The Trial - Franz Kafka BOOK REVIEW

[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

Big thanks to Ridge for sending me this wallet and supporting the channel! Here’s the site if you want to check them out! > ridge.com/BETTERTHANFOOD

[@cletusjones9411]

The Trial seemed like an anxiety dream. Very slow and laborious read, but somehow stays with you after you’re finished with it.

[@sathwikabhinav3337]

Same! Not gonna lie I was so anxious while reading.

[@a-yam943]

I didn’t find it to be slow or laborious at all, quite the opposite, which is interesting.

[@marcopivetta7796]

it's not a hard read at all, stop lying

[@Késin_10.136]

It's not a hard read actually...but it is laborious.

[@yumchou]

I remember reading The Trial for German class back in school for a literature portfolio. You only know as much as Josef K knows, which is nothing at all, and that's what leaves you with an uneasy feeling that never fades, not even in the end. One wonders if he ever had a choice, and if he did, why he went along with it all. Well, maybe not the first pick for a reread, but definitely something to ponder.

[@kackljas]

My key to understanding Kafka was reading "The Stoker", included in a collection with other stories such as "The Metamorphosis", "A Country Doctor", "The Judgement", and "In The Penal Colony". I read it a few months before reading "The Trial", and the "lightbulb" moment of insight into Kafka's writing paved the way to getting more out of "The Trial" than I would have if I had read "The Trail" first. In "The Stoker", a man arrives on the shore of New York City from Europe on a boat. Upon exiting the ship, he realizes he left his umbrella behind. He leaves his suite case with a near stranger who he is not sure he can trust. On his way back to find his umbrella, his route gets blocked and he ends up lost trying to find where he left his umbrella. Upon reading this I remember thinking, "Oh, I've had this dream before!", except in more modern settings. It reminded my almost exactly of a dream I've had many times before, except with subtle variations. I get off a plane at the airport, but I remember I forgot my wallet. I try to get back on the plane to go get it, but I have to take a back route through some dark hallway, and when I finally find the plane, all the seats have been rearranged. Or, I'm trying to get on airplane, but I'm at the wrong gate, and my ticket's expired, so I have to go buy another ticket, but the ticket booth is at the top of an infinite series of escalators. Or, the dream I'm sure everyone's familiar with, it's the first day of school, and I have to get to a class, but I can't find the classroom and then I realize I forgot my class schedule print out so I don't even know what class I'm looking for. With the insight into Kafka gleaned from reading "The Stoker", I read "The Trial" as an extended version of the "I forgot my wallet on the airplane", "I can't get to my airplane", "I can't find the classroom for the class I can't remember enrolling in" dream world. The events unfold with a sort of "dream logic", where scenes unfold outside of the confines of the processes of cause and effect as experienced in the waking world, yet with elements of the waking world blended in. Reading "The Trial" from this perspective, the writing comes across as not so much a social or philosophical commentary, but more of an transcription of the subconscious mind; a dream world projection of guilt, desire, confinement, confusion, judgement, and trying to find that damn courtroom before the trial starts but no one said where it was.

[@gediminaskontrimas7992]

I first read Kafka's Trial in 1982, in Soviet Lithuania, after the KGB threatened me with death in Afghanistan. The sociocultural context of reading Trial was perfect.

[@ThoughtsOnFilm101]

Once I started seeing The Trial as an metaphor for social anxiety it became a much deeper and richer novel. Personally I find discussions about bureaucracy to miss the point.

[@anonanon334]

I see it as an allegory for the absurdity of life itself with the trial representing the ultimate trial before God with the Priest representing a court employee. Completely agree that it is missing the point to read it purely as a criticism of bureaucracy, a very simple and literal interpretation of a deeply complex book.

[@wonderwoman5528]

Have you got any evidence of sources to back your this theory!

[@powfoot4946]

@@anonanon334 definitely thought about this, especially with kafka's choice to use a painter and a priest. How often get backed into a corner in life, or are suddenly burdened with something with absolutely no choice but to face the music

[@jethrothelion7763]

​@anonanon334 THANK YOU I never see people talking about how the trial itself is the definition of the absurd and how it is explored throughout the text

[@adrianmatic9832]

I've read this one three times because I find it so funny. It's spooky but the ridiculousness of his circumstances make me laugh. It's like the court proceedings are run by internet trolls.

