Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

The Trial
The Trial
The Trial
Audiobook8 hours

The Trial

Written by Franz Kafka

Narrated by Todd McLaren

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

First published in 1925, The Trial tells the story of a man arrested for an unknown crime by a remote, inaccessible authority and his struggle for control over the increasing absurdity of his life. One of Franz Kafka's best-known works, The Trial has been variously interpreted as an examination of political power, a satirical depiction of bureaucracy, and a pessimistic religious parable. Left unfinished at the time of Kafka's 1924 death, The Trial is nevertheless a trenchant depiction of the seemingly incomprehensible nature of existence and a fascinating exploration of the universal issues of justice, power, freedom, and isolation.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 30, 2011
ISBN9781452673486
Author

Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka (Praga, 1883 - Kierling, Austria, 1924). Escritor checo en lengua alemana. Nacido en el seno de una familia de comerciantes judíos, se formó en un ambiente cultural alemán y se doctoró en Derecho. Su obra, que nos ha llegado en contra de su voluntad expresa, pues ordenó a su íntimo amigo y consejero literario Max Brod que, a su muerte, quemara todos sus manuscritos, constituye una de las cumbres de la literatura alemana y se cuenta entre las más influyentes e innovadoras del siglo xx. Entre 1913 y 1919 escribió El proceso, La metamorfosis y publicó «El fogonero». Además de las obras mencionadas, en Nórdica hemos publicado Cartas a Felice.

More audiobooks from Franz Kafka

Related to The Trial

Related audiobooks

Classics For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for The Trial

Rating: 3.8384615384615386 out of 5 stars
4/5

130 ratings97 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It's a mind-warp. The ending feels so profound. And, yet, the hopelessness of it all...
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When I first read Kafka’s The Trial I was fascinated. 40 years on I find it still as fascinating, the more so in fact, because I have had many years in the meantime to confirm how, despite its nightmarish qualities, it is a very realistic work. That is to say, it reflects very accurately the real world and the real hopes and fears we humans entertain every day.You’ll say that I speak for myself! and that not everyone is a neurotic, or is delusional or paranoid. True. But elements of The Trial apply to most people, although I suppose there may be some who never in their whole lives have been beset by a worry that has stayed with them a considerable time, and which has grown stronger and more insidious over that time. If there are people like that, I haven’t met them. And I’m not one of them!The novel is an almost clinical case study of the way an individual can be destroyed by circumstances beyond his control, especially when he begins by thinking that he CAN control events. One of the most affecting parts of the book is K’s early confidence that HE can take charge and wrap things up quickly. Hence his arrogance in addressing the ‘court, which is held in a very bizarre location: ‘He was given the number of the house where he had to go, it was a house in an outlying suburban street where he had never been before’.As regards the ‘court’ itself, all its musty, pedantic and beaurocratic nature comes through strongly and reminds one of the ‘circumlocution office’ in Dickens’s Little Dorrit. I am not aware that Kafka (1883-1924) knew anything of Dickens (1812-1870) and so this aspect of their work would seem to be an example of two extraordinary writers ‘zooming in’ on aspect of social organisation’ with equal extraordinary effect ( though maybe Kafka has a slight edge in ‘nightmarishness’?). Both have contributed their names to the language in the form of powerful adjectives.I have to say that this book has been a personal favorite with me over the years and when I said above that I find it ‘fascinating’ I am using the word its strict sense of ’attract or influence irresistibly’ Like everyone else, I have had some personal experience of situations in which one feels an overpowering sense of helplessness. Kafka’s device of having his character overcome by weakness and a sense of suffocation is extremely effective, not least because it reflects the actual psychosomatic symptoms that one often experiences in situation like this. There is too the feeling that anything one does will only make the situation worse, so the best idea would be to sit still and wait out events. But this is very hard to do because things may be getting worse anyway, and just BECAUSE one is doing nothing. And so perhaps one should intervene…And so on. A really fine novel, tightly written and extraordinarily perceptive of the human condition, and one which can never be ‘outdated’. The only true parallel in my reading that I can think of is Orwell’s 1984. Humour too, though of the dark kind.To use a word that is considerably overused and abused: The Trial is a work of genius. One of my all-time favourite novels. [Translated from the German - Der Prozess (published posthumously 1925) - by Willa and Edwin Muir (1936)].
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very profound and well-thought surrealist story depicting a very realist idea: What happens if the justice system which is expected to be just, itself, becomes corrupt and unjust? Is justice there to serve us or are we its slaves, the slave of the justice system, thereby the slaves of the men holding power over this system? What role should play the painter (intellectuals), the clergy (the religion), the defence attorney (the right to self-defence)? In my opinion, this book will show the reader the bleak and inescapable situation of people who are set up by powerful men and even by the government for thinking outside the norms and disturbing their plans, like it is the case in my country Turkey and why the intellectuals should raise their voice.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I couldn't understand Kafka 30 years ago & he makes no more sense nowRead in Samoa May 2003
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I started reading this aaaages ago, and finally finished it by skimming through. I don't know what it is -- maybe the translation, maybe just Kafka's style -- but I found it more infuriating and frustrating than anything. I enjoyed the dark humour, but I don't think this style of completely absurd situation is for me, and I couldn't judge on the quality of Kafka's writing from this translation. Maybe if, someday, I learn German...

