“The side effects of combat can be unpredictable.”
― Timothy Zahn, Thrawn: Alliances

We’re squarely entering spring weather here in the PNW. A solid mix of atmospheric rivers, flowers blooming, and more daylight each day! I’m late in getting a video out on my Kmartinix Makes youtube channel, but I am hopefully gonna stick to my 2 a month goal.

Continuing some book reviews, next up The Trial by Franz Kafka! There’s a decent amount of classic books I’ve never read, and so I’ve been trying to add them in to my regular reading diet. One of the first I’m crossing off this year is The Trial by Franz Kafka.
I’ve heard a lot about Kafka from pop culture osmosis and references in other works. One of my favorite movies is Brazil and there’s been a lot of Kafka references in discussing that movie. So I finally read it!
The first half/two-thirds feel pretty straight forward. I had an understanding that the main plot of the story would be the absolute mayhem and madness that a bureaucratic system would create. What I was not expecting was the final part to totally devolve into surreal weirdness. I am also a big fan of surreal narratives(Twin Peaks/Lynch in general is a big part of my personality) and this book really goes there. I was a little lost at times because I was not expecting it to go so surreal so I struggled trying to make sense of what is supposed to be something so nonsensical.

My main complaint is that I wish it was a little longer. The tonal changes and character introductions go by so quickly that reading it on my own I easily brushed past some important detail. I imagine reading this in a lit class is a great experience because the book is short and the group discussion would help solidify all the themes.

Thanks for reading!