[@BBkiddz]

Same! So many gags. He investigates the court official's book and their pornos. Every girl throws themselves at him and makes him feel like he alone could save them, but they do that for every man. Even in the flogging chapter, the flogger is dressed like a dominatrix wearing leather everywhere but his arms, chest, and neck, yelling "strip!" hahahaha. Going through another reread now for a class.

[@tjfryer2897]

Reading this book is like a fictionalized version of my anxiety. You feel like a disappointment for whatever unknowable reason and are endlessly on trial in your own oppressive and intimidating court room of the mind, judged by a tyrannical super ego.

[@ambermoon719]

I understand the state of mind you are describing tj fryer. I’m about to read the book and hope it will give me a more comedic view of this world and reality. PS: anxiety doesn’t have to last forever. I’ve gone long stretches without it 💜

[@nbyrd2579]

One of my favorite books of all time. I despise introductions that summarize the plot, something almost as frustrating as starting a book only to find out it was secretly abridged without announcing it on the cover or in the title.

[@Crowborn]

I don't know if this is a Brazil thing but here it's really common to have a plot summary inside the book's cover as a sales blurb. I despise that too. These editions have genuinely ruined amazing plot twists. Older books don't have that, thankfully

[@nbyrd2579]

They still somewhat summarize plots here in the US, on back covers and such but it’s usually just a set up summary and doesn’t give away the whole story

[@kasianfranmitja5298]

Its interesting with literature. I found this book to be one of the most exiting and scary books i have ever read, i really dont find any parts to be boring. But we are all different, which is lovely.

[@vitnemec8365]

I’m Czech and I was very surprised that english translation apparently ruins the book for casual reader. Czech translation (from ’65, straight from a middle of an absurd authoritarian regime) grips you and sucks you in. It’s not an easy read, but not a chore. More like a pleasant suffering. And one of the most profound pieces of literature.

[@emanueleboscofilms]

"...I'm in jail" will live as one of the classic of this channel. Thanks for the shout-out man, and hope you'll have more luck with your next Kafka's book!

[@nastiaandrej]

Nabokov's "Invitation to a Beheading" is a free interpretation (as I see it) of Kafka's "The Trial". Highly recommend to everyone who wants to find a dim of positivity in Kafka's masterpiece.

[@thwomp88]

We are on polar opposite ends of the spectrum pal. 'The Trial' and 'The Blind Owl' are two of my favorite things ever written. Enjoyed the review though. Take care.

[@anonanon334]

I completely agree, those are two of my favourite books ever written. Hearing 'The Blind Owl' being described as 'whiny' is jarring.

[@videotrash]

Love your reviews. But I'm really surprised that you never mentioned how funny the book is - likely because you didn't perceive it that way, which is fair. Yet to me that's one of the hallmarks of Kafka's style. The characters and scenes are existential caricatures, they act like wretched figures in a joke, but to them it's all deathly serious. For example, the guy who gets whipped in the office, and when K. returns days or weeks later, the whole scene is still going on, as though frozen in time. Or the sleazy painter who is swarmed by little girls while they converse; K.s speech before the crowd in the attic and their arbitrary reactions to him... Kafka's friends said he tended to laugh out lout when reading portions of his work to them, so this demented, deadpan humor is absolutely intentional. Like some other commenters I've read his works in German, and find his style very fluid, precise and readable. It also exhibits an added perpetual element of self-parody; the passages about the legal system to me never felt dry or expository in that light, but rather like well-crafted satire of a grotesque worldview. They are enjoyable in and of themselves, and I'd have wished for the book to be quite a bit longer. Lastly, 'Vor dem Gesetz/Before the Law', the parable K. discusses with the priest, is one of the best, most mysterious and ambivalent pieces of writing I've ever come across, and has pretty much convinced me that this book isn't merely some random critique of bureaucracy and rather Kafka's idiosyncratic way of reflecting on the degree to which individuals can hope to ever understand reality and subject parts of it to their own puny, misguided will.

[@someobserver844]

Good comment. I think the stern anti-bureaucracy reading is so popular because many readers immediately identify with K. I guess that's hard avoid; he's the only point of reference one has in the surreal world of the novel. But I don't get the impression that Kafka expects you to side with him, at least not uncritically, since he is also pretty judgemental and manipulative.

[@frogmoth]

Yes, great comment. I thought the same thing. Some aspects of the book went over his head, it seems...

[@michaelmblog]

@@frogmoth a lot of things are over his head.

[@davidnorris166]

This is a review!