    It probably doesn't help that I'm in bed recovering from food poisoning, so perhaps you should take my opinion with a pinch of salt. Still, however important it is in a literary sense, I can't say I enjoyed it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm not sure what to say about The Trial that hasn't already been said. It's elusive, infuriating, and beautifully dark. Parts of it reminded me of my wife. I'm not sure what that means.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I listened to the audio book narrated by someone Degas. I found the whole book extremely annoying. I probably missed lots of deep and meaningful stuff, but I found K annoying and selfish and I didn't like the way nearly all the women were falling over themselves to help him. I found there was a lot of "K thought x. It was of course true that blah, blah, blah. However, K still thought x."

    I might have appreciated the book more if I had read it rather than listening to the audio book. However, the library only had the audio book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is more difficult to review than Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis' as it is fragmented and incomplete, though, strangely, Kafka gave it an ending. In fact, everything is strange about the book, which is Kafka's intention - it's clear that he wants the reader to feel as disoriented as the 'hero' Josef K, a successful senior bank official who wakes up one morning to find his lodgings invaded by secretive policeman, come to inform him he is being arraigned for trial for some nameless crime.We never get to a trial as such, only a sort of preliminary hearing. The court and all its officials are housed in a tenement block in a poor part of town, where living quarters and offices of court are merged into one another or linked by mysterious corridors, some of which seem to open up unexpectedly, like a darker version of Lewis Carroll's Wonderland. At K's office, too, bizarre scenes and exchanges take place at the opening of a door. It all contributes to a sense that nothing is quite what it seems, and everything is menace. We can't even be sure of K; all we know about him is by his own reckoning, and although he is, in the early stages of the book, very pleased with himself there are hints of character traits which are very unpleasant, not least his lecherous and vaguely misogynistic attitude to women.The power of the novel comes from K's growing obsession and sense of foreboding about the trial. We see him gradually disintegrate before us. The more he seeks to know the less he knows. The characters around him seem at once to know everything and nothing. The threat is claustrophobic and, like his supposed crime, nameless. The ending that Kafka gives us is ritualised and solemn - perhaps in the way that executions are universally, whether they be labelled 'legitimate' or 'illegitimate'. The symbolism is political, but the shiver is deeply and unforgettably personal.Reviewer David Wiliams writes a regular blog Writer in the North.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    He didn't live to finish and edit this, but nonetheless you can see just from The Trial that Kafka's was the seminal imagination of the last century, not Beckett or Joyce. In fact Beckett is very indebted to him.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I’ve come to the conclusion that the word “kafkaesque” has been abused by our society, most notably by pseudo-intellectuals describing any concept they feel is beyond the scope of one’s understanding. Do me a favor, the next time someone uses the word improperly, kick that person in his/her junk. It seems to me that the term carries with it characteristics that extend beyond the bizarre. I understand that the definition is rather fluid, but it should be held to some sort of standard. It’s sort of like children learning to talk. They see a dog and learn the word, then use it to describe a cow. Your dream was probably just weird. Your boss is probably just illogical. You probably pressed the wrong number on the telephone menu. You’re probably just unhappy that Democrats have control of the White House.Here’s what I think. Based on the book I read, I think that in order for something to be “kafkaesque,” a few rules must be followed:1)One must be faced with a situation in which he/she doesn’t know how to proceed2)One must not be able to see what is going to happen to him/her next3)There is no chance for the the person involved to escape his/her present situation4)Control of the situation remains in the hands of intangible, illogical forcesWhen I read more Kafka, I may revise these standards. But, for now, these words will be law. If you dislike them, please file a petition with the court.And on to the book…For the most part, it was boring. It was a tale of frustration with bureaucracy. A completely strange bureaucracy, but a bureaucracy nonetheless. I took a lot for me to trudge through it. The events struck me as interesting, but not enthralling. I really enjoyed the piece where K. converses about his case to the priest. I liked the implications of the priest’s various analyses of the story he told to K. It was at this point that I realized how K.’s rigidity was impacting his case and likely would result in his demise. I also enjoyed the end. Throughout the book, I dismissed the court as inconsequential. However, the final display of the court’s power was very surprising to me. I don’t know if I’d recommend this to anyone. I’m glad I read it, but I’m also glad I’ve finished with it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Re-reading The Trial in the Breon Mitchell translation of the restored edition was a big improvement over the original Muirs' translation. Although I still prefer Kafka's shorter, published work like The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony and The Hunger Artist, all of which seem perfect to me while The Trial has a lot of rougher edges. One can only wonder what Kafka would have done with them if he actually published the work.

