Rating: 
Summary: Enter At Your Own Risk
Review: Outside of the Russian authors it's hard for me to think of an author I like more than Kafka. I own everything he's every written, whether I have read all of his stories is a different matter lol. I have read "The Trial", and have read some of his short stories. I even did a school paper on two of them, "The Vulture" and "Home-Coming". But, "The Castle" is somewhat disappointing. When I first read "The Trial" I had a lot of ideas as to what it represented. I felt a connection with the main character, but, here with "The Castle", I'm debating what is this book about? My first guess was\is the castle clearly represents the government. But I wouldn't call "The Castle" a political book. As with all of Kafka's novels, they are incomplete. I noticed this bothered some people when reading "The Trial", but I thought the book was a masterpiece. I've also noticed some people are bothered by this book being incomplete as well. While I'm not really upset over that, I will admit, I did think about it more. Many characters are just forgotten. We have no clue what will happen to them. The last chapter I found unnecessary. And hated the last sentence in the book. But would I call this a bad book? No. Maybe I just like Kafka so much I can't be hard on him. I do think there is some substance to this book, it just takes a while to absorb it, but, I don't think it's as rewarding as "The Trial". Would I encourage someone to read this book? Only if your a Kafka fan. In order to "test the waters" read some of the short stories and "The Trial", I haven't read "Amerika" yet, so I can't comment on it, but "The Castle" should not be your introduction into Kafka's world. Bottom-line: For me, simply not as thought provoking as other works by Kafka. I enjoyed it to a point, but was left somewhat disappointed. Has a sloppy ending and seems as if it doesn't resolve anything.
Rating: 
Summary: Lo mejor de Kafka.
Review: Primero leí El Proceso y creí que estaba ante lo mejor de un escritor excepcional. Era verdad que estaba ante un deslumbrante escritor, capáz de mostrar al lector "lo inalcanzable" con una historia burocrática hasta el infinito. El Proceso tiene mucho de la realidad: además de lo inalcanzable está la eterna curiosidad y la lucha, los temores, la inoperancia, la ineficiencia. Kafak, sin duda, fue un adelantado a su tiempo. Fue un visionario y eso lo convirtió en un genio. Escribió lo que pensaba y le pasaba, y eso alcanzó para mostrar una realidad que nadie veía. Su estilo de escritura es ameno, insorportable pero difícil de soltar. Creí que El Proceso era lo mejor de Kafka, pero cuando leí El Castillo entendía que el escritor se había superado a si mismo. Es un libro interminable, como El Proceso. No puede escribirse un final para estos dos libros de Kafka simplemente porque no lo tiene. No es una historia. Es un tramo de una historia sin principio ni fin. Interminable. Es muy recomendable.
Rating:
Summary: .
Review: Probably not the most recommendable place to start for someone unfamiliar with Kafka, but if you've read other works by Kafka and have enjoyed them, you'll need to get around to this one eventually. Personally, I think it's one of the best books I've ever read. It is true that nothing much really happens, in the typical sense, and that the book is distinctly unfinished and probably flawed on a number of levels. But in some senses this only enhances the mysterious nature of the book. It is utterly surreal and ultimately pointless as a conventional narrative, but rather resembles an epic, highly detailed, inherently meaningful, yet hopelessly ambiguous dream. I find this mix and this atmosphere extremely appealing, and I have never seen it in a purer, more innocently perfect form than here. A book full of magic.
Rating:
Summary: the terrible truth
Review: Surely one of the most disturbing books written. A good translation that emphasises the alienation, dislocation and spiritual loss of life in this century and probably the next.
Rating:
Summary: Well-written but soooo long
Review: The Castle is a powerful look at a town full of people trying to gain meaning for their lives from something outside of and wholy removed from their selves. The townspeoples alienation from each other and needy grasping toward a Castle that they can dream about but never touch is a disturbing one with strong parallels in today's celebrity worship, religious fundamentalism, and statism. Similiarly, K.'s descent from activism to conformity illustrates the power of mass society and the desire to fit in over the indivdual's need for a self-contained self. The problem is the book is tooo long. Kafka induces a sense of futility and alienation by making his story move at a glacial pace with minute changes taking chapters to occur. And while this technique works, it's certainly not some great literary accomplishment. So while The Castle is a relevant treatise on how we give, or fail to give, meaning to our lives; it's also an incredibly dense and difficult read.
Rating: 
Summary: The What?
Review: The idea behind "The Castle" and the ryhthm in which it is written is genius, yet the story, central to K's whinning and conversational tangents--not all too interesting-- quickly becomes obnoxious. "The Castle" is slow, and a hard read. It would have been better if it was a short story.
Rating: 
Summary: No Gates
Review: The most amazing thing about the castle, is Kafka's relation to it...the fact that Kafka died just before he was going to write the chapters in which K finally got into the castle. I do no believe this story is one of futility. I don't think that's what Kafka meant. Nor do I think he intended humor. Instead, I look at the castle as a testament to daily drudgery. The idea that our lives have little meaning beyond the present. Nothing is definite...and so, it is an abstract monumnet. Characters are whimsical in the face of adversity, but ultimately, their motives are uncertain, and their feelings are unknown. A little too close to reality for me...but a good work.
