book review: Dearest Father by Franz Kafka

"Recently the belief that I was defeated by Father as a small boy and have since been prevented by pride from leaving the battleground, throughout all these years, despite enduring defeat over and over again."

As a father myself the idea of what my sons might be thinking about me kept coming to the forefront of my mind as I read this heart breakingly honest letter from Franz Kafka to his father.

their relationship was one clearly troubled and beset by the dominance of the father and the continual failure of Franz to feel he could live up to what was expected of him. He failed to take a role in the family business, failed to find favour for his writing and caused serious upset with his plans to marry.

But this letter, a love letter from a loving son to a father, is upsetting because there is a feeling that things would never change. No matter what Franz does or did it would make no difference to a man who is almost blinded by his obstinacy and pride.

That's a message for fathers now and a challenge not to provoke hate and servitude in our own children by pushing our own views down their throats.

As Kafka details the numerous occasions when his father and him clashed and the role of his mother as a not quite innocent bystander you feel for the man. You want him to be able to either breakthrough to his father or as an alternative to break free.

Sadly he is capable of neither and as we all know illness took him before there was a chance perhaps to reach one of those outcomes.

A beautifully produced OneWorld Classic contains a few extracts from Kafka's diaries that reinforce some of the points he makes in his letter.

he might not have wanted it printed but across the decades it has a message for fathers now and the clashes and battles he describes continue now in households all across his native Prague and well beyond.

book of books - Amerika

In the 1972 Penguin version a friend of Franz Kafka’s Max Brod makes the comments that writing this book pleased Kafka and there were very few deletions and changes but he stopped writing it suddenly and it was left unfinished although the author did read out the passages about the Oklahoma theatre and had planned it to be a final chapter of reconciliation.

There is something rather difficult with a book that remains unfinished because you are left wondering how things would have developed to be given just fragments that then have the effect of making it harder. It would almost be easier if the book had petered out at the end of the section with Karl being a servant but you are left presuming that he became the trusted confidant of Brunelda the singer and then after that arrangement had ended stumbled across the Oklahoma theatre as a way to save himself and find his own part of the American dream.

Plot summary
Karl Rossmann has been sent to America from Europe by his parents after the 16 year old was seduced and then fathered a child by the housemaid. As the boat arrives in New York Karl has a stroke of luck that while defending a stoker to the captain he is introduced to his uncle a rich senator who takes him away and is in a position to offer him a life of luxury. But by accepting an invitation from a banker friend of his uncle’s Karl is cut off from his uncle and starts a transitory life that evolves around Robinson and Delamarche, two men he meets in an inn the first night he is alone. Although he has a couple of months as a lift boy in a hotel Karl eventually ends up with Robinson and Delamarche who have hooked up with a singer Brunelda and wait and dote on her respectively. Karl is introduced to her as a servant and initially fights the situation but then seems to accept it and it is at that point the main body of the book breaks off and following that there are fragments that lead you to believe he manages to get away from Robinson and Delamarche and then leaves New York altogether and joins the Oklahoma Theatre company.

Is it well written?
Although Kafka described this book as lighter than his others there is still a dark undercurrent running through it fuelled by the uncertainly caused by industrialisation on a mass scale. At the heart of it is the idea, and in this respect it reminds you a bit of Fear and Loathing by Hunter S. Thompson, about the quest for the American dream, which equates to success. But the twist added by Kafka is that those characters that should be content are in fact some of the most insecure so his uncle drops him just because he visits someone and the bankers he meets are almost unable to hold a normal conversation. The part of the American dream that Kafka displays most often is the violence that often accompanies the desire to be secure. It is not just on display with the head porter in the hotel, who is on the brink of assaulting Karl before he escapes, but also with the candidate for a judge position who’s electoral campaign ends in a brawl. Amerika moves along with the reader constantly asking questions of Karl and his environment and in that respect Kafka does achieve the aim of underlining the point that America is a different country with its own ways of working.

Should it be read?
In some ways this is an old fashioned book with the passages describing the numerous people doing the jobs that no would be done by one person or might even be automated. But for those readers interested in America’s industrial history then this along with the likes of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser adds to the picture of a rapidly evolving country where the gap between rich and poor is a wide one. Following on from something like The Trial this also adds to the Kafka style but at the same time shows that he was capable of setting his characters in different locations and with the glimpse of the final chapter able to conclude a book in a more upbeat way. So those wanting to get a feel for Kafka should pick this up because it is important to get the 360 view of his work and bypass the stereotype that all he was capable of producing was dark stories.

