The Trial

I started reading Franz Kafka's 'The Trial' last night.

I had seen Orson Welles' film version and thought, despite his assertion that it was the best film he had ever made, that it was unfocussed and rather jumbled. Personally, I thought it could be editted to make two separate films. As well, I found that Mr. K. (played by Anthony Perkins) was inconsistent: sometimes afraid, other times defiant, or flippant, or even indifferent.

In reading the notes to the book, I discovered that it was an unfinished manuscript and Kafka had requested that all his works finished and unfinished be burned on his death. Since the book was unfinished the first few publications reordered the chapters to try and make a more sensible and coherent story (Kafka did not number his chapters, he simply named them).

The book starts pretty much the same way the movie did with a rather bizarre arrest sequence. Surreal is probably a better way to describe it, since it is more like a bad dream than blackboots breaking down the door and dragging the accused away to a secret detention centre.

The hardest thing about reading the translation I have is that here are no paragraphs! Everything is just one long paragraph with dialogue and prose jumbled together without any breaks (aside from the punctuation).

Not sure if I will finish the book as there is nothing as yet to hold my interest.

Image nabbed from here.