[@allofthemmilkingwithgreenf7493]

Yes! Great great comment

[@evenings.6170]

In Polish version of The Trial images inside was drawn by author of The Street of Crocodiles - Bruno Schulz.

[@levitybooks3952]

I remember the Penguin Modern Classics foreword to The Trial doesn't really talk about the story at all, but instead digs up Kafka's romantic relationships in a way that just makes him seem very strange and unhappy. Not sure if it spoiled the plot if it did I intentionally skimmed it to try skip it!

[@jnobrega_9802]

Already read this book twice. One of my favorites of all times. Kisses from Brazil!

[@PinkFLoYD9118]

It's surprising to me that you thought the prose is complex. I read it twice and it always struck me as quite easy to read. The setting and story gets complicated, but not the sentences, at least for me. But then again I never read it in english.

[@duncan_xyz]

Perhaps a reread in a different translation will change your mind about the execution of this novel. I recommend the Schocken Kafka Library editions. It's also a really beautiful collection of books designed by Peter Mendelsund.

[@anniecrawford2500]

Great review. I totally agree with the critique. This would be a total masterpiece if it were about half as long. Since Kafka wasn't writing for a publisher, I think he was venting his angst more than crafting the artwork when it comes to the over-wrought sentences and scenes.

[@johnsailorsgoat]

My GOD I love The Trial! I loved the part where he visits the strange painter! (I think he was a painter or landlord) I would say read it again in a few years! Let us keep in mind too though that it is unfinished.

[@gabrielalfaia8154]

Whatever is read about a kafka book, is completly different from actually reading it. Reading The trial feels like you got drunk but you also need to do your taxes.

[@lostintime519]

Reading this book while living in another country as a migrant, is an experience.

[@nozecone]

Must be something in the zeitgeist - I just finished listening to it as an audiobook (a weird thing to fall asleep to!), and have watched half the 1993 movie - which is great, so far. I hate to say that it may the rare case of a movie actually being BETTER than the book - particularly in conveying K.'s ongoing anxiety about the trial. For instance, in the novel we are simply told that K. cannot concentrate on his work; in the movie, we see him sitting at his desk fretting, and feel some of his stress. Moving on: it strikes me that to regard The Trial merely, or primarily, as a 'critique of the [or a, or any] justice system' is to reduce it almost to insignificance - isn't it rather more - much more - about 'the human condition' (as you hint at with your Matrix reference, etc.)?

[@Sherlika_Gregori]

Kafka’s book to his father is beautiful and harsh. I read when I was a teenager and the impact was unforgettable. Read it.

[@timkjazz]

One of the greatest novels ever, as important today as it was then.

[@rajib17cmc]

I read this when I was admitted in hospital for covid last year.... LOVED it...

[@TheR971]

Had to read it in Highschool (Switzerland). About 5 years ago. It was one of my favorite novels we had to read. It resonated on a deep level and when you were describing some of the scenes in passing I remembered the rooms and people as if I was there. Maybe it was my nervousness about the conscription that was upon me a few months later (yeah Switzerland is weird). But the complete dehumanization even the letter informing me of the conscription procedure had really made the book resonate. Also the writing is pretty lucid in the German original in my view.

[@clayton7463]

In Twin Peaks: The Return, David Lynch’s character Gordon Cole’s office has a portrait of Kafka so I think the influence is definitely there if it wasn’t obvious before.

[@nahamaku1855]

For me this is the greatest novel ever written, so I am really surprised by this review. Maybe it's the english translation fault?

[@anonanon334]

I read it in English- had absolutely no issues. One of the best books ever written

[@mohamedelbasuoney4484]

I loved everything about this video starting from the location and camera , and found it genuine and different and it was like i am sitting with you.

[@shaneharrington3655]

Day off, wake up late, cup of tea, Better Than Food video drops - *chefs kiss*

[@batbite_]

K is actually for the kappa the Greeks tattooed on the forehead of false accusers - Joseph K accuses himself ;)

[@douloureux.]

Ohhh that’s a great detail!

[@batbite_]

@@douloureux. it's from Butler and Agamben's discussion on law here on KZbin

Damn man, I tried to read it once years ago, and I felt very similarly. I had to drop it by the chapter where K. goes to the painter and to the lawyer, dry and endless paragraphs describing the most minute things and only a glimpse of the impossible mechanism behind all that bureaucracy. Maybe someday though...

[@Laocoon283]

The artist was my second favorite part of the book. His describing of the three possible ways the case can go are metaphors for how people deal with life. It's only boring if your just reading it on the surface.

