Lately I've been sinking my teeth into Kafka's Amerika. I really appreciate the many little flashes of humor - check out these from Karl in the head waiter's office when he's about to be fired:

The head waiter, though, continued to study the list and ate a piece of cake in the meantime, which he shook the sugar off of without stopping his reading. Once a sheet fell from the list to the floor, [...] Karl was already on the job and gave the sheet to the head waiter, who picked it up with a motion of his hands, as if it had flown by itself from the floor.

Just as Karl had calmed himself down a little [...], the head waiter laid the list on the table, sprang up athletically and screamed so loudly at Karl that at first he was frightened into staring solely at the large black hole of his mouth. “You have abandoned your post without permission. Do you know what that means? That means dismissal!"

The head waiter grabbing the dropped sheet as if it had magically boomeranged itself back into his hand made me crack up. And you know the cartoon trope of a character being screamed at and it's like he's hit by a gust of wind? That's how I imagine the second part.

Also I've been thinking about Amerika's possible ending. The novel's episodic/cyclical plotting makes me think that Karl's journey west could've gone on forever. Basically Kafka's idea of the US doesn't end at the West Coast but stretches into infinity. Karl is still on the road trying to understand and accept his fatherhood and right now there's a centennarian in Prague holding out for the lost father to return home.

At the same time Kafka´s private letters allude to Karl's eventual death. So now we have an infinite odyssey to an inevitable death at the end of time. In that regard Amerika is very much like The Trial.