Summary
An expanding American economy seen through the eyes of a Czech immigrant who never quite grasps how to be a winner

Version read – Penguin Modern Classics

Kafka's ingredients of fear and uncertainty

Having now read two of Franz Kafka’s three novels, Amerika and The Trial, it’s possible to start to put down some thoughts about what makes his world so different. Most of the time you feel uncomfortable because you know that even in those moments of calm there is tragedy coming and the main characters will usually be unable to prevent terrible things happening.

There are differences (see below) but in both books Kafka can use the environment – never ending corridors, stifling attics and suburban apartments – to inspire disorientation and fear. He exploits the size of America and the emerging industrialisation to disturb Karl Rossmann in Amerika and the battle between one man and a secretive legal system is the enemy for Joseph K. in The Trial.

Joseph K.
Having been woken up and told he is under arrest he never finds out what he is being charged for, how his case is progressing or who is ultimately in charge of his fate. But he does at least fight against his situation, a decision that ultimately rewards him with death, although all of the other characters involved in his case advise him to just live with the situation.

Kafka ingredients: being in the dark, facing a bureaucratic system that is extensive and faceless, struggling with the concept of losing position in society and finally being alone and forgotten when the final moment comes

Karl Rossmann
From the start he is in a difficult position because he has been sent away from home to America for seducing a maid but from landing in the country after fighting onboard the boat for the rights of a stoker he barely knows he starts to drift subject to the more aggressive personalities around him. So he ends up being thrown out by his Uncle on the most bizarre of justifications, comes under the influence of two drifters, Robinson and Delamarche, and ends up even at the end when going for an interview at the theatre being handicapped by his past with his unfinished education. Because of his youth he is constantly being held, squeezed and hit by other larger characters ranging from the head porter to Delamarche.

Kafka ingredients: violence, insecurity, vast industrial processes, a the clash of size and suffocation (for instance the large country mansion and the episode where Karl gets lost in the dark and the unknown system at work which means Karl continually fails to be allowed to get his slice of the American dream.


What leaves you feeling so disturbed is the idea that forces out of your control, both known and hidden, might be able to exert control over your life to such an extent that you are excluded from mainstream society.

The next challenge is to read The Castle to see just what delights are waiting for the main character in that book…

Amerika - post IV

Kafka uses the vastness of America to provoke a sense of fear that is done expertly. As a result there is a sense that you either know how the country works or are locked out of the system and presumably that would have been explored more as Karl developed but because the book was left unfinished it is hard to see quite where it would have ended

Bullet points from the main body of the story pages 158 - 193

* Karl awakes on the balcony with Robinson and listens as the Irishman tells him the story of how his french companion Delamarche came to be living with the singer Brunelda and how she dismissed all of her servants and moved to be with her French lover

* Karl is outraged when Robinson tells him that he is going to be replaced as a servant by Karl and that he will have to wait hand and foot on Brunelda who sounds like a hyper sensitive hypochondriac

* Karl attempts to leave as the trio are distracted by an election campaign in the street below but is caught trying to prise open the doors with knifes and beaten up by Delamarche who knocks him out cold after throwing him against a wardrobe

* After being unconscious Karl wakes and walks out onto the balcony and notices there is a student studying on the adjacent balcony who after being reluctant to talk to Karl advises him to stay as a servant because getting another job will be very difficult

* The morning after Karl wakes with a determination to at least be a good servant and he seems to succeed in pleasing the large singer by getting and presenting a breakfast in a reasonable way and he is rewarded with some crumbs from the plate

Bullet points from the fragments pages 194 - 218

* There is a short chapter where Brunelda leaves the apartment in a bath chair helped down the stairs by Karl and the student neighbour there is no sign of Robinson or Delamarche and the singer is so obese that she is frightened of being seen so covers her self with a blanket

* Then the book ends with Karl seeing a poster advertising The Oklahoma Theatre and he goes to the racecourse where they are offering interviews for positions and manages to get offered a post as a technician and seems to know someone in the cast - Fanny - who does not appear to have been mentioned before

* All of those that have applied for jobs, which includes an Italian lift boy from the hotel Karl worked at, join the train and the last page describes the joy Karl has of seeing the vastness of America flashing by the windows as he travels to Oklahoma

Full review will be posted at the weekend...

