for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning

I had to read the book "The Trial" from Franz Kafka for my German lessons. Here I want to present some of my thoughts concerning this work.

Kafka was a German speaking Jew in Prague, who has had a difficult relationship to women, and he did not get along with his father at all. His novels are really special, to that extent that he has his own literary term "Kafkaesque".

This book is a exemplar of this Kafkaesque writing style; centring on a person named simply K., it throws the reader into his bedroom, with two strangers disturbing his sleep and declare him arrested. Apart from this abrupt beginning, which may not be that special, the strangeness of all events combined with their inescapabillity and the characters natural reaction on those makes this writing style unique. E.g. the very first scene K. is very often changing his mind from insecurity over weariness and acceptance to protest against the intruders and asking for their permissions. Apart from the protagonist the characters are astonishingly set: while the employees of the court are convinced of their eligibility, other characters are just accepting the situation immediately while K. is still struggling and trying to understand.

So in general you could say: If you are looking for a book with an unique plot, definitely skip this book; it hasn't got any. But if you like alternative books, and are e.g. interested in the psychology of characters, it could be a nice book for you. But even if so I would only say "try to read it" instead of "I recommend it", because apart from the "Kafkaesque" part it is still quite special in its writing style. Simply said, Kafka tends to give an explanation to explanations which explain an relative unimportant observation or side effect. Another good tip is not to look for any sense in the novel. It could be said to be senseless, but it is not pointless in my opinion. Instead you should try to engage yourself with it.

When I'm considering everything I am not sure, whether or not it is really worth reading, but I'd tend to say that I like it.