[@sculamica4159]

I personally read the Romanian translation from German. It didn't feel heavy and it didn't lose me. I believe it's the translation that matters a lot. If there are any Romanians wanting to read The Trial, I recommend the Polirom book, translated by Gellu Naum.

[@DemeterTelphousia-Erinyes]

It’s about 30 years since I read The Trial but I was very disturbed and on edge reading it- exactly as the reader should be! I recommend going to the FK museum in Prague to anyone who can.

[@paulomartins4246]

What a coincidence, I've finished this one a few weeks ago. And the book at it's peak moments is something so completely unique, definitely see why it's a classic

[@maximus5060]

I was just thinking about rewatching Orson Welles' film adaptation tonight and you uploaded this. What a coincidence!!!

[@21vgkoab]

When I first read The Trial I felt exactly the same. I tried reading it again to see if it was just the mood I was in but I felt the same way. I'm going to give it one more try this year and hopefully force my way through to the end

[@DarkAngelEU]

I read it in high school in Dutch, which is very similar to German, and the text was easy to read. It felt alienating, especially the scenes where K has to move through all the rooms to reach his court date in the attic, and I agree it goes up to the point that you almost forgot what was the point of the scene, but I think that is exactly Kafka's point with this book. Like I said, I read it in Dutch, and that's because I live in Belgium. It's still pretty common to hear the term 'kafkaesque' in the news and that's exactly because of this book. Our justice system is infamously corrupt, even now when we have environmental pollution, human trafficking, coke deals and hate crimes, including murder, there are companies who shake hands with politicians, bribe them, lawyers who were either related to the killers or exclusively represent gangs and get filthy rich of them - which means court personnel, including the judges, have to be screened in order to make sure no one is either related to the accused or has any legitimate interest into swaying the trial into their favor. This sometimes means a trial has to be held on the other side of the country, and even then there are still many many ways by which they can either postpone the trial, or force bureaucratic or procedural errors so that the trial sometimes simply has to be cancelled until further notice, which often means the accused go free because our system simply does not care to follow up. If you want to read a mind boggling story of how messed up our system is when it comes to serving justice, just look up Marc Dutroux. It's a miracle he got his life sentenced to prison. Also, the similarity of so much things going wrong higher up, while normal citizens get punished for normal things. My teacher said K is found guilty because he does not accept his own humanity. When I read it, I thought it was implied that K has a thing for his neighbor, and that he is being punished because he never pursued his feelings for her, implying he is ashamed of himself. Damned if you do, damned if you don't - is what I often find myself thinking after reading Kafka.

[@darrenbrown8952]

Ah, so stoked you watched the interview with Jorjani - that just enriched my experience of the book tenfold. It's personally one of my favorite books ever, I think it's a brilliantly actualized piece of creative expression, but I can understand your critique of it being bloated. However, for me, it just adds to the aesthetic quality of the novel, and I loved that aspect of his writing. But hey, that's just me :)

[@McBumbleFlump]

This is the video that convinced me to trust your judgement entirely lol. You killed it on blood meridian and on house of leaves. When I saw this video I was curious how you’d review it. I found the book so frustrating and yet people go on and on about how great this book is. Regardless, I love your reviews!

[@Dhips.]

Different strokes I suppose. I found it pretty engaging cover to cover.

[@SG-wi9kd]

I recently listened to the audiobook read in English, I really enjoyed it. My take was that it symbolises, in life we are all on trial, constantly being judged both consciously and subconsciously by society, we have an idea what we are been judged upon but it’s not concrete. The people around you can be fickle and contradictory without ever realising it. I could on but I don’t bore you with my ramblings.

[@mr.flipwagen]

Funnily enough, I actually bought this book 2 days ago, haven't gotten around to reading it quite yet tho

[@ryandudley3616]

BBC ‘in our time’ podcast also did an episode on the book, which I’d recommend! 😊

[@T4wsi5w47w7]

Completely disagree. All Kafka (I've read most of his fiction work) is gripping in a unbelievable way for me. The feeling I got when reading some of his works I never felt with other great writers. The Trial is one of his many masterpieces and yes, I've read in high school and it became one of my favorite novels. I don't see this extremely dry writing and difficult sentences you mention. And most importantly: he is the funniest writer I've ever read (maybe along with Machado de Assis). It is said that Kafka laughed out loud when writing his works, and so do I. I think you are really not getting his extreme irony and unique sense of humor which makes his work even more unique by being so funny and dark at the same time.