    This reading of The Trial also had considerably more farce and humor, especially in all of the descriptions of minutiae, and felt more like a successor to Gogol than I had previously remembered. And it is also a reminder that just about everything that anyone terms Kafkaesque is capturing at most one or two facets of the very multidimensional, strange original combination that Kafka himself provided.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was quite a unique book in the way the author describes the events surrounding the main character. Very surreal in a way and you get the impression that the author is trying to show his impression of things in more ways than the direct occurrence of what he's writing about. It's not an easy read but I found many of the passages very interesting and absorbing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Why was Joseph K taken, enough to keep you gripped. Luckily there is no such thing as rendition in these enlightened days!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Kafka. I fell in love with his writing in high school and never finished any of them. Now I did. Going to do it again.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    "all good fiction does not necessarily depict reality as much as it uncovers truth." Dark Comedy and Dead seriously - Its a Journey -- a rough trip. The moral of the story, to elaborate a cliche', is that it's only futile to resist when you have no idea what you're resisting. --"The Trial", I am intrigued by the mind that conceived it... "Kafka" -- an absurd mystery that literally trips itself up. But uncovers a Truth ... as just as many, he doesn't know how to defend himself, or get any information about his trial. Abstract, however, a fascinating account of the modern human condition.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This review is based on Breon Mitchell's translation, published by Schocken Books, 1998. Having the right translation of a foreign language book always matters and Mitchell lucidly explains how the translation of nuances of Kafka's diction (i.e., word choice and expressive style) can strongly influence the reader's interpretation.Josef K. is arrested for an unspecified crime he may or may not have committed and faces an extra-legal process, not involving the usual court system, with unwritten rules and procedures. K. at first does not take the process seriously, but becomes totally consumed over the course of several months. He attends initial inquiries, his uncle introduces him to a lawyer, his bank client introduces him to a friend of the court and his bank president artfully arranges for him to meet the prison chaplain. K. realizes that the trial is indeed serious business, but that none of these advisers can directly influence the outcome of the process. Even the functionaries of the quasi-court who handle his case do not make the final decision--that is made at a higher level, so high that no one can even say who is involved or how they make the decision. K.'s life unravels as the process unfolds, especially after he fires his lawyer and takes control of the case himself. He is confident of his ability to manage the process, perhaps buoyed by the advice given by the friend of the court that, if he is truly innocent, he needs no help from anyone and acquittal is assured. As the trial takes over his life, his one area of success, his banking career, sinks under the weight of his despair. He feels "the trial is positively closing in on me in secret." A year after his arrest, on the eve of his 31st birthday, he discovers the final verdict.The bare facts of the plot make for a nightmarish scene of a man's lonely fight against an unseen bureaucracy. But the nuances of the story contain a deeper layer that suggests that K. has more control of his destiny than seems apparent. He himself has the largest influence on how the process plays out. It was his choice to pursue acquittal, but a better strategy may have been to pursue protraction, an indefinite deferral of judgment suggested as an option by the friend of the court.It is on Day 1 of the trial, his thirtieth birthday, that two minions arrest K., gently confining him to his bedroom with "Wouldn't you rather stay here?" and, after he ventures into the living room, "You should have stayed in your room!" K. considers leaving the premises to force the issue of his arrest, but instead returns to his room, "without a further word," else "they might indeed grab him, and once subdued he would lose any degree of superiority he might still hold over them."Meanwhile, a third minion, the inspector, has set himself up in Frau Burstner's room, and calls for K. to be brought in. The inspector tangentially brings up the matter of K.'s arrest, gives him friendly advice to "think less about us and what's going to happen to you, and instead think more about yourself." Later