Rating: 
Summary: the greatest book half-written
Review: There's no denying it--the Castle is fragmentary, maddeningly slow-paced, and suddenly shifts gear at repeated points, with the undeniable suggestion that Kafka stumbled across some new aspect and decided to give it a try. This is a long way from the compulsive readability of a short story like A Country Doctor, in which the sense of futility and disorientation is made incredibly visceral and affecting--there is a disorientation in the Castle, there is, beyond any doubt, the sense of futility, but it is stretched out across long, long chapters, achieving its effect more through aching weariness than through the shock of being placed in a bizarre situation. I found the first two or three chapters to be very absorbing, but once the pointlessness of K.'s venture has been firmly established, it trails off into endless repetition--for the rest of the first half of the book, prepare for situation after situation which establish nothing new and merely grind in the gloomy conclusion until (if you're like me) you actually begin to experience very discomforting emotional effects, not quite like in anything else except maybe some of Beckett, though its uniqueness hardly makes it seem any more pleasant. But, somewhere around page 160 or so, it really starts to pick up. The rest of the chapters are dominated by long monologues by minor characters, setting up brilliantly bizarre side-plots which manage to both mask and emphasize the looming futility at the same time, and, toward the end, to reinterpret the preceding events in a way which will make you question what seemed so clear before. Beyond the first couple of chapters and then certain sections in Olga's monologue, I can't say I was exactly absorbed in the story in the way I've been with the short fiction, but by the end it definitely seems like it's been a worthwhile experience. And this would be a good time to talk more about the novel's fragmentary state--it does end abruptly (though, if we can trust Max Brod, it was left off near the end, and Kafka did provide a conclusion, which you can find in most commentaries though it is mysteriously missing from this edition), and certain parts, such as the endless section from about page 80 to page 160, should definitely have been pared down or at least modified somehow, other parts should have been tweaked a little to follow what had come before, and occasionally, though the prose is exceptional for such an early draft, it is in need of some sharpening. But for what we have--I won't dwell much more than I already have on the concepts it deals with, that's something you should interpret for yourself as you read along--even considering the state that it's in, this is clearly a brilliant novel, nothing quite like it had been done before or has been done since. Someone once said that Kafka attempted to create a painstaking realism to describe the state of his inner mind in the way that Flaubert (one of his greatest influences) created his to sketch Yonville and its inhabitants down to the smallest detail, and I think there is quite a bit of truth in this. It manages to bend the rules of reality without seeming surreal, and to utilize characters as indicators of certain aspects of the inner life without having them seem like mere symbols or mouthpieces. Some people complain that Kafka left far too much open to interpretation, some even accuse him of not even understanding himself what it was he was trying to say, but I disagree, the painstaking balance one sees in this work shows that he was not stabbing in the dark but was actually paring it down to the essentials, was stating the basic situation from which many smaller issues branch out. Due to this balance, due to the issues it raises and the almost entirely new method created for doing so, the Castle is, certainly, one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. If Kafka had persevered, had made the necessary adjustments, and had come out with a work as polished as his short works, it would certainly be one of the greatest books ever written. The Castle is a book that creates a fiction which encompasses the idea of fiction itself, and maps out in incomprehensible detail the life of the inner psyche, the condition of the modern mind. It is frustrating, maddening, incomplete, but definitely a worthwhile read.
Rating: 
Summary: an interminable nightmare
Review: This book is as disturbing as it is boring: hundreds of pages of episodes in which the reader is unsure of what is really going on, all with a vivid and depressing dream-like atmosphere and acute anxiety. The characters seem as caught in the strange bureaucracy as does the reader in the seemingly endless text.I still have no clear idea why this novel is supposed to be one of the greatest of the 20c. While it pioneered a kind of political surrealism, it just goes in circles and nothing is ever resolved. Perhaps its sheer consistency is what makes academics proclaim its greatness. There is little clear plot and the nothingness of it just goes on and on in a static Angst. If you really read this, you may be as disappointed as was I. It is yet another example of a "classic" that is unspeakably dull and perhaps over-rated by critics who are as far from the normal reader as an English professor can be from a lover of books. But then, Kafka had instructed Max Brod to burn this novel, due to its incompleteness. Read if you are more interested in slogging through a classic than enjoying one!
Rating:
Summary: The story of our lives
Review: This book is my favourite Kafka book. It is about a man who is very close to his goal but he can never reach it. There is always something that prevents him from getting there completely and when he believes he is there, he is further away then ever... I had a strange experience relating to this. I was out driving outside of Vienna, Austria when I saw a roadsign towards a Kafka monument. I stopped my bike and went back to find the place were Kafka died. It was a museum. I tried to open the door, but it was closed. I rang the bell and I knocked on the door, but no-one answered. I could hear voices from inside and I could see people move through the curtains, but nobody would let me in. Then I suddenly realized that this was probably the monument itself; being that close, but never reaching it completely.
Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: This has to be, without a doubt, my favourite book. Close second "Great Expectations," Charles Dickens. Anyone who knows both of these books well, will definitely see the connection. One thing that a lot of people fail to pick up on with Kafka is his AMAZING sense of humour! This aspect of Kafka is possibly THE light at the end of his dark and brooding tunnels of thought. There are so many questions...so many dichotomies...so much absurdity and inanity...one gets trapped inside a straight jacket trying to rationalize the irrational. But at the end of it, one HAS to laugh, from sheer pain and agony. Are not the funniest things extremely painful? I like the scene where K's helpers play on playground equipment like monkeys. Isn't it strange how such monkeys can suddenly defend themselves in argument with the utmost eloquence and precision? Also the scene involving officials who shuffle papers in and out of doors. I was virtually on the floor with laughter. I was IN the scene with K...IN the corridor watching all this toing and froing.... Anyway enough talk....Read the book!
Rating:
Summary: Materpiece
Review: This is Kafka at his best. An incomprehensible system with incomprehensible procedure but a man, along with the masses, invest their lives into it. The symbolism is obvious and its impact devastating. The monomaniacal attempts to get entrance to the Castle are hilarious and frightening at the same time. At one moment, you think it is so absurd, but then you think how each event can so easily be trnslated into your existence. A must read!!
Rating:
Summary: A waking nightmare
Review: This is perhaps one of the hardest books I've read. The sentences stretch for lines, and the paragraphs take entire chapters. but don't let these deterr you: this style only helps to create this existential nightmare, makes it more dream-like. Absurdity abounds this book: K.'s struggle to get to talk to Klamm is rebuked countless times, making him start over again. Pepi's dream to have Frieda's position is merely taken away by Fireda, thus making her start over. And Frieda's plans of are merely thrown away. Martin Buber's philosophy is, perhaps, a greater theme in this book. If you are not familiar with I AND THOU, I recomend reading it, because his philosophy gives the greatest explanation as to why nothing was accomplished. And being familiar with Kierkegaard greatly helps to lead tyo some sort of an understanding behind this enigmatic work. I loved this book and hated alll at once. I may not call it Kafka's masterpeice, though, because I still have to read THE TRIAL. THE CASTLE is hard to get through, but it is worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent new translation
Review: This is the first translation of _The_Castle_ since the 30s and the second translation into English ever. The original translators didn't have a good grasp of the Moderninst project, and they skewed the translation towards a an interpretation of the work as religious allegory. This translation doesn't.
Rating:
Summary: Compliments, rather than replaces, earlier editions.
Review: This new edition is useful in that it makes some parts of the narrative closer to the original. In other parts, thoughit seems to muddle things. Its hard to acsertain which is better, this is a complex issue which always comes into play when a complex author is translated into another language. I would suggest that people read both editions together, as this novel is rich enough to be rewarding each time.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Frustrating Novel You'll Ever Love...
Review: This novel had me pulling my hair out - I don't think I've EVER been so at one with the central character, as if I felt ever shiver of anger, despair, and frustration he felt. One becomes enveloped within K.'s angst, his frustration with the system, of overt-correctness, and with the underlying evil of following protocol without question - eternal protocol, the creator and purpose of which has been long forgotten. Set in today's backdrop of Dilbert and IRS audits and sex scandals, Kafka reaches within us to tap our frustration in a wholly unique way, leaving us unsatisfied yet self-aware. However, if we imagine ourselves in Kafka's shoes, a Jew in pre-war, pro-Nazi Eastern Europe, that dissatisfaction, that dissatisfaction transforms to true fear.
Rating:
Summary: A stranger in the absurd world
Review: This novel starts at the arrival of an engineer called K at a village. Despite his assertion, no one can confirm his contract with the Castle. Then, K decides the direct negotiation with it, although he doesn't know where the Castle is. This absurd beginning of the story suggests the atmosphere of this novel. Every trial to go to the Castle fails though it is visible from the village. Every effort is felt meaningless to access here, because no one knows the way to it. No people except a woman help him with interest. The woman becomes his lover, but soon leaves him. At last he succeeds to meet the attorney of the Castle, but there is little hope. His trial to contact the Castle continues without any disappointment... The above is a rough sketch of this novel. We notice that the important is not the story, but the process of his behavior. He feels little emotion against his lover at the village. He has little pleasure even when the attorney of the Castle says to research the existence of his contract. He feels as if it is natural when his lover betrays him. His aim is to keep the contract with the Castle and only that. Making no human relations with village people, he is going to perform his obligation to the Castle with the strict will, although it doesn't give him any assurance of the existence of the contract. The theme of this novel is his highly rational and little emotional behavior in this absurd situation that symbolizes our society. His psychology is only the adaptation to it. The story ends abruptly without any conclusion like our lives. We have no lessons from this novel, but only experience the lonely soul in the absurd world. We must admit that this experience is suitable for some situation. This novel will bring the supreme sympathy to those who is replaced on the same environment.
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