The Unbearable Lightness of Being : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Complex and compelling
Review: This was a really beautiful and complex book. However, it took me a while to overcome the whiny and soap opera like characters. Kundera uses his contemptible characters to illustrate several profound ideas. The first two chapters lay out the basic foundation, lightness v. weightiness. They bring into question rather the nature of lightness is positive or negative. If you choose to bear no burdens you will know the unbearable lightness of being.

Some of my favorite things about the book were Kundera's use of time, and his way of leaving some parts out and repeating other parts. Kundera has a brilliant writing technique, the story mostly goes along in a linear manner, but it does not unfold in a typically linear sense. It makes short jumps in time here and there and overlaps in places. You are given different perspectives on some events, and other events Kundera chooses to leave open to readers interpretations.

Besides the brilliant technique, the thing that made this book decisively GOOD for me was the last section: Karenin's Smile. In this chapter Karenin, Tomas and Terezas (the main characters) dog, which had become the clock of their lives, becomes fatally ill. Despite Tomas and Terezas grief about Karenin, they finally find happiness in their lives. Their happiness seems to be partly due to the burdens they have taken on, in essence the antithesis of the unbearable lightness of being, the joyful heaviness of being.

There is so much more to this book than I can articulate in this short review. You definitely need to read it to fully appreciate all it has to offer.


Rating:
Summary: Unbearable to let go...
Review: I almost feel sad that I have finished this book! In my opinion, a much better book than "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" - I cared more about the characters, and the descriptions were clenching and vibrant. It grabbed on to my melancholy self, which is the most European part of me... Sabina, Franz, Thereza and Thomas (+Karenin the dog!) were so delicately, yet strongly presented - the only drawback (or is it?) was that I pictured the actors from the movie as the written characters - it became impossible for me to think of Thereza without seeing Juliette Binoche! The settings were also well characterized - I mused over the various American comments and reflections in particular. I especially liked the description of New York as a place of "beauty by mistake" as compared to the well-planned, "rigid" beauty of European architecture (Sabina loves it, Franz does not). Part of the tactics described of the Communist Regime reminded me of Orwell's 1984. This is certainly a book I will read again some day! Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Ain't it a little overrated?
Review: Milan Kundera employs his trademark meditative, philosophical writing style in his, novel "The unbearable lightness of being". If you are looking for a flowing cohesive storyline, look elsewhere, for this book is essentially a book of musings and inner speculations based loosely on the themes of love and infidelity. The story revolves around two couples, Franz and Sabina, Tomas and Tereza and their attempts at infidelity and betrayal of love.

The book makes for an interesting, light-hearted read, which inevitably sets you to ponder over some of the issues raised. Milan Kundera approaches certain subjects from pretty unconventional ways of thinking, such as those on the kitsch, the duality of soul and body, weight and lightness and the non-recurring nature of life. He exposes you to a plethora of perspectives and compels you to question your own beliefs and viewpoints. The narrative is unimportant here. Removing the veil of the flimsy storyline, what you get is what Milan intends to explore - the essence of "being". Though this book may have come from a Czech writer, with various allusions to Czech history and its way of life, the topics discussed are universal and will resonate with any reader in any part of the world.

I was touched by the last chapter, "Karenin's smile" (which related the death of a dog) and amused by the chapter "Words Misunderstood" (which offered contrasting viewpoints on a single topic). "The unbearable lightness of being" is yet another book which deserves a re-reading, for only so will you uncover and better appreciate many of the gems hidden in the pages. "3 stars" for I expected much more out of the book - perhaps something heavier and more gripping. Nevertheless the novel is one of the more representative reads of Czech literature.


Rating:
Summary: Love Story as a Philosophy Text Book
Review: Kundera is a fascinating author. A product of the Czech Republic when it was a satellite nation of the Soviet Union (and called Czechoslovakia), this book deals with the 1968 "Prague Spring"- a time when things seemed to be lightening up in Czechoslovakia. Its a book of the decisions that a woman must make, and how she deals with her surroundings. This book is a combination of a lot of things, hard to understand at times but utterly relevant, in today's world and for thousands of years from now. There's a lot of philosophy as well, which deals with the way people live, and how we live our own. How are our lives shaped by events we are able or unable to control? Kundera really understands men and women, and love as well. Like its title, The Unbearable Lightness of Being is full of contradictions. It was the kind of book I had to read several times in order to understand what Kundera was saying. Even now there are some things I don't quite grasp about this novel. I had to allocate a lot of time in order to re-read it. Also recommended: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, also by Kundera.