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Summary: Can being light have appreciable gravitational pull?
Review: One axiom that is appreciated by all readers is that an interpretation of a book is highly dependent on their attitudes, ideologies, and prejudices. This of course has been said many times, to the point of exhaustion possibly. This book is no exception to this rule, and even the title of a book can perhaps entice the reader in making pre-conceived conceptions of what the book is all about. There are many books where the title exhibits a clarity of purpose that prohibits any mistake as to the content and interpretation of the book. This is the case for example for technical and scientific books. For fiction though the title can having many meanings, and such is the case for this book. The "lightness of being" is the existential insecurity of European philosophy and culture, but also the carefree, lighthearted attitude of those who take nothing seriously, indulging themselves in a self-created age of irony. Thus the book opens in part one with the Nietzschean dogma of eternal recurrence. This is terrifying for the author, as he says it was for Nietzsche, calling it "the heaviest of burdens". But ordinary life can stand in contrast to this heaviness, and be "lightness". But is the latter free from anxiety? Is the ability to free onself from burdens more preferable in the this dichotomy of choice? Parmenides is quoted as saying that lightness is positive, but heaviness negative. The characters of the book: Sabina, Teresa, Tomas, Franz, and others, all encountered this lightness/weight opposition. But most interestingly, their dealings with it illustrated well that the boundary between its two constituents is ill-defined. Events classified in one class can also be in the other. But events can induce drastic consequences. History can be unstable under small perturbations. The characters are very well aware of this also. Self-absorbed and narcisstic to the core, Tomas and Sabina avoided, and were frightened by, responsibility. Tomas was not to be bound to his son, who was a mere consequence of a "single improvident night". And what of his relationships with (many) women? They were to only be "erotic friendships". These ideal relationships make no claim on the life and freedom of the other, and had no intersection with love. But such idealizations of romance and sex are never all-encompassing, for the weight of reality prohibits such lightness: Tomas became jealous of Teresa. And even after breaking it off with Teresa, and regaining his lightness, he voluntarily takes up the heavy weight, the torture of compassion, and returns to Prague to be with Teresa again. Tomas proves that human character has no correlation with the past. It defines itself, like Jean Paul Sartre says, by the instant. And Sabina, embedded in the rigidity of Soviet occupation, found no virtue in fidelity. Betrayal was more of a value for her. How could one think otherwise, given the human pollution she saw around her, in the guise of Soviet tanks and soldiers? Break ranks, and go off into the unknown, was for her the ultimate ethic. Following rank, and raising fists in unison, was for her the cause of all evil. But Sabina is confronted with the question of what to betray when all things left to betray are gone. All the burdens are gone, both inside and outside her. Pure emptiness is the result of her goal, this goal being completely unknown during its pursuit. Franz realized the value of dance, of becoming intoxicated with its freedom, allowing him to "get out of the library". But honesty to Franz was heavy, his courage was lacking, until he reveals to his wife Marie-Claude his affair with Sabina. Being honest lightened him of course, but Sabina, who worshipped betrayal, thought otherwise (of course). Sabina left him (of course). And Teresa, she needed the advice of Tomas and Sabina to free from the heaviness of morality, and to understand that love and sexuality have nothing in common. Desparate in her attempts not to be jealous of Tomas' other women, she eventually showed great courage and proof of lightness: the witnessing of men giving up their lives in suicide. But this is still to be contrasted with her attempts to sleep with a pure stranger: she was still not advanced (light) enough for that.
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Summary: Shut your mouth and open your mind
Review: To explore the literary significance of this piece is to torch down a forest for the sake of sighting just one tree. Let the experts revel in their self-indulgent semantics; what is presented before you is a muse for the imagination, inspiration to choose a path less travelled. Hindsight may be clearer than foresight, but perception cannot be measured. The author presents a refreshingly honest, and sometimes brutal case for the ills of our modern society. Romance and apathy walk hand in hand on occasions, and foot in mouth on others. The question is not "why?", more so "why should it matter to you?" Excellent read and not too long in the tooth. A stunning choice for the intelligent reader.
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Summary: more than a love story
Review: While it is easy to get drawn into the plot and the lives of the characters, what is captivating about this novel are the philosophies and ideas contained within it. Ideas are insightful and yet clearly explained; the reader is more tempted to say "Ah, I see," rather than "I have no idea what that meant." Sexuality, eroticism, politics, love, and existence are all discussed in this one little important piece of literature.
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Summary: a wonderful read, thought-provoking and challenging.