Amerika - post III

There is something about the characters in Kafka that you struggle with because they seem to lack backbone and allow themselves to get pushed easily into terrible situations. Just like with Joseph. K in The Trial Karl Rossmann seems to walk through life with a blind acceptance of what will come. What makes it feel so suffocating is that you know that with just a little effort he would be free of the tyranny of his current situation. It makes you think that the point Kafka was making is that we are all making mistakes and allowing ourselves to be abused it’s just that it is not on a scale and as clearly as it happens to Karl and Joseph K.

Bullet points between pages 100 – 158

* Having become established at the hotel as a lift boy Karl works hard to keep his position and better it by learning about business management in his spare time and a part from the head cook’s secretary Therese he has almost no other friends

* Therese tells the story of how her mother committed suicide after finding so sanctuary from the biting cold and poverty one winter when Therese was small and you sense she is falling in love with Karl

* Things are ticking over but then Robinson turns up, the Irish man from the inn, and gets drunk and lands Karl in trouble because he deserts his post and in the end after a confrontation with the head porter and head waiter he ends up losing his job

* As he tries to leave the hotel there is a typical moment of suffocating oddness when Karl is accosted by the head porter and is on the point of becoming some sort of prisoner subjected to occasional bouts of torture when he escapes

* But he cannot escape the Irishman who takes him back to his French companion who has landed on his feet becoming the lover and assistant of a rich singer who treats Robinson like a dog and seems set to add Karl to her collection of attendants

Will Karl resist and leave Robinson and the singer or will he get trapped with them? Tomorrow’s reading should hold the answers…

Amerika - post II

Just as there were moments in The Trial, notably in the law offices, there are passages here where you feel Karl getting lost down dark corridors and what makes it worse is the size. In America things are bigger so the five lane highway is full of cars, the hotel he gets a job in has 30 lifts and hosts banquets that are so large there is barely room to breathe.

Bullet points from pages 50 – 100

Having been invited to the banker’s house Karl is told that he will be given a letter at midnight and after wandering and getting lost in the dark corridors of the country mansion he is finally given the letter

In the letter his uncle disowns him for what seems to be the sole reason that Karl has visited someone else, returns the belongings he had on the boat and provides a third class ticket to San Francisco

On leaving the mansion Karl trudges to an inn and asks for the cheapest room, which has two beds already occupied by a Frenchman and an Irishman who once awake identify a potential source not just of money but amusement with Karl

They try to convince him to follow them to try to find work and he initially seems to be keen but it becomes clear they are going to take his money and exploit him and things come to a head after they send him to a hotel to get food and ransack his suitcase

Karl returns from the hotel, where the head cook has taken pity on him and offered him a room for the night, and has a showdown with the Irish and Frenchman and it seems to be heading for violence until a waiter from the hotel comes and breaks it up

Once in the hotel Karl becomes a lift boy and starts to discover the joys of a 12 hours shift and no sleep but starts buying into the American dream of starting at the bottom and working his way up

More tomorrow…

Amerika - post I

The introduction to this book sets out the history of its development with it being written in stops and starts and although Franz Kafka originally seemed to be very pleased with it for some reason it got pushed to one side and what appeared in the meantime was A Stoker a Fragment, a short story that is included in most Kafka short story collections put out by various publishers. The advantage of having read that short story is that you have been introduced to Karl the focus of the story and understand his relationship with his Uncle, a senator and successful business man.

Bullet points between pages 1 - 50

* Karl has been sent to America by his parents after he was seduced by the house maid and fathered a child at 16 and has no idea what to do and as the boat starts to enter the New York harbour he realises that he has left his umbrella and goes back down to look for it

* He stumbles across a stoker who talks to him and starts to share his problems so Karl not only quickly forgets why he originally came below decks and he starts dreaming of becoming a stoker and is told that there will be a job going because the stoekr is resigning because of ill treatment

* Karl takes up the stoker's cause and they go to see the captain to complain and while there a man with a cane interrupts Karl and asks him who he is and explains that he is his uncle and extracts the boy from the argument between engine room hands and takes him to potentially a life of wealth and security