he says, "that's not at all to say you should despair. Why should you? You're under arrest, that's all." K. is free to go his job as chief financial officer of his bank, the arrest is "not meant to keep you from carrying on your profession. Nor are you to be hindered in the course of your ordinary life."This is a strange sort of arrest, hardly more than a wake-up call, an injunction to "think more about yourself," arresting his attention so as to encourage an examination of his life in the Socratic sense.On Day 365 of the trial two other minions, "old supporting actors," have come to take K. away. Throughout this engagement, the two guards are tentative in their roles, not well-rehearsed in the script of the process. On their journey, the three perform a delicate dance, the guards locking arms with K. using a straight-arm entwining that makes them a single, comical unit. It is K. who takes the lead in this dance. At one point K. stops and says, "I'm not going any farther." The guards are ineffectual in getting K. to move, and it is only with the sudden appearance of Frau Burstner that K. gives up his resistance. It is K. who then chooses to follow her, who abandons the quest when she turns down a side street, who later rushes the three-in-one unit past a policeman who might have intervened if K. had given a sign of distress.Their journey ends at a quarry outside the city where the guards continue to be tentative in their actions. It takes them some time to find a suitable location and position for K. One guard unsheaths a butcher's knife, but they seem uncertain how to proceed as they pass it back and forth between themselves. "K. knew clearly now that it was his duty to seize the knife as it floated from hand to hand above him and plunge it into himself. But he didn't do so [...]." So one guard held him "while the other thrust the knife into his heart and turned it there twice. With failing sight K. saw how the men drew near his face, leaning cheek-to-cheek to observe the verdict. 'Like a dog!' he said; it seemed as though the shame was to outlive him.""Like a dog." K.'s assessment, not the plunge of the knife, is the verdict. A self-verdict on his (now) examined life, not an indictment of the manner of his death. The knife was his final wake-up call and the guards attend closely to hear the verdict that K. quickly reaches under the ultimate stress of approaching death.His conduct of the trial is like a dog begging at the dinner table: when no morsel appears from a diner--when no tidbit of advantage accrues from the landlady (Frau Grubach), the washerwoman, the merchant (Block), the lawyer--K. abandons them, dismisses them, and moves on to the next diner. K. does not use his human capacity for reasoning, but, like an animal living unaware and only in the moment, "He'd always tended to take things lightly, to believe the worst only when it arrived, making no provision for the future, even when things looked bad." He had no social competence, evidenced by his first encounter with Fraulein Burstner: "K. [...] rushed out, seized her, kissed her on the mouth, then all over her face, like a thirsty animal lapping greedily at a spring it has found at last."K. had rapid success in his career, but none at all in his life. His professional colleagues had sailboat, car, villa, and a social life, while he lived in a boardinghouse, had no friends among his contemporaries, had shut out his relatives, had no prospects of finding a life partner. K.'s lilfe was controlled by fear of exposing any weakness, of losing any perception of advantage he had over others. The washerwoman's husband, the court usher, provides K. with a hint to a solution as they discuss the wife's abduction by the law student, Bertold. "'Someone needs to give the student, who's a coward, a thorough flogging the next time he tries to touch my wife [...]. Only a man like you could do it.' 'Why me?' asked K. in astonishment. 'You are a defendant, after all,' said the court usher. 'Yes,' said K., 'but I should fear his influence all the more [...]. Then he gazed at K. with a look of trust he hadn't shown before, in spite of all his friendliness, and added: 'People are always rebelling.'"The verdict exposes his shame and it is, of course, too late for any recourse. Too late for K. to thrash Bertold or to take any of the other forks in his path which led away from the quarry.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read this for the first time at school in German for A level several decades ago now. The bleakness and fatalism had a profound effect on me as a rather Pollyanna-ish teenager, especially as I was also reading Camus for the first time.
    If I say I can still quote verbatim chunks from the book that should suggest the impact of it(and provide a tribute to my German teacher!).
