The Trial

The Trial by Franz Kafka

What do I mean by ‘unfinished’? Franz Kafka began by writing the beginning and the ending of the story and then started working on the middle sections in a somewhat random order. This is where the real issues begin, as he did not write these parts in any sequence. The chapters were spread across several different notebooks, and he never told his friend, Max Brod, which chapters were finished and which were still being worked on. Most importantly, he never told Brod the order in which the chapters were meant to appear. This has also led other editors to arrange the chapters differently.

This meant that when Brod edited the story after Kafka’s death, he had to try to work out what the original plan for the middle chapters was. This leads to one of the major issues with the novel: it can feel very jumpy between scenes, with a sense that some of the connective tissue between different parts of the book is missing.

Now I should talk about the basic plot of the book. The main character is Josef K., who is one day informed that he is being investigated for a crime that neither he nor the audience is ever told about. As the plot progresses, he is drawn into a legal system that is obscure, difficult to navigate, and surreal in nature, with characteristics you might expect in a dystopian novel. Throughout the story, you follow him as he struggles against the system and becomes increasingly frustrated by it.

I also suspect some readers will not like the ending, as the lack of connective tissue makes it somewhat jarring, and you may feel as though you are missing a few scenes that would help make it clearer.

Even with all of its issues, the story is very enjoyable.

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Matthew O