* Once installed in the uncle's house Karl starts to get to grips with English and begins to get introduced to his Uncle's world but only on a limited basis because the old man only wants to see him once a day

* There are signs that there is some friction between the Uncle and Karl as the young man is sent to horse riding lessons, given reluctantly a piano and finally allowed to go and visit a banker's house but only for an evening

* At the banker's country house Karl is disgusted by another guest Mr Green who has come to talk finances and ends up with the banker's daughter Klara who fights with him as she shoes him to his room and Karl who is determined to leave finds himself alone in a large dark house

Unlike the feeling you get in The Trial there is so far more effort to explain what otherwise would appear very sinister. For instance the reason why the house is in darkness is because the electricity has not been connected. But the way Karl stumbles around the house with just a candle for company is very Kafkaesque even if at this stage it is not disturbing

More to come...

book of books - Metamorphosis and Other Stories

This collection of stories contains work that was published while Franz Kafka was alive in various places including books, magazines and journals. There is a further collection coming out at the end of February published by Penguin, The Great Wall of China, which is a collection of stories that were published after his death.

The most famous story among the collection here is Metamorphosis, and it is easy to forget just how disturbing it is not just because of the transformation of Gregor but also the attitude his family takes towards him and how quickly they forget.

Overall summary
There are two types of story here broadly the light and the dark. In the first category the tale of the Aeroplanes at Brescia is a wistful tale admiring the great men and their flying machines. But overwhelmingly the stories fall into the later category. Alongside Metamorphosis the stories A Judgement, The Stoker and some of the Country Doctor’s tales, particularly the first one, have the power to really disturb working to a narrative pattern all of Kafka’s own and tilting the difference between right and wrong in a way that challenges your own perceptions.

Is it well written?
There are moments when you feel you going through the same experience you get watching a horror film – not knowing what will happen next, but bracing yourself for something nasty. But Kafka has the ability to catch you unawares with stories like A Judgement and hit you with an ending that can take your breath away. The one downside is that some of the stories are so short you feel they would have benefited from a little more length.

Should it be read?
Short stories are a format that Eastern European writers are well known for and as proven here have the power to provoke a lasting impression even in a short space of pages. The normal excuse that there are too many pages can not apply to a collection like this and of course you can start anywhere without having to strictly go from cover to cover. It deserves to be read by anyone prepared to be provoked into challenging the way they think.

Version read – Penguin classics paperback

Lunchtime read: Metamorphosis and Other Stories

The plan had been to finish this yesterday, but best laid plans...Anyway, this collection of short stories ends with more tales focusing on the relationship between individuals and crowds.

A Fasting-Artist Four Stories
In the four stories the general theme is how people react to the environment and other people around them. It starts with a trapeze artist who lives at the top of the high wire and when the circus moves from town to town he sleeps in the luggage rack. It is not only about his loneliness and fear of the future but also about the role of the manager, which is dependent on such an odd character.

Then there is a story, Little Woman, about a woman who seems to disagree with he neighbour and the man starts to fear that eventually that will spill over into a public row and could gave repercussions for him.

The title story about a fasting-artist is again set against a backdrop of a circus and follows a man who makes fasting his act but in the end the crowds ignore him and he fasts for so long that he almost disappears and dies and is buried with his straw bed.

Finally, Josefine the Songstress of The Mouse People is about someone who believes they have a special talent, for music, and as a result are better than everyone else and have the ability and power to shape the collective destiny. She tries to get out of doing work and when that fails she threatens to stop singing, which she eventually does. But life goes on without her and as a result the people forget the music and her power wanes.

Review of the complete stories collection will follow tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Metamorphosis and Other Stories

This is hardly a lunchtime post, and could only just claim to be for those on the West Coast, but I have been out all day and only just able to get to a keyboard now to tap this stuff in. Short story collections are great for variety and accessibility but the downside can be that you pick them up and put them down and leave them unfinished exactly because they do not have the start, middle and end structure of a novel. Therefore the plan with Kafka is to finish this collection.