Review: a very enjoyable novel that challenges the reader enough so that you won't want to put it down. if you like the "lost generation", you will like this slightly darker, articulate czech author.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthwhile
Review: This book is by no means an awe-inspiring masterwork but is certainly a wonderful, highly readable gem of a book. The images and characters in this novel remain with me still and the story is subtly powerful. This is a book that will cause you to question your personal dogmas, the meaning of love, and communication barriers between individuals. My main criticism is that the language was not quite thick enough for me. Personally, I favor rich, impractical language and a lyrical voice. I understand that this is not everyone's cup of tea, but I regard it as the major shortcoming of this work. However, in light of all the shining virtues of this novel, a little disagreement over word choice seems petty. You are fortunate to have found this work. It is, without question, a worthwile read.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: Milan Kundera's book is amazing. Recommended by a friend it is easily one of my favorite books. This philosophical fiction puts into words many of the puzzling questions of life.
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Summary: How easily opposites are substituted
Review: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera is a beautifully poetic, existential novel about a married couple, Tomáš and Tereza, and their life in communist Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Tomáš, a serial womanizer, meets Tereza through a series of six coincidental circumstances in her hometown, and when she comes to Prague to see him, she gets ill and has to stay for one week. He has never let a woman stay over before and this proximity incites feeling in her that he doesn't feel for his other women. When she returns to Prague for her second "visit" she brings all of her things with her. They eventually marry and get a puppy (a female, but whom they name Karenin and then ever after refer to as a male). Tomáš continues with his womanizing, however, seeing a longtime mistress, Sabina, after his marriage. Aware of this Tereza has terrible dreams, like the one in which she is in a swimming pool naked among many other naked women. If she doesn't do the right moves and bends at the right time, she will be shot by the sniper in a basket suspended above the pool. The sniper is Tomáš. Tomáš, not usually politically active, is a surgeon, but after the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia to end the period of freedom under Dubèek's Prague Spring, writes a letter to the editor that the communists and sympathizers who claim innocence through ignorance should not expect absolution. He says that Oedipus, who murdered his father and married his mother was as innocent as he could be, but when he found out the truth of his life, he did not feel innocent. He blinded himself and wandered away from Thebes. Tomáš will not retract the letter and loses his job as a surgeon, becoming a window washer in Prague. This allows him to sleep with many, many women, while still married to Tereza. After some time, Tomáš and Tereza move to the country so that the communists cannot blackmail them to sign statements supporting the Party. (There's no point if there's nothing they can lose.) This book is a love story, and is also about the world in which our main characters find themselves. Kundera's title comes from the fascination the book has with weight and lightness. Kundera, attributing this to Nietsche, says that eternal return (repetitive action or the idea that our lives recur an infinite number of times) is the heaviest of burdens, but Kundera says that life is so light because our decisions can only be made once, and we can't learn from one life for the next. We see this theme throughout the book, especially when the focus shifts to Karenin, the dog, whose life comprises eternal return as a dog's life comprises joyfully endless routine and repetition. This novel is beautifully told. We find out about the end of Tomáš and Tereza's lives in the middle of the book. The climax or apotheosis of the book is not their deaths but something wonderful that Tereza discovers in the little details of a typical day at her job on the collective farm in the country. Kundera also has a charming way of suddenly reminding the reader that this is only a book, writing that he'll make the name of Tomáš's son "Simon" and remembering how he, the writer, first envisioned Tomáš. I also had the fortune of reading this passage on the day the river in the story was making international headlines for flooding Prague and the Czech Republic: "She went outside and set off in the direction of the embankment. She wanted to see the Vltava. She wanted to stand on its banks and look long and hard into its waters, because the sight of the flow was soothing and healing. The river flowed from century to century, and human affairs play themselves out on its banks. Play themselves out to be forgotten the next day, while the river flows on." A blurb in the book attributed to the New York Times Book review says "With cunning, wit and elegiac sadness, Milan Kundera, the celebrated Czechoslovak émigré writer, expreses the trap the world has become." This is very true. But with Kundera's touch the trap is beautiful, thought-provoking and deeply comforting at the same time. I highly recommend this novel.
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Summary: 5+++
Review: This is simply one of the best books written in recent years. Kundera is one of the great writers of our time - for those who don't know, he is a Czech who lives in France and writes all of his stories in French. This book deals with the 1968 Czech occupation by the Soviets, a familiar topic to Kundera, however, the book is so much more. It is more of a statement about life and the choices that we make. At one point in the novel, the protagonist, Tomas, revels in the idea of having two lives, the first to do what we want, and the second to go back and get it all right. Does Tomas make the right decision between his two loves? Does he make the right decision between his job and his integrity? Is there such a thing as a right choice, really? I won't spoil it for you - you have to read it to find out. FYI - for those of you who are not big historical buffs, the emphasis on history is minimal - don't let that scare you off. For those of you who are afraid that the book might be too philosophical - it really isn't - it is just beautifully written and will make you think...