    I think the effort of reading it in German meant I missed some of the surreal(albeit still bleak) humour first time round. I still wouldn't recommend it if you are depressed!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The following excerpts sum up the book perfectly: K.: How can I go in to the bank when I'm under arrest?Supervisor: It's true that you're under arrest, but that shouldn't stop you from carrying out your job. And there shouldn't be anything to stop you from carrying on with your usual life. In that case, it's not too bad, being under arrest, said K. I never meant it should be anything else, said the supervisor. It hardly seems to have been necessary to notify me of the arrest, said K. K.: "Your question, my Lord, as to whether I am a house painter - in fact even more than that, you did not ask at all but merely imposed on me - is symptomatic of the whole way these proceedings against me are being carried out.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book just left me deflated. It wasn't until the end that I really pitied K, and thought of how frightening this whole ordeal would be were I in his position.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The only other piece that I've read by Kafka is "Metamorphosis" which is not one of my favorites, even though I can see its literary merits. I wasn't sure what to expect when reading this book, and probably never would have picked it up if it weren't for the group read in which I was participating. Now I'm grateful for that push, because the book was an intense reading experience, quite different from his famous short story, and a good indicator of Kafka's style. I never really knew what "kafka-esque" meant before now.The story is about a man who is accused of a crime, prosecuted, and sentenced, but in this strange totalitarian society, it's not as simple as it seems. First of all, he never learns what his crime is supposed to be. In fact, when he tries to question the police officers he is branded as being difficult and resistant to arrest. As he proceeds through the various ranks of individuals connected to this judicial system, he is constantly told to do what is right, but chastised when he asks what the right thing to do is, and the only clear answer is that what is right, according to law, is not necessarily morally good. In fact, in the first half of the book I was outraged on his behalf, because so many unjust things occur to him or around him.As the story continues, though, the absurdity of this society K lives in becomes so overwhelming that I stopped being angry. The settings start to take on a surreal slant, and it's hard to believe that this is representing any real location anymore. For instance, the important judicial offices are located in the lowest slums, up endless staircases and down dark hallways, until you stumble upon a crowded and dirty court room that can determine the fate of a man's life. Or the scene where a man tosses a woman over his shoulder and runs off, and K follows in pursuit, trying to fight him and discussing his case, all while this guy is still running with a woman on his back.That scene was too bizarre. Eventually, images of endless hallways and shifting stairways filled my head. It all had a surreal feel of one of those labyrinths where the walkways are constantly shifting, representing the endless bureaucracy of this society that is a bewildering maze. Then there was the behavior of K himself. His attitude towards women was rather horrid. I began to wonder if he hadn't done something wrong, after all, and we the readers were being kept in the dark. Maybe, on the other hand, I was succumbing to the system just as K did: he offered resistance to the injustice at first, and gradually accepted that he had to play by heir rules if he hoped to be saved; I was outraged at everything initially, and then began to question whether K wasn't guilty after all. Regardless of his blame, though, the fact remains that the way the judicial system treated him was unjust and ridiculous. This book is a scything indictment on totalitarian communities, and actually, on every society, actually, where the political system has built enough layers of bureaucracy and pointless policies to be an impasse to the common man. This tale of a man helpless to escape his fate against unknown and faceless enemies is not an uplifting read, but nevertheless a fascinating one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Trial is a compelling read, but also frustrating. Questions are never answered and your left scream WHY???? K wakes up to find out he is being arrested, he is never told why, he is free to go about his daily life as long as when he is summoned to the court he comes. He tries to dismiss the trial as nothing more than a shady court system trying to get a bribe out of him. More people learn of his trial and he begins to take it more serious. K explores options and meets other people on trial. The ending will mess you up.

