The Trial [Tantor Audio]

By: Franz Kafka

Narrated by: Todd McLaren

Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

First published in 1925, The Trial tells the story of a man arrested for an unknown crime by a remote, inaccessible authority and his struggle for control over the increasing absurdity of his life. One of Franz Kafka's best-known works, The Trial has been variously interpreted as an examination of political power, a satirical depiction of bureaucracy, and a pessimistic religious parable. Left unfinished at the time of Kafka's 1924 death, The Trial is nevertheless a trenchant depiction of the seemingly incomprehensible nature of existence and a fascinating exploration of the universal issues of justice, power, freedom, and isolation.

Public Domain (P)2011 Tantor

Classic indifference in modern society

Franz Kafka's The Trial is a classic depiction of the cold indifference of modern society. A mid level bank employee is accused of a crime, although he is never told the nature of that crime. He endures an opaque and labyrinthine system that is completely uninterpretable and unnavigable to an outsider and seems solely designed to serve and sustain the system. Along the way, he encounter others in the system and deals with lawyers who are equally intent on perpetuating the impenetrability the whole affair. While he suffers throughout from cold, unfeeling inscrutable system, his fate is sealed and in the end, he never even learns the original instigating cause of his demise.

Kafka explores the downsides to large, complex structures necessitated by large populations, in essence the evolving issues with modern life. No one individual has the big picture, no one has all the details, and no one has any responsibilities or accountability beyond carrying out their specific tasks. While everyone can empathize with K, Kafka manages to string together a story in the extreme that highlights the problems dealing with large groups of people.

The narration is adequate with reasonable character distinction and solid pacing. While not long, be prepared to be frustrated by the continual injustices experienced at every turn.

Poor performance weakens the story

The narrator spoke characters’ lines without depth or feeling. The often mechanical reading offered by the narrator dulled any hopes of immersion in the content.

Good context, terrible ending

It was an interesting story. I kept reminding myself that it was a story of an older time. At times I felt like it was an explanation of our court system and the flaws it has. Other times I felt like it was just a shakedown of people that wanted power for the sake of power. I was rooting for the protagonist through most of the book, but started to want him to fail and saw him as someone who should be found guilty. The ending was very mediocre, felt rushed, and I don't feel like there was any real conclusion with missing information. I understand this could be because Kafka died before this book was finished, which might be the issue with it's ending.

Self-absorbed twat gets caught up in absurd trial

The main character is this book is a self-absorbed, self-righteous twat who can't be bothered to consider anything beyond own reprehensible understanding of reality. I think the reason he never discovered what he was being accused of is because he never let anyone else speak. We are given an insinuation of his crime and his reaction alone should be enough to convict him. By the end of the book I was rooting for the court system to shut him up and nearly cheered at the ending.

Given all of that, both the trial and the court system were utterly ridiculous, particularly given that they seemed to have no power to force anyone to do anything that wasn't voluntary in some way.

Plodding narration

The narrator’s range was narrow, monotonous, plodding - made this a difficult listen. The translation or editing fell short in a number of passages. The edition needs some tweaking.

Great Story

It was strange to listen to, as it never felt like things were going anywhere, but I still remained interested. Narrator was great too. His voice changes kept things flowing.

An Intellectual classic

I read this at age 20. The reader did an excellent job and it’s not an easy read.
If you have no interest in politics, sociology or religion you’ll miss the depth and breadth of this well worthwhile read

I had no idea what I was getting myself into...

My brother recommended this to me... I almost quit a few hours in as I thought it just wasn't my type of book. My brother insisted I finish so I did. We had the most interesting conversation when discussing the book. I can't say that I enjoyed it, but it does make you think. I was not impressed with the performance.

That ending was crazy!

that was super unexpected! the narration was really good also. highly recommended! the story and the narrator

Ummm..... What?

I guess this was an unfinished classic novel. You spend the whole time lost (because the main character is lost) and there's no real explanation or resolution. lol
The form and duologue is very well written though.