[@allofthemmilkingwithgreenf7493]

Completely agree with your disagreement! Kafka‘s humor is rarely recognized which I find strange. That shit is dark but extremely funny.

[@LetsArion]

I see you're also from Germany! I have not read Kafka's work in English, but maybe you did! I feel like a lot of the book and Kafka's writing could've been lost in translation? As I mentioned I've only read his books in German so far but I can imagine translating some of it to convey the same meaning, emotiona and subtleties is quite difficult?

[@PJladd95Gaming]

this is very true, Max Brod writes in his Biography about Kafka that when Kafka first read the first chapter of the trial to a small group of friends that he kept bursting out laughing and had to stop reading multiple times

[@tbwatch88]

funniest writer? have you never read Waugh, either Amis, Dickens, Houellbecq, Stella Gibbons, DFW, or John Andrew Fredrick?

[@thomaskember4628]

I wonder whether Cliff could get round to another 20th century classic novel, The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. It is one of my favourite novels.

[@buendia87]

Altough it's pretty widespread to generally interpret Kafka's work as a critique on bureaucracy and alienation in the Modern Era, or as stories about the relationship between individuals and systems of power, if you read Kafka's diaries, I think the Trial really feels influenced by his private life, especially by his failed engagement with a woman at the time of writing the novel. It adds so many layers to his other books too. Also, it we talk about inspriration from Kafka we shouldn't forget the great Scottish post-punk band from the 80s, Josef K!:D

[@welldonemovies]

Hahah great review I freaked out when you mentioned that David Lynch and Terry Gilliam are both Kafka-esque. I made a point in a review I wrote recently on my blog that Gilliam had Lynchian motifs in 12 Monkeys, his shooting style is even similar for the use of Dutch angles to evoke paranoia and claustophobia. Now you confirmed my take and gave me the reason why. Thanks!

[@BoredBookAddict]

Oh sweet. One of my personal favorite stories is The Metamorphosis.

[@ethanfleisher1910]

As someone who finds the rise of a new technocratic bureaucratic class--you know, on top of the old bureaucratic class--absolutely terrifying on every level, The Trial is almost to disturbing to me to reread. I love Kafka, and most his works are just the right kind of dreamy and eerie, but this one hits so close to our reality and some of my own experiences with the legal system that I just... nah, hell no

[@saulorocha3755]

My brother in law couldn’t read it through. I enjoyed it immensely. People misread it trying to read like a regular justice trial when it is in reality an allegory (like all Kafka’s books). Josef K’s guilt appears not in Court but in his attitude to his family and people surrounding him that the reader has to catch, and this is what the priest in the cathedral tries to show him. Also an important aspect of the allegory is that everything around the process has a theatrical element, that is repeatedly remarked in the story until the end.

[@CommonSwense]

So annoying when they put major plot spoilers in an introduction.

[@r3lativ]

I think you missed the whole metaphor of the book. It's not about the legal system or bureaucracy. It's a satire of religion. K has an incurable illness and he thinks it must be for some reason (or sin) -- so he interprets the whole thing as a trial and tries to figure out what his crime was, while in fact there's no crime or reason behind his illness. That's why he's free to go after being "accused", that's why he's never brought before the judge. He's not actually being accused of anything, he's just informed about his illness, and that things are not looking good. The "judicial" establishment he gets caught up in is actually the medical system trying to help him, but he insists to interpret his situation in terms of blame and sin. "Why do terrible things sometimes happen to good people?" There's no reason, but K wouldn't accept that. He's not being sacrificed or deliberately killed at the end, he dies in a failed surgery, the last attempt they make to save him.

[@Laocoon283]

Wait you said it was a satire on religion but then described it as a medical satire lol. Your right he's defintley missed the metaphor but the incurable illness that he has is not a medical one it's a spiritual one. It's a metaphor for the struggle to overcome ones own immorality before you meet your maker. Hence all the sexual impropriety scenes(that's moral shortcoming he has to overcome).