In The Penal Colony
A visitor visits a penal colony and is invited to view an execution of a prisoner who is not only unaware of the sentence but of the fact he has been found guilty. As the officer in charge explains that the old commandant loved this form of execution, to use needles to inscribe a message of justice into the prisoner over the course of 12 hours until dead, he shows the guest how the machine works. The prisoner is put on the machine but as it is about to begin the officer asks if the visitor is in favour and after being told not, surely the end for the execution machine, he dismisses the prisoner and ties himself on but the machine malfunctions and he dies quickly and painfully.

A Country Doctor - Little Tales
Most of the stories were published in magazines and collections of stories alongside other authors and so there is not too much of a coherent theme other than the period they were written. Apart from the first of these stories it is neither about a doctor or the country but a series of stories that includes the tale of the man waiting to be admitted to the law that is told in The Trial, a rather humorous tale of a father describing his eleven sons and in A report to An Academy it is like Metamorphosis in reverse with a former ape explaining how he imitated humans after being captured.

But there are also darker stories. The first tale of the doctor is like a fairy tale in reverse where instead of evil being defeated it is good that ends up losing. The Dream, where Joseph K. discovers an artist inscribing his tom stone, reminds you of the hidden powers that sometimes drive some of Kafka’s characters to jump at death.


The last few bits and pieces awaits tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Metamorphosis and Other Stories

When we are all alone we look for friendship wherever it comes and in this story the boy Karl finds it in the form of a stoker who is on board the boat. When he should be happy with the introduction of his long last father he is in fact upset because in a brief moment he has fallen under the spell of the friend from the engine room.

The Stoker A Fragment
Karl has been sent to America after being seduced by the housemaid and fathering a child. His parents have sent him away without any real idea of why will happen to him. As he pulls into New York he remembers he has left his umbrella below and heads down to pick it up but gets lost and stumbles across a stoker. The stoker is angry with the way he has been treated and after getting encouraged by Karl storms off to face the captain to complain. As he berates his superior to the captain an old man is visibly agitated and finally asks Karl who he is and then declares that he is his uncle. The man turns out to be an American senator who will be able to provide Karl with a fantastic life but as he leaves the boat Karl sobs for the stoker and wonders if his uncle will ever be able to match up to him.

There are just a few stories left in the collection and if time permits I will read these over the weekend…

Lunchtime read: Metamorphosis and Other Stories

The stories at the beginning of this collection are obviously more innocent than those towards the end which display all of the most obvious traits of Kafka’s style but he is quite capable of hinting at something a lot more disturbing, which is on display in The Window on the Street, as well as providing humour in a story like The Rejection.

There are a series of snippets, some no more than a paragraph, that make up the Meditation collection

Meditation
These stories cover thoughts on what it must be like to live alone, why it is important to have a window that looks out onto the street if you do, and reminisces about walks in the country and the mountains

The longest two pieces – Children on a Country Road and Unhappiness – seem to bookend periods in his life when he was innocent and carefree and then more worldly wise

The feeling you get reading them is that he is always looking for the unusual in a situation and feeling out the reason why people make certain choices to either live alone or choose to act in certain ways. The final story, Unhappiness, about a ghost coming into a room, could almost be about one of those people that has chosen to live alone coming face to face with their childhood state at a time when they could have made other choices.

Lunchtime read: Metamorphosis and Other Stories

Because of a lunch meeting there was only time for a very short story today one that sums up the cold outlook some merchants can have when a customer does not have the means to pay.

The coal-scuttle rider
A very topical story for today bearing in mind the snow that covered London this morning. A man finds himself without any coal and facing the prospect of freezing to death. In desperation he takes his coal scuttle to the coal merchant and pleads for some coal of the lowest quality and he will pay later. But as the merchant’s wife comes out to speak to him and he mentions that he cannot pay the husband asks after her what the customer wants. ‘Nothing: is her reply and despite the curses of the desperate man she wanders back inside and leaves him to fate and the cold.

Lunchtime read: Metamorphosis and Other Stories

You go from an innocent enough story about aeroplanes to something a lot darker and with an ending that is incredibly disturbing. At least here we are back on familiar Kafka territory.

The Judgement, A Story
A business man corresponds with his friend who has moved to Russia three years before but he keeps things from him because he does not want to upset the friend who has gone away and had limited success. But he never realises that he has concentrated on his own career and neglected his friend and maybe that is the reason why he does not wish to share in his news. He finally decides to tell his friend of his engagement and goes into talk about it to his father. But his father starts to attack him verbally and reveals that he has been writing to his friend for the three years and also accuses his son of cutting him out of the family business. He roars at him that he condemns him to death by drowning and then the son stumbles from the room, drags himself to the river and falls into the water.

More tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Metamorphosis and Other Stories

Although I had planned to take a break from Franz Kafka this book stood out on the shelf and shows that the author is capable of producing quite accessible stuff along with the well known Trial and Metamorphosis.

The Aeroplanes at Brescia
Kafka tells the story of a group of friends travelling to see some of the most important names in the world of aviation - Bleriot (who flew across the channel), Rougier and Curtiss - and shares in the excitement at seeing these great men take to the skies in what in 1905 was still a form of transportation in its infancy. On the way to the aerodrome the friends see fading posters advertising car races, in a gently swipe at one form of race overtaking another, and all of the trains are full.

At the end one friend wonders if the famous pilots will come to Prague (Kafka's home town) but they seem to have an exclusivity around them that means they can only stay in certain towns and in the sky above residing with the stars.

More tomorrow...

book of books - The Trial

This is one of those books that has a reputation that precedes it that can work against it because like nearly all of Franz Kafka’s works you open it expecting to be sucked into a maze like world of dead ends and strangeness. It does contain that but there is also an assault on your own thinking going on here that lets the book operate on a different level.

Plot summary
Joseph K. is woken by two men informing him that he is under arrest and then he is given a bizarre interrogation in a neighbours flat. But he is allowed to go back to work in a senior position in the bank and is called to an interrogation where he lambasts the legal system but is introduced to some of its characters including the legal clerk, the attic offices of the law courts and ultimately via his uncle his advocate who is meant to defend him. After little progress K. decides to dismiss the advocate and defend himself but he seems to be unable to change his view of his trial or the legal system and in the end pays the price for being unable to heed the advice of not just his advocate but also the prison chaplain who heralds him in the cathedral.

Is it well written?
The start is stronger than the end with the reader, along with K., trying to work out just what is going on. But when it becomes clear, and the scene with the court painter is crucial here, that his case could last almost indefinitely and the role of the advocate is to keep it ticking over then you feel there has to be a decision by K. to defend himself to bring it to a conclusion. There are a few real skin creeping moments where you feel the shock of the character, as he discovers for instance that the priest in the cathedral is calling out his name. The sense of frustration and yearning for movement in the case that K. demands is something that the reader would identify with so that sense of anger with what seems to be completely illogical bordering on the stupid is a difficult thing to convey but K. manages to embody those feelings and that experience.

Should it be read?
For anyone looking for something that will challenge their perception of normality, wondering why things are as they are, and what their own response would be to something that is completely unjustified then the trial is a great read. You are constantly asked the fundamental question: what would you do? Would you fight it or accept it? Would you live with the case for years or try to bring it to a head? All of these questions are posed and what makes The Trial so special is that they are timeless and in an era of Guantemo Bay just as relevant as ever.

Leads to – More Kafka in the form of his short stories but there are also his other two novels America and The Castle which although I haven’t read have at least got an appetite for after this. In terms of multimedia some people have already commented about the Orson Welles film and for me there are very strong echoes of The Trial and its feel in the film Brazil.

Version read - Penguin paperback

Lunchtime read: Metamorphosis

It seems logical, having just finished a Kafka book to postpone the Russian Short Stories until tomorrow and do a quick report on his most famous work The Metamorphosis.

The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
Gregor Samsa wakes up and finds himself changed into an insect and the relationships with the rest of his family and his own mind are the main focus of the story. He feels that he has let his family down because he is the main breadwinner and obviously cannot go to work but there is also a question of why this has happened and whether it is some sort of punishment. In terms of the reaction to him his family shun him and when he comes out of his room one day his father throws apples at him, one of which gets buried in his back and causes an infection. The end comes after Gregor slips out of his room to listen to his sister playing violin and is referred to as an ‘it’ and so goes back to his room and dies from starvation and the infection from the apple.

The idea that you could somehow change your shape into that of an insect and see your wings and numerous legs flapping around is enough to disturb but then coping with the permanence of that change and realising that it has been a death sentence is just as hard. While surfing on Wikipeda viewing the various critical approaches people take to Kafka the idea that it might be slightly existential makes sense in that Camus and Satre also have that ability to create disturbing situations and characters.

