machine that slowly devours Josef: a nameless, invisible bureaucracy that is omnipotent in its reach and accountable to no one. Although many novels written in the 20th century have appropriated similar versions of totalitarianism (1984, Brave New World, etc.), it should be noted that The Trial provided the template and, if you ask me, continues to stand without peer in its brilliant construction of terror caused by absurdity. Indeed, this book is, unsurprisingly, the prototypical example of the 'Kafkaesque:' feelings of guilt and alienation triggered by menacing forces that are bound by their own impenetrable logic. Anyone interested in 20th century literature ought to do himself or herself a favour and read The Trial, since the Kafkaesque informs so many of the themes and approaches to writing adopted by the century's top stylists.
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