"He was irresistibly drawn towards seeking out fresh acquaintanceships, yet each fresh acquaintanceship increased his weariness"
I have to say it took me quite some time to finish what is really quite a slim volume of a novel, famously unfinished by the author due to his untimely demise. Let me share with you some sage advice that I have learnt through reading the book. If you are feeling uncertain and frustrated about your current relationship, concerned that it is all give, no take and headed the usual nowhere. Don't read this book. It will be an entirely miserable experience.
When you share the same initial as the protagonist, K, that torture will somehow be amplified.
K is consistently thwarted in his attempts to take his place in The Castle in the role of land surveyor that drew him there in the first place. His struggles struck a chord as I see them reflected in my inability to enter the "promised land" of couple-dom. That heady place where you have a lover / companion that feels as equally predisposed to you, as you do to them. K is unlucky in love, Frieda and he share a strange connection, strange, empty and temporary. If Tinder was around, no doubt that would've brought them together and potentially tore them apart sooner.
If I sound despondent, fear not - I am no longer. Like K, I'll keep trying to get into the Castle and perhaps one day soon I'll make it. I wonder what would have happened in the completed novel? Perhaps that's my life's work to find out.
4 out of 5 - not what I needed this month, but torture nonetheless amazingly rendered.
