From the Bookshelf of Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die…

The Trial

Franz Kafka

Start date: June 15, 2011

Finish date: July 15, 2011

Discussion: 1001 Monthly Group Read

Why we're reading this: June 2011 Group Read
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What Members Thought

Oct 12, 2011 Inder rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, read-2011, law, 1001-books, audiobooks, germany, jewish

Wow. What an absolutely compelling criticism of "the law." As a lawyer, I shuddered in recognition at this nightmarish, delirious, surreal fairy tale about a man who stands accused before a system of law so complicated and nonsensical that literally no one understands it, least of all the people who administer it.

There is a reason that The Trial has become synonymous with "frightening and meaningless bureaucracy." It's horrifying. It's like being sucked into a nightmare: Weirder and weirder shit Wow. What an absolutely compelling criticism of "the law." As a lawyer, I shuddered in recognition at this nightmarish, delirious, surreal fairy tale about a man who stands accused before a system of law so complicated and nonsensical that literally no one understands it, least of all the people who administer it.

There is a reason that The Trial has become synonymous with "frightening and meaningless bureaucracy." It's horrifying. It's like being sucked into a nightmare: Weirder and weirder shit keeps happening.

Like when Josef K. went to the "law courts" but they were housed in the attic rooms of a tenement in the crappy part of town, and he had to walk through a room with beds and a washer woman to get to the court room, which was packed full of defendants (maybe?) who then turned out to be court employees (maybe?), and then later the washerwoman turns out to work for the court too and offers to sleep with him? But is then physically carried off to sleep with the magistrate instead?

And you're like, WTF?

But just like a nightmare, the surreal and frightening events have a basis in our collective fear of being pursued, accused, and put on trial. Our sense of helplessness before "the law." Some primal fear that we are all inevitably headed towards doom, guided by forces outside our ken and far more powerful than us ...

This book is the antidote to To Kill a Mockingbird: Anyone who decides that they want to become a lawyer based on Atticus Finch should be required to read this book as well. It's not that my experience of the law matches that depicted in The Trial. Thankfully not! But because this is the other side of that coin. The law can effect justice, but it can also (as it has in recent history) effect total nonsense and insanity.

Or (as it has in recent history) worse. A lot worse.

I know that many readers see the portrayal of law in The Trial as a metaphor, and of course it is. But I also saw a scathing indictment of the legal system, especially under a fascist government, but also in more democratic governments. After all, the idea that the law may be too complicated for ordinary people to understand and at times people are convicted due to their ignorance rather than their guilt ... well, um ... yeah. And, as we say in the biz: The law is like pepperoni. You don't really want to know how it's made.

On a literary level, I can definitely understand comparisons between Edgar Allen Poe and Kafka. Those guys knew how to craft dream-like horror. They really capture that feeling of falling into the rabbit's hole into a strange but strangely familiar (to your deepest subconscious fears) world.

Basically: I didn't enjoy this book (shudder), but ooooh, it's awesome. ...more

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May 02, 2008 Anna rated it it was amazing

Nature of absurdal system in clear state. Great read, if you don't have to read for school classes. ...more

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Feb 25, 2024 Tiffany rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, 1001-books__fromlist

Eh. It certainly didn't change my life. And as I was reading the last few pages, I thought to myself, "Was this whole thing a metaphor for man's inhumanity to man?" The sometimes fuzzy ways of the law and having to be an insider to know about legal processes and whose ring to kiss, and if you're not privileged enough to be on the inside or to have an insider, you'll never know or understand the ways of the system?

It wasn't the worst book I've read; it wasn't the best; it wasn't even one I'll ha ...more

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