I think novels are too long to be pinned down into a single idea, which leaves us with absolutely no responsibility to finally "get it." That makes me relieved, and it gives me an interesting perspective on Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" which I just read for the fifth time (and still enjoyed it). Technically, it's a novella, but it still has that complication - that "Conrad's trying to say seventy things at once" feeling. In brilliant prose. Fortunately, this means we can still justify teaching it (and reading it) despite it's Imperialist overtones.
Kafka, on the other hand, writes the funniest jokes without punchlines. I feel a great responsibility to try to "get it" and I don't always. "The Penal Colony" was pretty simple, but some of his earlier stuff needed to be waded through. His translator knew how to turn a phrase, though.
