378 pages
French language
Published Aug. 11, 1992 by Gallimard.
Byzantine and claustrophobic novel of a man arrested by the secret police and charged with an unspecified crime. Unable to defend himself and disorientated by the legal process at work around him the man soon becomes apathetic and acquiescent, accepting his eventual sentence as inevitable.
This novel was a joy to read. This labyrinth of relativising statements which grind down each others content until nothing is actually said is a timeless comment on bureaucracy and capitalist alienation in general.
That was disappointing. Too dense, too random and K is such an annoyingly obnoxious character that, by the second chapter, I was wishing they'd just lock him up and throw away the key.
The story can be read as a warning against the banal bureaucracy ot totalitarianism, but these themes have been much better handled by subsequent writers.
Note: I did not read the Fragments that were included after the actual ending of the text.
One thing I want to touch on briefly is the disconnections in the text. The way the book flows feels kind of like a dream, or a collection of vignettes, like someone is telling you about something, but can't recall everything, only certain moments of some kind of possible clarity or importance. The one specific disconnect I want to mention is the one between the rest of the text and the ending. Now, from what I understand, Kafka had the end and beginning written, but the middle went unfinished. While this actually explains the writing disconnect, I see another purpose that this could possibly serve. Kafka wrote the book like K. was sentenced: with the ending already in mind. As it was stated several times in the book, it had already been determined …
Note: I did not read the Fragments that were included after the actual ending of the text.
One thing I want to touch on briefly is the disconnections in the text. The way the book flows feels kind of like a dream, or a collection of vignettes, like someone is telling you about something, but can't recall everything, only certain moments of some kind of possible clarity or importance. The one specific disconnect I want to mention is the one between the rest of the text and the ending. Now, from what I understand, Kafka had the end and beginning written, but the middle went unfinished. While this actually explains the writing disconnect, I see another purpose that this could possibly serve. Kafka wrote the book like K. was sentenced: with the ending already in mind. As it was stated several times in the book, it had already been determined that K. was guilty. The specific details of his guilt aren't necessary, similar to how it is not necessary for the reader to understand everything that occurs before K.'s sudden execution. All the reader needs is the vignette's, these ideas and theories on how the law in this world works, and the idea that the end was always in mind, and was always decided. I don't know, I'm kind of just spit balling, but what I do know is that I will be thinking about this work for a long time.
There’s nothing better than reading a classic that lives up to the hype. A quick, fun, and sometimes disorienting read.
Ich hab ja nie wirklich viel von meinem Deutschlehrer aus der Oberstufe gehalten, aber eins spricht doch für ihn: Nämlich, dass wir von Kafka "Die Verwandlung" und nicht "Den Proceß" gelesen haben.
Szczerze? Spodziewałem się trochę czegoś innego.
Więcej procesu, sądu. A była tylko jedna taka scena. Potem już się nie czuło tego zagrożenia, jakie było na początku.
Fajnie zarysowani bohaterowie, świetna duszna atmosfera, uwielbiam takie wodolejstwo jakie zaprezentował Kafka.
Niedosyt pozostał.
Nie ma to jak przeczytać nieobowiązkową lekturę szkolną dla przyjemności z własnej nieprzymuszonej woli ;)
depressing, but unfortunately a story about an all to real aspect of life; being trapped in the machinations of bureaucracy and disinterest of the system we create