More Russian stories tomorrow…

The Trial - post III

The book ends without a reprieve for Joseph K. who fails right until the end to understand what the law is all about and that logic and common sense cannot be applied to its workings.

Bullet points between pages 184 - 251

* Joseph expresses dissatisfaction with progress of his case and sets off to see the advocate to dismiss him from the case and meets another arrested man Block a merchant who warns him against dropping the advocate

* The advocate tries to stop K. from dropping his services by humiliating Block and showing the power he has over the fate of those who are depending on him for salvation but that just makes K. more determined to abandon the advocate

* K. is being ground down by the case and is sent by his manager to accompany an Italian to the cathedral but the tourist fails to arrive and just as K. is about to leave the priest calls out his name from the pulpit

* The priest turns out to be the prison chaplain and warns K. that his case is going badly and bemoans the fact that Joseph is unable to adapt his mind to the workings of the court and keep holding on to his logic that is inappropriate to understand the workings of the court

* The final chapter is a sinister version of the first with two men coming to collect K. and they arm lock him and take him trough town to a quarry and on the way K., who seems to realise what is happening, resigns himself

* Leaning against a rock on the edge of the quarry the two men pull out a knife and then kill K. with his last words about the shame of it meant to sum up the futility and the anger of the shameful death

A review will follow once the story has sunk in a bit…

The Trial - post II

After the strange events of the first 100 pages the story settles into a sense of growing unease as the case gathers momentum with K. taking on legal advice but not seeing to be getting anywhere.

Bullet points between pages 102 – 183

* Joseph K.’s uncle turns up and demands that his nephew takes action and stops ignoring the case and takes him to an old friend who is an advocate and asks his friend to take on his nephew’s case

* While his Uncle and legal friend are talking Joseph wanders off and is seduced by the house main Leni and then comes out of the house to be confronted by an angry Uncle who despairs about his behaviour

* The advocate tries to help Joseph but the legal system keeps the defence in the dark and the case is carried out in secret making it difficult to know how things are progressing

* The advocate tells stories to illustrate the lowly status of those for the defence describing their attic room, with a hole in the floor big enough to get your leg trapped through, as evidence of how neglected they are as a community

* K. starts to suffer at work because he keeps dreaming about his case until a client comes in and tells him that the court painter could offer him some useful advice about his case and so he heads off to see the painter who like the court is based in an airless attic

* The painter advises him to try and go for a postponement in his case but because of the atmosphere in the garret K. is unable to concentrate and as he takes his leave is surprised to find law offices next door but the painter explains that nearly all attics contain law offices

More strangeness tomorrow…

The Trial - post I

There are moments when you read this book by Franz Kafka and you start to get concerned that some of the strange things could be possible. The sense of helplessness and weirdness that permeates through the novel is the most disturbing aspect to it so far.

Bullet points between pages 7 – 101

* The story starts with a banker named Joseph K. being told by two men, then confirmed by a third sitting in a neighbours flat behind a desk, that he is under arrest but no charges are specified and he is then released to go back to work

* Joseph tries to dig a bit deeper with his landlady about the events and manages to fall out with her and then gets carried away and kisses his neighbour after explaining to her what happened in her rooms

* He then gets summoned to a tenement block for an interrogation on a Sunday and walks into a packed room and takes the stage and pleads for some sort of sanity and gives a full account of the events of his arrest including a criticism of the men who first dealt with him

A week later he returns for a hearing but discovers there is no sitting but gets seduced by the legal secretary’s wife who is then grabbed and taken upstairs to for the interrogating magistrate’s pleasure leaving Joseph with the husband who offers to show him the legal offices

* But once in the attic Joseph becomes weak and almost faints and has to be helped outside to get his breath back and as the door opens those inside replicate his symptoms as they breath in the fresh air

* The strangest scene so far comes next as Joseph hears a sound as he goes past a store room in the bank and finds the two men who first arrested him being whipped because of the complaint he made about them at the first interrogation

* As Joseph walks past the room the next day he opens the door on impulse and finds the same two men and the whipper in the room – something that unnerves him and he demands that the bank clerks clear the room out

Why are these things happening to him and why does he get sudden impulses to do things that he presumably would never do, like kissing his neighbour and walking firmly into store rooms? More will follow…