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A review by quenchgum
The Trial: A New Translation Based on the Restored Text by Franz Kafka
5.0
Yeah, the book’s weird. It’s bleak and alienating and, at the very least, frustrating. It’s also confusing: at their best, most points only *almost* make sense, and nothing is ever neatly resolved. I probably wouldn’t recommend it to most readers that want to, like, you know, enjoy what they’re reading.
Does that make for a bad novel? I don’t know. I don’t necessarily think so. This stuff reads to me as art. Kafka’s clearly a master at subverting the narrative boundaries most novels follow. Even though it makes for a basically unsatisfying read, it’s also what allows him to take this book to places that other books can’t reach. Kafka creates a tense, haunting atmosphere that’s so electric it seeps out of the pages and starts making you question everything else that’s going on around you. It’s hard to capture what it’s about and yet it creates a feeling that you’ll keep seeing everywhere you go.
Four and a half stars, bumped up to five stars bc it’s giving me nightmares (bad) but making me rethink my career (good).
P.S. Just while we’re here, I like to think that Kafka — had he known that Max Brod would publish all this stuff — probably would have wanted Brod to be just a little less stingy with the paragraph breaks. Am I right??
P.P.S. Kafka’s women are just as empty as Murakami’s or DFW’s (two authors I love). Not sure if I need to lower my expectations or if I should start a “women as wenches” bookshelf or what.
Does that make for a bad novel? I don’t know. I don’t necessarily think so. This stuff reads to me as art. Kafka’s clearly a master at subverting the narrative boundaries most novels follow. Even though it makes for a basically unsatisfying read, it’s also what allows him to take this book to places that other books can’t reach. Kafka creates a tense, haunting atmosphere that’s so electric it seeps out of the pages and starts making you question everything else that’s going on around you. It’s hard to capture what it’s about and yet it creates a feeling that you’ll keep seeing everywhere you go.
Four and a half stars, bumped up to five stars bc it’s giving me nightmares (bad) but making me rethink my career (good).
P.S. Just while we’re here, I like to think that Kafka — had he known that Max Brod would publish all this stuff — probably would have wanted Brod to be just a little less stingy with the paragraph breaks. Am I right??
P.P.S. Kafka’s women are just as empty as Murakami’s or DFW’s (two authors I love). Not sure if I need to lower my expectations or if I should start a “women as wenches” bookshelf or what.