Rating: 
Summary: the trial revisited
Review: Having read a few works by Kafka to include The Trial, I must say that I found them very enjoyable and thought-provoking. However, I found The Castle to be quite tedious reading. I feel that he pretty much made his point in the first 10 chapters and the last 10 did not add anything to the theme or to the interest I had in the story line or characters. The Castle is very similar to The Trial: there is a man who is being controlled by persons/forces unseen, there are many absurd acts and situations, the man is helpless, no one can/will help him, etc... This all worked very well with The Trial but here it just doesn't and maybe because it is an unfinished body of work. But even knowing how Kafka planned on ending it (which is included in this edition), I still don't believe it would add much. Perhaps another reason it doesn't work is because the character in The Castle chooses to stay in the village and willingly and knowingly makes things worse for himeslf. I found myself wondering why this guy just didn't go back from where he came. Whereas in The Trial, the character had nowhere else to go for he lived his whole life in that village so it made his predicament much more plausible and interesting. So, should you read this? Well, if you are a casual reader of Kafka, like myself, I would suggest reading The Trial first and if you like that then try this book. However, if you read The Trial and find it dry, then don't bother with this. If you are an avid reader of Kafka, then you probably have already read The Castle, enjoyed it, and are wondering what planet I am from.
Rating: 
Summary: I feel sorry for the main character and the reader
Review: I didn't really like _The Metamorphosis _ when I read it about 5 years ago so I thought it was time to give Kafka a try again.Wrong! If what he was trying to do was portray the hopelessness/uselessness of bureaucracy then he succeeded but the experience of reading the story was anything but enjoyable. Everyone in the story seems to know about everything that happens in the book and they all take turns analyzing the situation(s) ad nauseum. But none of the theories are ever proved true or untrue, and as many know, the story ends in the middle of a sentence leaving ABSOLUTELY no resolution to the problem. I guess I'll wait another 5 years and try _The Trial_ or _Amerika_.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best
Review: I disagree with many of the reviews of this work. "The Castle" is deliberately cumbersome to get across the feeling of bureaucracy; this makes it perhaps a good read when you've got nothing to do and are feeling a bit philosophical or pessimistic, but it's not something you can read after work. I liked "The Trial" a lot; it blended a bleak view of the world of guilt, punishment and self-righteousness with some good humour ["Are you a house painter?"] There is much less humour in "The Castle" and Josef K's character does not develop anywhere near as fully in this book. It is hard not to put this down to the fact that it was far from finished and the text breaks off mid-sentence, whilst "The Trial" [though still unfinished] has an ending and was nearer completion. There is still the surreal interactions with women in this book and the stubborn conversations that don't go anywhere, but they are in a much less animated tone. Also, the chapters where the procedures of bureacracy are described or K's "story so far" gone over are terribly boring. Some may say that this is to build up a sense of the bureacratic nature, but doing it in this way was no better than just reprinting the criminal code of Russia. I'd say the last few chapters are amongst the best, such as when he talks to an official that can never get to sleep.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best
Review: I disagree with many of the reviews of this work. "The Castle" is deliberately cumbersome to get across the feeling of bureaucracy; this makes it perhaps a good read when you've got nothing to do and are feeling a bit philosophical or pessimistic, but it's not something you can read after work. I liked "The Trial" a lot; it blended a bleak view of the world of guilt, punishment and self-righteousness with some good humour ["Are you a house painter?"] There is much less humour in "The Castle" and Josef K's character does not develop anywhere near as fully in this book. It is hard not to put this down to the fact that it was far from finished and the text breaks off mid-sentence, whilst "The Trial" [though still unfinished] has an ending and was nearer completion. There is still the surreal interactions with women in this book and the stubborn conversations that don't go anywhere, but they are in a much less animated tone. Also, the chapters where the procedures of bureacracy are described or K's "story so far" gone over are terribly boring. Some may say that this is to build up a sense of the bureacratic nature, but doing it in this way was no better than just reprinting the criminal code of Russia. I'd say the last few chapters are amongst the best, such as when he talks to an official that can never get to sleep.
Rating: 
Summary: Enigmatic
Review: I have read the Muir and the Harman translations and I feel the Harman version is a restoration of Kafka's Castle to the english language. Sentences are often long and punctuation sparse, this brings out the intended atmosphere of the novel which is close to surreal. The literary critics have posited numerous interpretations of the Castle but beware about becoming too dogmatic about any of them. This novel defies easy explanation and is purposely enigmatic. K. experiences many setbacks, switchbacks, and confusions on his trail to his goal, even his goal is an enigma to himself. Just as in life when we believe we have the answers disillusion is not far behind, K.'s struggles are thwarted and he thinks he's getting somewhere only to find he must constantly re-assess his position. It is so appropriate that this novel ends in mid sentence.