[@TheDummbob]

I read the german version and regarding the style I found most of it very enjoyable to read and often quite simple observations which seemed to implicate quite al lot at the same time. Although these long passages where the advocat or some other person rambles on and on about the court and the trial system I also found quite tedious and long winding (which I guess as you said is probably intended) So yeah, I guess partly it could`ve been a problem with the translation

[@christopherpaul7588]

The Trial by Orson Welles is amazing and so beautifully shot!! I highly recommend it

[@cristinacamero3733]

I just went to see the 60 yr old remasterized Orson Wells movie... I felt the same you described reading the book. First time looking at your presentation, I really liked it I will continue following you

[@SesameCake]

I've got a fair amount of spoilers in the translators introductions to books. Brothers Karamazov and Fathers and Sons endings were almost plainly told, which makes no sense. From then on, I've skipped dense introductions. Also, Jason Jeza Jorjani also has some excellent discussions with Jeffrey Mishlove about Zarathustra.

[@jh1618]

I also prefer the shorter stories - his humor, his ideas and style show much better in those. The novels always struck me as tedious (and I'm reading them in German, not in translation). The diaries are also good, also his letters to his lover Milena (which are borderline masochistic).

[@MR._OMAR_KING]

The trial was and is an interesting piece of literature by kafka. What a story. 🐻👍

[@BobTheBookerer]

Ahh, I loved this book! I kind of liked the Byzantine, meandering and austere sentences - for me, they gave a feeling of the character both trying to think and reason his way out of what was happening, but also that his mind was so dulled and worn out by the futility of the whole situation that he was just a somewhat hollow shell by the end. I’ve preferred other works by Kafka, though, so I get your criticisms here (and I agree with a good number of them). Thanks for the reminder to go and read the other novels of his I haven’t checked out yet!

[@merio177]

I have to say, I had a very similar impression when I read The Trial. The concept is very interesting, but it was almost physically draining to read through the whole thing

[@LittleWeevil]

On the connection between Lynch and Kafka, Lynch actually wrote and finished a script which was a film adaptation of Kafkas Metamorphosis. It never came to fruition because of how much it would cost, and Lynch also stated that Metamorphosis is better as a book rather than a film

[@christianrokicki]

There’s actually a pretty decent film of the metamorphosis … can’t remember if the production was German, Czech or possibly polish… worth seeking out… small budget but sensitive interpretation.

[@BifBoombah]

Hey there buddy, says on the cover of the book you're holding at 16:04 "A New Translation Based On The Restored Text" - just thought I'd mention it cuz at 20:57 you say: "I don't know if there's a different translation other than the one I've read though, so if somebody (but I haven't really done any research) so if somebody knows a different one, or a better one, or somethin', hit me up." The original 1937 translation by Willa and Edwin Muir I found to be quite the gut buster. It got me into Kafka. I bought a new translation in 1992 by Breon Mitchell and was really looking forward to reading it but was so bored and frustrated I couldn't finish it. It was amazing how flat it fell. It was like watching someone with no sense of humor trying to retell this hilarious joke and just screwing it up completely . And then it struck me that at least I had read the good version first, what of the poor unfortunates who might be introduced to Kafka by this abomination only to be immediately turned off and thereafter proclaim he's over rated? That's the copy you have.

[@thanoschedelstein3304]

The absurdly intricate and complicated sentences always were half the fun in reading Kafka for me. Took me some time and a good audiobook version to appreciate this though :) I can't speak to the English version, but might be worth checking out audible.

[@someobserver844]

It makes sense that the translation might be the issue. In general, German is considerably less terse than English; however, the syntax is stronger, so if you know what you're doing, you can go on and on for quite a while and still have a highly readable sentence at the end. Heinrich von Kleist might be the supreme master in that regard. I wouldn't say Kafka is quite as elegant, but I, a native speaker, never had this problem while reading his work. I agree that Der Prozess is something of a mess. Kafka did put a lot of effort into a story if he deemed it worth the time, but he was a very intuitive and somewhat undisciplined writer (he never did outlines, for all I know). This approach works perfectly fine for his short fiction, it even gives it a lot of it's strangeness and ambiguity - but it really, reeeally shows in his novels. So definitely go for his novellas and short stories. The best of them are, in my humble opinion, way more sophisticated and polished than any of the novels. A particular favorite of mine is "Die Sorge des Hausvaters", a very quiet cosmic horror story.

[@idk-ti3og]

I just finished reading it in Greek (my first language) and I had pretty much the same thoughts on it, that the story and the premise are really good but the way it's written feels like it's meant for someone smarter and at first I thought that the "problem" was the translation that I picked up , because I tried reading a bit of the beginning in English and I thought it was easier but maybe I was wrong and it seemed easier bc I'm already familiar with it

[@kamaboko.gonpachiro]

Refreshed my memories from law school. Wrote a paper on it during my 1st semester.

