A review by ed_moore
The Trial by Franz Kafka

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Kafka’s “The Trial” is a criticism of Austro-Hungarian systems of Bureaucracy. It follows Josef K, a bank manager who was one day arrested for a crime we are told to believe he is innocent of, and he, the court officials and the reader are all completely unaware of what such crime was. Kafka does not satisfy the questions raised in this book, only leaving you with more in the end, and though irritating to the reader I don’t believe this was his aim. He establishes a world where the those without legal power are victims of an oppressive system, but also those carrying out work to facilitate the system are “only following orders” so to say, they as ignorant of the higher up system of governance that Josef K is. Kafka ultimately creates a world where individuals can cast away guilt, freely blaming a higher up that they are facilitating and that we never meet. This is a scenario played out so often throughout atrocities that have occurred across history, and Kafka makes each stage in the lower chain of command nightmarishly human.