Rating: 
Summary: Nightmarish fare will haunt your dreams
Review: I read somewhere that Kafka used to read the newly-written chapters of THE CASTLE to his friends who would laugh uproariously along with the author. I found this the scariest thing about the book, indeed one of the strongest clues that late 20th century America is immeasurably distant from early 20th century Austria-Hungary. This book will give you nightmares. It is nothing so childish as a Hollywood horror movie, but a somehow crumpled, twisted, horrifying view of human nature, especially as manifest in bureaucracies. K needs to speak to someone to get something done. He approaches the castle where the lord lives. The whole story involves his endless efforts to speak to someone, anyone, who can help him contact the servant who has the ear of the clerk who can speak to the courtier who might be able to talk to the cousin who occasionally is known to have the ear of the lord. And of course, K is continually frustrated. Not to mention you, the reader. It is the stuff of the worst nightmares. Thus, though it is extremely unpleasant,without any hint of beauty, love, or human feeling, THE CASTLE is a most powerful novel, one of the best I have ever read. I can't say I liked it, but it impressed me no end. If you have ever read anything else by Kafka and liked it, you will definitely like this one. It was never finished, but then such a novel can have no finish.
Rating:
Summary: A hilariously terrifying book !!
Review: I wish to offer a friendly retort to reviewer Bob Newman, who states how Kafka would share excerpts of this book with his colleagues and would laugh out loud uproariously - and how this fact demonstrates how distant the 20th-Century American malaise is so distant from that of the same time period in Austria-Hungary. I would agree wih Newman that this is certainly a horrowing aspect of thetext; but it's also one that I participated in also while reading Harman's translation - first while reading the 5th Chapter, here titled "At the Chairman's" (where K. learns that his services as a surveyor are not even needed, but he was called anyway to the job due to a minor oversight, "the minorest of minors", I believe the text reads). I can just feel the steam rising from K.'s arrogantly-laden temple while listening to the hairman's explanation - first amused by it, then slowly becoming frustrated and probably even maddened ... funny stuff !! Maybe I only find this funny because I've never been so unfortunate to have been caught in the crossfire of such an oversight at a Liscense Branch, Court Order, etc. This scene is in no ways the climax of the text, but merely the beginning of the fall into the abyss for K. I hope others reading my retort here are moved to read the text in its entirity.
Rating:
Summary: Great Kafka, but not for the neophyte.
Review: I would not buy this book if it were your first forray into the realm of Kafka. But the short stories first, then Amerika, then the trial, and then, if you could make it through the trial, try this read. The new translation is excellent (I've read both translations) and puts an even grimmer spin on life in the village of the castle. Please note: Kafka died before finishing the book and he never really prepared it for publication. There are sentences that run half a page, and paragaphs that run almost a whole chapter. The final page ends mid sentence. If you are a fan of Kafka then this book is a must read, especially if you read the Muir translation of The Castle.
Rating:
Summary: Could have been better, and shorter
Review: I'm going to go out on a limb here and give this book a negative review. It's not that I don't like Kafka, I've read most of his fiction and I think he was a brilliant writer. But this book just disappointed me. It's a few hundred pages too long--he pretty much makes most of his main points in the first part of the book and the remaining narrative seems superfluous and, well, tedious. Although his other two novels are also "unfinished" I think he expressed himself much more clearly in them. I agree with the other reviewers that this novel was about many things, i.e. the quest for truth, the frustration of the invididual facing the state and society itself, etc., but I think it could have been done better, especially by someone like Kafka. While reading "The Castle" I couldn't get over the impression that I was reading the first draft of something the author probably would have refined and improved had he lived longer.
Rating:
Summary: I Love Kafka But This Novel Is Not So Great
Review: I've had a lifelong obsession with Kafka, but his novels I can do without. This book is very tedious to get through, and if the point is to make me experience firsthand that that's how dealing with bureaucracy feels--tedious, then I can just go wait in lines at my local DMV for that big revelation. Better to read any of his short stories. There was a reason these novels weren't published in his lifetime--even he himself felt they weren't quite finished or ready for the reader's eye.
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