Após bastantes anos sem ler, resolvi voltar a entrar no mundo literário. Escolhi 'O Processo' de Franz Kafka para marcar o meu regresso, visto sempre ter tido curiosidade em ler um livro de sua autoria, e poder então compreender o conceito de literatura kafkiana através de uma das suas obras de maiores sucesso.

A premissa deste livro captou o meu interesse, visto ter parecido o estilo de narrativa que me cativa. Certo dia Josef K. acorda e é informado que se encontra preso e sob a alçada de um processo judicial, sem qualquer informação adicional relativamente ao seu processo, nem sequer qual é a acusação. Contudo não é acusado de um processo criminal, nem sequer a sua prisão é efetiva, podendo levar a cabo a sua vida normal em aparente liberdade, desde que compareça aos inquéritos e audiências dos tribunais.

O desenvolvimento da história foi o que me desiludiu. Parece que esta situação absurda, vulgo kafkiana é aceitada com naturalidade por toda a gente envolvida, e é completamente desprezado pelo livro qual o motivo da acusação ou de quem o acusa. Em vez disso, é descrito pormenorizadamente a corrupção e os meandros do serviço jurídico que aplicou o processo ao protagonista, num ponto de vista mais filosófico do que proactivo.

Apesar de aceitar não ser o meu estilo de livro, compreendi a alegoria que Franz Kafka pretendeu transmitir, tendo-me feito refletir acerca do conceito de justiça e das relações do poder instuído, podendo então afirmar que sendo o objetivo do livro fazer-nos pensar, esta obra literária cumpriu o objetivo proposto. Contudo, não é um estilo literário que me tenha agradado particularmente. O personagem principal nunca consegue transmitir empatia devido ao facto de ser um homem arrogante e misoginista (todas as mulheres que apareceram neste livro ficam perdidas de amor por ele). Esta história pode ser resumida ao Josef K. falar do seu processo com inúmeras personagens que raramente repetem a sua aparição nos capítulos seguintes, mas sabem sempre todas mais sobre todo o processo que o próprio protagonista mas sem nunca detalhar informações. Algo que não gostei também foi um capítulo estar visivelmente incompleto, existindo uma quebra na continuidade da história, e o final foi na minha opinião, demasiado repentino.

Este é um livro que pensei que fosse gostar mais do que realmente gostei, e bem tentei gostar dele, tendo inclusive visto a versão em cinema feita por Orson Welles em 1962, e lido bastantes análise críticas da obra a ver se me tinha escapado algum detalhe ou metáfora importante. A verdade é que não me senti envolvido nesta história, embora a abordagem do tema de um ponto de vista filosófico tenha sido impecável e imaginativo, num todo esta obra literária deixou-me muito a desejar. Apesar de tudo gostei da experiência de o ler, não digo que repetirei, mas recomendo para quem goste de livros deste género. ( )

"The Trial" by Franz Kafka is a novel that follows the surreal and nightmarish experiences of Josef K., a young and seemingly ordinary man who is unexpectedly arrested by unidentified agents. The story begins with Josef waking up one morning to find himself under arrest, yet he is not informed of the charges against him or the nature of his supposed crime.

As Josef navigates a bewildering and labyrinthine judicial system, he encounters a series of bizarre characters and situations that highlight the absurdity and arbitrary nature of the legal process. Despite his attempts to defend himself and seek answers, Josef is caught in a web of bureaucracy, confusion, and a pervasive sense of guilt.

Throughout the novel, Kafka explores themes of alienation, existential anxiety, and the dehumanizing effects of an opaque and indifferent bureaucracy. The narrative is characterized by its dreamlike and surreal atmosphere, and the ambiguous conclusion adds to the overall sense of unease and unresolved tension. "The Trial" is considered a seminal work of 20th-century literature and a masterpiece of existential and absurdist fiction. ( )

The story in itself has a very monotone atmosphere to it, nothing very surprising happens, everything is very down to earth, even things that are absurd you come around to agree that could happen maybe, it is however, very addicting to read, it draws you in with the mystery of why the man is being taken under arrest so suddenly and how does the machinations behind the court of law work, how is it that a man in under arrest can move freely and continue with his life as usual. There is the burden of knowing that the sentence may come to him one minute from now or years from now, it can come soon or maybe it wont come at all, but the anxiety of not knowing how bad it is, when its gonna come and what hes actually being accused of; are the things that keep you questioning. The people in the book are very strange and purposefully make K stay longer than he should, they take too long to say what they want to, too long to do what they have to, and K cant do anything at all except wait, or go away knowing that he could lose precious information that could help his case, that he cant get anywhere else... However it all can be a great loss of time for him as well, he wont know, he never knows, he is the one convicted with most knowledge of his case and yet, he doesnt understand anything at all. The book also feels to the reader like they are losing their time, just like K, the conversations and explanations and situations go on and on, feeling as though they might not end.. but it draws you in much further because of the sense that something might happen. ( )

If I had never heard of the book or the bones of the plot I would have had more fun and liked it more. The thing that fucks you the most while reading is that not a single person- including the person who is supposed to be our perspective- ever acknowledges what the fuck is going on at all. If the story and the concept wasn't so ingrained in the culture and I couldn't hear about it from a TED video than this book would have been so much more of a fuckery to read, I would always be flipping back through the pages to see what I missed, only to see that he wrote the explanation I was looking for, it would make me crazy and I would love this book and tell everyone about it but instead I like it a lot.

Because I wasn't blown away by the crazy concept I had a lot of time to think about why every decision was made in the writing process like how every woman around him cant resist themselves around this lonely 30 year old bank worker, " the accused are always more handsome" says the author who lives in his parents attic and falls desperately in love with a woman he met at a party once. Weird guy, very colourful introduction about how weird and nice guy he was and also quite a dickhead a lot of the time. ( )

(strong 8/10)
What can be said about this novel that hasn’t been said already? I am ashamed to say that the first time I heard about Kafka was through Murakami (Kafka On The Shore) and not due to any of his hitherto unknown literary accomplishments. We had a copy in our family since decades – so naturally one day the urge struck me to pick it up, and I did.

The Trial is quite the surreal novel, truth be told. We are told that there is a person called Josef K., who is arrested for no apparent reason at all – he is a pretentious banker and is quite a vapid person – but one who has committed no wrong. When does his case start? Why is he presumed guilty in the first place? When will his ‘advocate’ actually start doing work? Above all, does the work he’s doing for the case have any influence on the outcome? Or is this work all just for nothing?

This novel is eerily reminiscent of today’s convoluted legal system, what with its endless hierarchy, siloization, the ‘guilty-until-presumed-innocence’, show trials, and little to no effect of evidence on the case. In one scene, Josef meets a fellow client of his advocate – who is made to sleep in the attic of his advocate’s house and forced to read Latin – in order to ‘appreciate what the advocate is doing for his client’. It is utterly depressing to wade through, all the more so when you realize that it has been more than a century since the novel was penned – and all the obstacles to justice are still there, as it is.

While somewhat slow at parts, and not at all helped by the confusing and abrupt ending (from which various conclusions can be drawn, none of them clearing your confusion in the least), The Trial is a masterpiece which has to be read to be believed. ( )