The Trial

(strong 8/10)
What can be said about this novel that hasn't been said already? I am ashamed to say that the first time I heard about Kafka was through Murakami (Kafka On The Shore) and not due to any of his hitherto unknown literary accomplishments. We had a copy in our family since decades – so naturally one day the urge struck me to pick it up, and I did.

The Trial is quite the surreal novel, truth be told. We are told that there is a person called Josef K., who is arrested for no apparent reason at all – he is a pretentious banker and is quite a vapid person – but one who has committed no wrong. When does his case start? Why is he presumed guilty in the first place? When will his ‘advocate' actually start doing work? Above all, does the work he's doing for the case have any influence on the outcome? Or is this work all just for nothing?

This novel is eerily reminiscent of today's convoluted legal system, what with its endless hierarchy, siloization, the ‘guilty-until-presumed-innocence', show trials, and little to no effect of evidence on the case. In one scene, Josef meets a fellow client of his advocate – who is made to sleep in the attic of his advocate's house and forced to read Latin – in order to ‘appreciate what the advocate is doing for his client'. It is utterly depressing to wade through, all the more so when you realize that it has been more than a century since the novel was penned – and all the obstacles to justice are still there, as it is.

While somewhat slow at parts, and not at all helped by the confusing and abrupt ending (from which various conclusions can be drawn, none of them clearing your confusion in the least), The Trial is a masterpiece which has to be read to be believed.