Rating:
Summary: Franz Kafka: So Many Rooms Behind
Review: The Trial, written by Franz Kafka and published posthumously by Kafka's best friend, Max Brod, is hailed as Kafka's best work, and though it is very well written and very good, there is something that it lacks that The Castle for which makes amends. The Trial, Kafka's second novel, is about K., a clerk who is arrested one morning for a crime that he is unaware of and will not be told of, and the consequent dealings with this arrest, leading up to climatic execution of K. Though K. has no idea why he is being arrested and will not be told, he never even asks. His questions are always too many ahead or behind--he never asks the questions that he should ask, and thus, is kept in the dark until his blind death. The Castle, Kafka's last novel, also centers about a protagonist named K. In fact, The Castle may even be a rewrite of The Trial. The Castle is about K., a land-surveyor, sent to a town that centers about a mysterious and boding Castle that sits atop a large hill. The Castle, it seems, has summoned K. to work as land-surveyor, but, once he arrives, they have no need for him. K. wanders about the town, trying to set appointments with officials at the Castle, but never to any avail. The townspeople treat him like a leper and barely ever even speak to him, and thus K. is turned into an autobiographical representation of Kafka himself--forever on the outside of crowds, always alienated from his own society. K., in trying to get into the Castle, uses several people so that he can move up in the system and continues to search for people with only the notion of bettering his own situation. Everybody else is always in his eyes, but when the answer walks up to him and reveals itself to him, K. can do nothing but go to sleep. So though K. repeatedly tries to infiltrate the world of the Castle, but can never find his way inside the walls. Though The Castle was never finished, I think it tells a much sadder tale than The Trial does. The Trial, of course, ends with the murder of Joseph. K., it has, certainly, a finality to it. The Castle ends in a mid sentence, but still it seems complete. K. would forever try to make his way inside, but never would he succeed. K., like Kafka himself, is always too many rooms behind, thinking he is closer to success than he ever actually is. Because the novel ends in mid sentence, it lends the franticness and nervousness of a cliffhanger--the epitome of the absurdly true. The Trial is a more polished and finished book than The Castle, and with that sufficient editing, one loses the honesty and truth that is present in The Castle. Because The Castle was never revised by Kafka, it reads more like a diary than a real novel. The Castle, really, is actually a better read than are The Diaries, for Kafka is more honest and undecorated here than he ever could be in his journals.
Rating:
Summary: Franz Kafka: So Many Rooms Behind
Review: The Trial, written by Franz Kafka and published posthumously by Kafka?s best friend, Max Brod, is hailed as Kafka?s best work, and though it is very well written and very good, there is something that it lacks that The Castle for which makes amends. The Trial, Kafka?s second novel, is about K., a clerk who is arrested one morning for a crime that he is unaware of and will not be told of, and the consequent dealings with this arrest, leading up to climatic execution of K. Though K. has no idea why he is being arrested and will not be told, he never even asks. His questions are always too many ahead or behind--he never asks the questions that he should ask, and thus, is kept in the dark until his blind death. The Castle, Kafka?s last novel, also centers about a protagonist named K. In fact, The Castle may even be a rewrite of The Trial. The Castle is about K., a land-surveyor, sent to a town that centers about a mysterious and boding Castle that sits atop a large hill. The Castle, it seems, has summoned K. to work as land-surveyor, but, once he arrives, they have no need for him. K. wanders about the town, trying to set appointments with officials at the Castle, but never to any avail. The townspeople treat him like a leper and barely ever even speak to him, and thus K. is turned into an autobiographical representation of Kafka himself--forever on the outside of crowds, always alienated from his own society. K., in trying to get into the Castle, uses several people so that he can move up in the system and continues to search for people with only the notion of bettering his own situation. Everybody else is always in his eyes, but when the answer walks up to him and reveals itself to him, K. can do nothing but go to sleep. So though K. repeatedly tries to infiltrate the world of the Castle, but can never find his way inside the walls. Though The Castle was never finished, I think it tells a much sadder tale than The Trial does. The Trial, of course, ends with the murder of Joseph. K., it has, certainly, a finality to it. The Castle ends in a mid sentence, but still it seems complete. K. would forever try to make his way inside, but never would he succeed. K., like Kafka himself, is always too many rooms behind, thinking he is closer to success than he ever actually is. Because the novel ends in mid sentence, it lends the franticness and nervousness of a cliffhanger--the epitome of the absurdly true. The Trial is a more polished and finished book than The Castle, and with that sufficient editing, one loses the honesty and truth that is present in The Castle. Because The Castle was never revised by Kafka, it reads more like a diary than a real novel. The Castle, really, is actually a better read than are The Diaries, for Kafka is more honest and undecorated here than he ever could be in his journals.
Rating:
Summary: Absurdist and Wonderful
Review: There are so many levels to Kafka's writing, it's hard to write about his masterpiece in such a small space. The Castle is a book that shows a political system the people cannot get in touch with, never really see, and can only guess at. This was written around 1920, pre-Orwell, pre-Huxley, even pre-Anthem, a distopia novel that is better than any others. Kafka's citizens, like America's, can never really contact the Castle like how we cannot ever really contact our castle, the white house, directly. This book may even be considered a work of prophesy by one of the greatest geniuses to ever live. Another great thing about this book is how is shows nothing ever beginning or ending. K. tries to get to the Castle, doesn't; K. fires his assistants, he sees them again; K. is accepted as the surveyor, he is denied... Nothing seems to have a point, but that in itself is the point. Life is just and endless round of disappoints and no no clear cut endings or beginnings. Life is absurd, and while we may laugh at the antics of the assistants at first, doesn't it get kind of creepy after a while, kind of like you KNOW people like that, people who you can see through but everyone else loves for some reason? This book is dense, long, and very dark. It may also be (next to Ulysses) the most important work of fiction of the twentieth century, showing us how absurd and useless are lives really are. No one can ever reach the castle, it stands in sight, but we can never achieve the enlighenment or promminence nessicary to get inside. Kafka's genius will astound you, but I would suggest reading The Trial and some of the short stories before attempting to tackle this difficult work. It pays to be "in the Kafka know" when reading The Castle, it'll be much more enjoyable.
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