    So what is the point of The Trial? There are lots of meanings that can be placed to what is read. Bureaucracy, a variety of metaphors the trial represents, or simply nothing but the text that is provided. Either way its a great short read that is interesting til the end. I didn’t know how I felt at the ending, was just kind of lost for a feeling, but I think that feeling of not know what I am feeling fits well with The Trial.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very memorable reading experience.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a nearly flawless audiobook, read in a mostly dry tone that is both funny and creepy, which I imagine was what Kafka was going for in this his iconic work. Hell may be the absence of reason. But Hell can have a reason all its own, which we discover too late.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Where does Franz Kafka get his ideas? Everyone knows Metamorphosis and The Trial is no different. It has been made into theater productions, television shows and movies. Everything Kafka has ever written has been analyzed within an inch of its life so I will not be able to add anything new with my review of The Trial. In one sentence, The Trial is about a man on trial for an unknown crime. The end. Why Josef K was indicted is a mystery; why he was convicted is even more so. What is so haunting about The Trial is the tone of voice. The frightening subject matter is told in such a robotic, matter of fact manner. The outrage just isn't there.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book hits me in places no other book touches. Reading it generally means locking myself up in my house alone for a few days. It is terrifying and effective and funny and paralyzing.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I get the importance of this story - especially for the time and place where it was written but frankly, for me this was a real slog. Reminiscent in style to Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, (another book I did not really care for), the narrative follows the doomed Josef K. as he is arrested and put on trial. But the proceedings are exceptionally surreal and the story is populated with many odd characters with whom I found it difficult to empathize. As a result, I was not amused or entertained. For me, that equates to a fail.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A nightmarish tale about the labyrinth of bureaucracy and the alienation of the self against power. A scary book and a must-read for everyone. Extremely original. Flawless construction. A masterpiece in every sense. Essential to understand the very meaning of the word "kafkian".
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    K is up the creek and he does not know why. Like most of Kafka's novels, the premise is much better than the execution. I think Pinter did a better job of this theme with The Birthday Party, but that is me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    There was something about this book that kept me from connecting with it in an emotional way, perhaps if this is a life experience that you can relate to on a personal level this story would quickly entice you, if not there is no real structural criticism to novel that is overtly distracting. Yet I found myself wandering and wondering subconsciously if there were allusions or aphorisms that i was not privilege too. This is still an excellent read, don't over think it.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Listening to unabridged audio.
    23 Feb 11: Praise be. I'm done listening to this. It was torture. I get (I think) what Kafka was trying to say that the law is so complex at times that it is completely inaccessible to 'normal' people, even smart successful ones. Or maybe he wasn't trying to say anything at all.

    Like I said before, I disliked the characters - all of them - and I found the on-going conspiracy - reaching the edges of everything - irritating.

    Has anyone else read this one? Maybe they want to explain it to me?
    18 Feb 11: Ch. 7? 8? : I totally hate all the characters. This may be part of the reason I'm feeling lethargic about law school -- it reads a bit like 'Alice in Wonderland'... in court.