November 2009 book club meeting

"The Trial" by Franz Kafka Synopsis: Josef K., although he has done nothing wrong, is arrested on a charge that is never disclosed to him. From Amazon: The story of The Trial's publication is almost as fascinating as the novel itself. Kafka intended his parable of alienation in a mysterious bureaucracy to be burned, along with the rest of his diaries and manuscripts, after his death in 1924. Yet his friend Max Brod pressed forward to prepare The Trial and the rest of his papers for publication. When the Nazis came to power, publication of Jewish writers such as Kafka was forbidden; Kafka's writings, many of which have distinctively Jewish themes, did not find a broad audience until after World War II. Kafka's final work was left unfinished at the time of his 1924 death, and the original 1925 and subsequent editions were edited according to the standards of the day. When you RSVP it would be helpful if I had your phone number in case there is a last-minute change and you are not near your computer.