This book was extremely useful to me considering that I am doing a comparative study of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Franz Kafka. However, though the content was interesting, it is fairly basic; the book appears to be aimed at High School level students. The most valuable part of the book was undubtedly the extensive literature review on both authors, their works, criticisms, diaries, biographies etc.

This is a biography of Milena Jesenská, a Czech journalist who was, in a way, a great love of Kafka's. She was an unusual woman for her time. Highly intelligent and with a rebellious streak, she fashioned herself into a journalist and became well-regarded for her literary and political writing. In her 20s she came to know Kafka when she translated his work into Czech. This gave rise to an impassioned correspondence between them, although the connection didn't turn into a real-life love affair, partly because Milena was married, and partly because of Kafka's numerous anxieties and aversions in the male/female domain. Unfortunately, those interested in insights into Kafka will not get many from this book, as he comes and goes quite quickly in the narrative. Rather, the book is a loving tribute to Milena by Margarete Buber-Neumann, with whom she was imprisoned at the women's concentration camp at Ravensbrück. The two had planned to write a book together when they were freed, but Milena died of kidney failure in May 1944, so Margarete chose instead to tell her friend's story.

Franz Kafka is a true genius, there is no other way to put it. The stories are very powerful and "intoxicating" is the oly way I can put it. This book would have gotten a 6, only for the fact that the book lacked more stories and better translating; this is the publisher's fault. This book is a great one to start with for people just picking up on Kafka's works.

The Trial is an easy to read novel. If you need the Cliff Notes, that's quite sad. Don't get me wrong,Cliff Notes are useful for stories with many characters and difficult plot lines. But Kafka's novels are quite simplisticly written. Using "Cliff's" interpretation of Kafka is taking away the whole point of reading the novel.This story is one of self-interpretation and using someone else's ideas is extremely lazy. I don't recommend this to anyone.

The Trial is not meant to be summed or better understood through someone else's interpretation, because there is no conclusion one couldn't arrive at if he or she simply allowed themselves to be enveloped by Kafka's simple matter of fact prose. Using cliff notes for The Trial would be like watching the movie version of the old man and the sea; you get the point, but you don't get the experience. And if one cannot even brave as simple a task as The Trial, maybe he or she should be looking elsewhere, because Kafka deserves better than some lazy college student rushing to pump out another perfunctory piece of trash masquerading as an analysis.