[@richdubbya]

Im currently reading it.. I think Im getting it. It's based on the bureacracy being a type of prison sentence for his belief of him living a daft restraint life.. And the actions done awaiting his trial bringing shame. Elsa, Leni, etc. I think.. But in order to get it, you gotta know about Kafka..

[@kflecha1]

I adore this channel so much!!

[@keithlongley362]

The Trial makes more sense now than ever in this surreal world.

[@Crowborn]

I'd love to see a Better Than Food edition of The Trial. Snip snip!

[@ujakshisharma4141]

I found trial like a fever dream and this was my introduction to kafka It's very odd , but I found myself comforting K. at his frustrations at the system with the overused phrase that's how it happens.have i surrendered to system?

[@brunaoliveira4941]

I don't know if it is a translation problem because I'm brazilian, I've read in portuguese, and felt the same way.

[@ambermoon719]

I listened to the (more the true to Kafka) translation by Breon Mitchell, read by George Guidall and I thought the wording was quite basic. It felt transparent so I was mostly swept up in the visual story except for on occasion a set of words would hit me in the head and crack me up. 😂 I found it had more symbolic than literal meaning in so many ways. In fact, I think the guys who killed him were ordinary burglars, not even part of The Law. He just assumed they were so he went with them. Kinda a you create your own reality by your perceptions and obsessions thing. This was really obvious in the conversation with the priest and the reading and analysis of the parable, Entry To The Law, or whatever it was called. That parable needs to be studied and the conversation with the priest relistened to to really get the meaning of the book (I think, in my humble opinion).

[@gerrymacca1981]

From Belfast. Been watching your videos for a good 5 or 6 years now...thanks for the content!... I do find you are way more critical this last while on books. Is it because they are recommdations and not books of your own choosing?

[@antigaia1817]

Hey Clif. Given your special love for Latin American literature , have you ever read any of the works of Mario Vargas Llosa. ? If not you should get a copy of The War of the End of the World. Its pretty dense ( you could call it an "epic" political novel) , but its filled with all kinds of fascinating characters and setting description is superb .

[@douloureux.]

THANK YOU i thought exactly the same, it took me 2 months to finish. I will try again in German

[@duuufy]

I really have to disagree with you on this review and I even think you didn't understand a core concept of the book. I don't think it's mainly a criticism of bureaucracy and the system of law, as far as I remember (and it's sadly been quite some since I've read the novel), it's more an exploration of the impotence of men (not in a sexual way). And.. as with pretty much all Stories of Kafka, surely related to Kafka himself. I think the Parable "Before the Law/Vor dem Gesetz" which is part of the novel is an extremely important piece to understand the whole story and meaning. Josef K is almost complacant in the whole procedure and he himself pretty much enables the Trial to go forth. It's this impotence and surrender towards "higher powers" that's in my opinion the most important aspect. K. only tries to fight his Trial within it's own unlogical and "kafkaesque" rules and regulations.

[@cyrilfields9139]

I agree it was a hard read, but I understand it was written in a different time with a different mentality. It's really deep. It took me about a year to finish, it was well worth it.

[@quinnsine1650]

What translation did you read? A lot of people dislike the ending for being abrupt - it was actually written alongside the first chapter, not after the second last. I for one love the final chapter, frankly, neither the castle nor the trial function well as stories in anyway. I think they get their power from being so un-story like, but I think the inability to weave a proper, conventional narrative, is what led Kafka to abandon his novels. Edit: the translation you read is probably the best translation you could get your hands on. So unfortunately you’re fucked on that front.

[@quinnsine1650]

I just want to say that I had the same experience with The Trial. My second reading (where I had since read all of his short stories, mind you) felt much more fruitful.

[@davidnorris166]

I read this on a hike in the Annapurna circuit in Nepal. Strange to be in the roof of the world surrounded by nature and reading about the unnatural oddness of humans.

[@fyodordostoevsky4290]

Hello from East Europe, I follow your channel for some years now, and I really enjoy your book reviews and your charisma, anyway, I would humbly suggest you try out one of our best writers at the moment, a true genius in my opinion, Mircea Cartarescu, and specifically one of his beautiful beautiful beautiful novels "Solenoid". Magic realism at its finest. Truly beautiful art. I guarantee, if you manage to find a good translation, that you will become a fan. Cheers and I wish you the best.

