Review: The Trial by Franz Kafka

I have finished reading The Trial by Franz Kafka. The book makes for a compelling read which spurred me on to the end, anxious to discover the outcome of the Josef K.’s trial.

The book is about Josef K., a chief clerk at a bank, who is suddenly arrested one morning by the police for no apparent reason. He is frustrated by the court process which is slow and secretive. He doesn’t get to know the charge he’s arrested for and with the help of his uncle, Leni, he gets himself a lawyer.

But still he remains frustrated as he sees no progress in the conclusion of his trial despite having a lawyer. He talks to numerous people who offer to help him but he turns down their offers. Notable amongst these is Titorelli, the painter.

He explains the three options that K. has; absolute acquittal, apparent acquittal and deferment. Titorelli offers to help K with the last two options only because the first one is uncommon as far as he is aware.

K. finally decides to fire his lawyer in the hope that doing so would enable him to take control of his trial and make things move faster.

The book shows how the functioning of the court system inconvenienced, frustrated and humiliated the defendants. It was of course difficult to defend yourself if you didn’t even know the indictment against you. Further, as a defendant you could wait for years before your case was resolved.

At the end, disappointingly, K. is taken away by two unknown men to meet his Maker. He doesn’t even know who they are. From the narrator’s description, they might possibly be policemen or executioners.

‘The courts don’t make their final conclusions public, not even the judges are allowed to know about them…’ Titorelli told K during their meeting. It made me wonder what kind of justice was this. Quite strange.

I must now finish Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I can thereafter move onto Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, James Joyce’s Ulysses, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, and many other classics in English literature.

I hope that I will be able to give myself time to write a brief review of each book as soon as I finish reading. Another book that I must give a brief review of is F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.