"The Trial," Franz Kafka

I know it's a bit premature given I'm less than 100 pages in, but I'm very much enjoying this book thus far. It's quite a juxtaposition going from Meyer's simplistic dribble drabble to Kafka's multiple-page paragraphs and quotes, and with actual deeply laid meaning, plotting and characterization.

Once I finish I'll give a more detailed review.

I couldn't find the cover of the version I read -- I picked it up at a used book sale at the library for like a dollar. The pages are beyond yellowed so perhaps it is quite an older version.

At any rate, I couldn't help but love this book. Kafka really was a brilliant guy. Not my favorite author by any stretch of the imagination but one which I admire. His structuring and language were both complicated and sensually simple to understand at the same time.

This talent in making the complicated simple by only the precise ordering of words is made more evident in light of the plethora of complex emotional philosophical and legal concepts presented throughout the book.

A single qualm might be the excessively lengthy dialog and seemingly break-less paragraphs; very exhausting. Still, I found myself unable to put the damned thing down (maybe in part because the 40 page chapters/paragraphs never seemed to contain any pages that ended on a period).

Joseph K. is a compelling if somewhat egotistical and sexist protagonist -- though this may have simply reflected the time in which the book was published -- who must face a trial in which the charge is unknown, there is no courtroom and the information provided him is unhelpful to say the least. He must deal with an onslaught of lawyers and court officials who seem to only beguile him with contradictories and cryptic philosophies that do nothing to further his case. He uses the women around him to try to get to higher officials but yet is unsuccessful until his (SPOILER! LOOK AWAY!) death a year later.

The complex underworld (or rather, upperworld -- the court offices are in the attics) of the "court" which exists of its own laws as if a foreign embassy, is daunting and chilling as a place in which one can be charged tried and killed without answers. Any efforts against the corrupt system of court officials, who have themselves painted in vain poses of false authority, cuckold their servants' wives and give credence only to structured pandering, are made useless in the end.

A dark irony and a brilliant read, so long as you don't mind the early-century writing.