[@arthurtwoshed]

Thank you for this frank review. I do share some of your sentiments, but would like to suggest the austere language might be a rather stern reaction to the perceived absurdity of the world. The extremely slow takes of a Bela Tarr movies spring to mind, also something you might not want to feed high school kids as an entry point into modern cinema. Other writers do this in a more entertaining way (e.g. Thomas Bernhard), but I am OK with the ascetic approach, as long as it part of a coherent aesthetic concept. One of the most interesting Kafka variants for me is Austrian writer Albert Drach, who reacts through language - many of his novels are written in an absurd bureaucratic style - to the inhumanity of it all. "The big protocol against Zwetschkenbaum" is the perfect companion to The Trial...might not be your cup of tea then...lol...

[@valpergalit]

Haven’t read The Trial yet (blasphemous, I know), but from your description it kinda reminds me of Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading (i.e. an absurd, eery narrative centered around incarceration).

[@JimTheCurator]

Do you write your reviews right after you finish reading or do you go back and review books you've already read?

[@Roderik46]

could you review Crime and Punishment?

[@helios3662]

does anyone know the concept of levi strauss he's talking about?

[@MyFakeIronTrees]

I really enjoyed Mike Mitchell’s translation of The Trial (Oxford World’s Classics). I don’t speak German though, so I don’t know how accurate it is.

[@joseareyano2932]

Isn't Jason Reza an alt-right figure, really close friend of Richard Spencer? Just asking.

[@wonderwoman5528]

What does the ‘like a dog’ mean?

[@Skeptic2006]

It's fitting for me to listen this while walking outside because I felt like unable to breathe properly because of this really stubborn phlegm in my throat. I suspect it's because I drink a lot of cheap instant coffee. It's not tuberculosis at least. All I can think is choking to death though it's that bad.

[@davidantas5458]

I’ve read the Trial in German and idk, it was not easy. German sentences tend to be already long and complex; Kafka does not make it easier with his writing style. The book though really paid of the struggle for me. I can totally empathize with the main character and the book probably will never get out of my mind.

[@Ernesto_the_Caffiend]

Let me guess; the next book is either A Confederacy of Dunces or I've been down so long that it looks like up to me

[@rjd53]

Yes, The Trial is read in highschools, as a highschool teacher I did it with classes, ideally in grade 13, or if you have only classes up to grade 12, you do it in 12. It should be read after the students have read Goethe's Faust I, because both are also variants of the Old Testament's Hiob story. The novel is much more than just a critique of the judicial system but a symbolic depiction 1. of what the world really is: a place where God does not exist (any more), but in which this absense is a felt reality in the sense of a void, into which all kinds of fake reallities are leaking in, and at the same time 2. what the world can be in the worst case: a world with fakelove, fakeart, fakecourts, fakepriests etc. institutions are there, courts, painters, churches, lawyers etc but everybody in them just fakes it, they lack all substance, lack everything they should be or have. A world of that kind will kill you, it will dry out everything and in the end yourself. That is why I think, the dry style of the novel fits what it is showing. To describe the truth, Kafka intens to get across, in an entertaining way would be a lie, it would be a fake ...

[@Laocoon283]

I very much enjoy your second point. An artist who only paints the same landscape over and over, a priest that gives a sermon to an empty cathedral, advocates who can only delay the inevitable, leni who is only pursuing K to satisfy her kink of guilty men. A look at what bureaucratic society does to the human soul.

[@brownstone1944]

I just think that Kafka's long sentences don't translate that well to English. Yes it's bone dry but I still found it quite readable in German.

[@luigis9452]

I'd love to see you review Epepe by Ferenc Karinthy

[@juanescobedo6380]

wow, must be a problem with your translation; reading The castle helps to understand that Kafka's style (although not pleasant, but nightmarish, The castle is even more insufferable than The trial) goes beyond the paranoid feel some people get from The trial. I've read him a lot and can say he's way better than food. César Aira has a nice translation of The metamorphosis and admires Kafka a lot. I tried to translate a poem by Enrique Lihn that does justice to that Kafka feeling, hope you're interested and soon you can give him another chance: I'm sensible to this abyss, I'm touched differently by the reading of Kafka: I taste, coldly, the taste of death That we lack of something next to which we are nothing A camera obscura That pojects this dreadful absence Prove otherwise with plenty of bright reasons, Though the sun seems to meditate on the origin of its stains, yes: in each thing there's a ghost hidden Our job, ¿isn't it some exorcism, some answer to the dark challenge?