I mean, Abu Ghraib anyone? No, I think not. Let’s face it, we humans, even the best of us, are remarkably innovative when it comes to constructing nightmares for others to live in and really don’t need any instructions from fiction. Of course, the book could be a guide book on how to construct a totalitarian regime – if such a guide book was ever needed. That is what the book is 'about' - and a sensitive reader will be struck by how often they interpret what is going on around them with as little 'proof' to try to make sense of the world. This is a remarkable book and one that has much to say about how we construct our reality and how we interpret the realities constructed by others to explain how their world ‘works’. That might make it sound like I didn’t enjoy reading it – and that wouldn’t be the right impression to leave you with.

There was never going to be a happy ending to this book. Like waking from a nightmare it really is okay that it is over. You might think that this would be a bit of a pain – in fact, the book ending was a relief. This book was never finished and the version I’ve just finished reading ends where Kafka abandoned it, mid-sentence, with yet another new character about to say something terribly important to the central character ‘K’. The Castle is even more of a nightmare again. In The Trial the point is in being accused of something, but never being told what it is you have been accused of, but still needing to defend yourself in some way all the same. In Metamorphosis there is the ‘yuck’ factor of the main character becoming an insect – but that is hardly the ‘nightmare’ of that book. However, his nightmares are never quite what you might expect - expectations are always a problem when reading Kafka, firsst they get in the way and then they get dashed. There is a lot of talk about Kafka and nightmares – and with good reason.

The Castle by Franz Kafka