Wow. I had medium expectations going into this, feeling intrigued about the premise but worried that it might end up feeling too dry. Therefore I was so glad when I, from the very first page, found myself completely immersed in the book, actively annotating and writing out thoughts and theories, and ending every reading session with a «This is fantastic» feeling. Much of the novel felt like a fever dream, and there are several scenes that are now stuck like uncanny and symbolic paintings in my inner mind. I found it so fascinating to join K. on his descent into a bureaucratic hellscape, served in an equally bland and deranged manner.

Something else that adds to the reading experience is of course the context for its publication. Kafka never finished writing «The Trial», and like with most of his works, he wanted it burnt and eliminated after his death. It therefore feels strangely illegal to be reading the novel today, puzzled together from scribbled fragments and shown to the world against Kafka’s will, peering into his existential anxiety and feeling of isolation within life’s absurdities.

I couldn’t have wished for a better reading experience and had a lot of fun discussing it with my book club! I was also lucky enough to watch a theatre play of «The Trial» soon after finishing the book, which really hammered in my admiration.

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// Lowkey SPOILER WARNING for paragraph quoted below (I just had to add it to my review) //


«The law had appointed [the doorkeeper] to its service; to doubt his worthiness is to doubt the law.»

«I don’t agree with that opinion,» said K., shaking his head, «for if you accept it you must believe everything the door-keeper says is true.»

«No,» said the priest, «one does not have to believe everything is true, one only has to believe it is necessary.»

«Depressing thought,» K. said. «It makes the lie fundamental to world order.»