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Summary: The fragility of existence
Review: "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" is a novel enormously heavy in ideas, intelligence, and intensity, yet it doesn't weigh itself down with verbosity or obscure philosophy; it is unusual in the way it successfully balances erudition with narrative levity. It is a very erotic novel, not in a tawdry or cheap way, but in a way that genuinely understands how important sex is in a relationship and why it is not always an act of love. Part of the novel's tone is political; the setting is Czechoslovakia in the 1960's and 1970's, and as such, Communist oppressiveness drives much of the plot. The principal character is a Prague surgeon named Tomas, who is divorced and isolated from his ex-wife and son. He is a notorious womanizer, a man who believes that love and sexuality have nothing in common. He continues his habit even after he marries a small-town waitress, named Tereza, with whom he fell in love. One of his mistresses is an artist named Sabina, who in turn has an affair with a married Swiss professor named Franz. The novel tells the stories of these four people: how they relate, how their lives developed, how they arrived at their attitudes about life, love, and sex. Tereza used to take prudish offense at her mother's lewdness and sought escape through literature; Sabina's strongest link to her past is her grandfather's bowler hat. Franz, as a diffident and studious youth, always longed to be an active member of society, which he accomplishes by joining the "Grand March," a metaphorical parade of ideology, an expression of some form of political or social struggle. By 1968, democratic reforms were being gradually introduced into the Communist Czech government, prompting the Soviets, who perceived a security threat, to invade. As a result, Tomas and Tereza flee to Zurich but eventually return to Prague, only to face the devastating effects of censorship: Refusing to write a retraction for an anti-Communist letter he had sent to a local newspaper, Tomas is forced to resign his hospital position and is reduced to taking a job as a window washer. Referring to the title, the novel's main theme is that fate is so fragile and tenuous that existence becomes insubstantial. Much of our "being" -- our physical, mental, social, and emotional states -- depends on our and others' decisions, impulses, and caprices; Tomas ponders that his meeting Tereza depended on six chance happenings, or accidents. (It could be argued that his meeting Tereza depended, theoretically, on an infinite number of accidents. This is what is commonly called "being in the right place at the right time.") Therefore, does existence really mean anything when anything that exists, or any event that happens, could just as easily, through a different set of circumstances, not exist or not have happened? Kundera fashions the novel with a unique style and even a special lexicon. Words like "weight," "lightness," "unbearable," and "kitsch" are repeated in various contexts like motifs, as is Beethoven and his fatalistic "Es muss sein" ("It must be"). It could take many rereadings to absorb all the ideas in this novel, but that's what makes it the highest kind of literature -- a book that encourages questions, thoughts, and analysis.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Thought-Provoking
Review: The world of Milan Kundera's writing is a special place. Long an admirer of his "Book of Laughter and Forgetting," I only recently sat back and read this marvelous novel of love and obsession, lust and oppression. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" is primarily the tale of a Prague physician, Tomas, who escapes with his wife Tereza to Zurich after the Russian tanks roll over their country in 1968. When his infidelities drive her to leave him and return to Prague he follows her, knowing there will be no other chance to escape Communism. An editorial Tomas has published in an anti-Communist newspaper loses him his license to practice medicine and he soon becomes a window washer. Much to his surprise he's happier for a while in a job he doesn't have to think about ("it's a terrific relief to realize you're free, free of all missions"). Meanwhile, Tereza continues to play the martyr as his philandering increases. The reader is left to wonder whether it is weakness or strength that keeps them together, and how much the lack of political freedom affects the way men and women love each other. Kundera's narrator explores these and other vital questions of being, sometimes with gentle prodding, and others with sudden incisiveness. Writtten in 1984, five years before the Velvet Revolution would draw back the Iron Curtain from Kundera's Czech homeland, "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" is both a product of its era and a timeless work of art. It makes us wonder whether life is difficult because it is heavy, or because the fleetingness of it makes us too light to really make a mark. This novel of heavy concepts is written with such a light touch that the mark it makes cannot be denied. The narrator brings up the German phrase "Einmal ist keinmal": whatever happens once may as well not have happened at all-unlike many other books we read and forget as soon as we finish the last page, this one sticks, even as it cries out to be re-read.
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