The unbearable lightness of being

The Faber library -- 6

by Milan Kundera

305 pages

English language

Published Dec. 14, 1995 by Faber.

ISBN:: 978-0-571-17656-4

View on OpenLibrary

(34 reviews)

15 editions

RexLegendi reviewed The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Review of 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Nederlands (English below)

Een jaar of vijf geleden stuitte ik op [b:Denkende romans|49022492|Denkende romans. Literatuur en de filosofie van mens en cultuur.|Jeroen Vanheste|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1606804564l/49022492.SX50.jpg|68824410], waarin Jeroen Vanheste de filosofie in de literatuur bespreekt op basis van twaalf schrijvers. Hoewel het hoofdstuk over Milan Kundera en de titel van diens bekendste werk me aanspraken, heb ik The unbearable lightness of being (1984) lang op de (digitale) plank laten liggen.

Ik vond de filosofische aspecten aanmerkelijk interessanter dan het verhaal. Dat gaat hoofdzakelijk over Tomas en Tereza, die ondanks hun zwalkende huwelijk bij elkaar blijven, zelfs als dat betekent dat Tomas zijn loopbaan als arts in Zwitserland moet opgeven om terug te keren naar het communistische Tsjechoslowakije. Dat hij ondertussen van affaire naar affaire hobbelt, leidt niet tot diepe spijt: To assuage Tereza’s sufferings, he married her […] and gave her a puppy.

Buiten de beslommeringen om speelt Kundera met …

If the French Revolution were to recur eternally, French historians would be less proud of Robespierre. But because they deal with something that will not return, the bloody years of the Revolution have turned into mere words, theories, and discussions, have become lighter than feathers, frightening no one. […] In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine.

De lezer kan de verwijzing zien als een uitnodiging om zowel de geschiedenis (in dit geval de Praagse Lente en de Russische inval van 1968) als het dagelijks leven (hier het huwelijk) in dit licht te plaatsen. Omdat mensen slechts één keer leven en dus niks hebben om te vergelijken, zijn zij gebonden aan een ondraaglijke lichtheid. Daartegenover staat dat zij verhalen gebruiken om het leven in te vullen en in te kleuren.

This symmetrical composition – the same motif appears at the beginning and at the end – may seem quite ‘novelistic’ to you, and I am willing to agree, but only on condition that you refrain from reading such notions as ‘fictive’, ‘fabricated’, and ‘untrue to life’ into the word ‘novelistic’. Because human lives are composed in precisely such a fashion.

Kundera maakt duidelijk dat mensen in het Oostblok ‘ook maar gewoon mensen waren’. In het laatste hoofdstuk over Tereza en haar hondje Karenin – [b:Anna Karenina|41136187|Anna Karenina|Leo Tolstoy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534181268l/41136187.SY75.jpg|2507928] komt herhaaldelijk terug – is zelfs een anti-speciësistisch pleidooi te ontwaren. (Hier moest ik mijn ergernis voor de personages wel onderdrukken.) Ten slotte kon ik Kundera’s opmerkingen over kitsch goed waarderen, die evengoed zijn toe te passen op communistische of kapitalistische propaganda of de manier waarop de elite zich tracht te schikken naar het regime, als op sociale media in de eenentwintigste eeuw.

[…] kitsch is the absolute denial of shit, in both the literal and the figurative senses of the word; kitsch excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence.

English

Frankly, I mostly appreciated The unbearable lightness of being because of Milan Kundera’s flirtation with Nietzsche’s idea of eternal return. The story of Tomas and Tereza, husband and wife, annoyed me, as do most stories about marriage, but Kundera’s attempt to question the significance of both historic and personal events is well worth the effort.

Eduardo Santiago reviewed The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Review of 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

2nd reading, Jan 2013. Still sublime.

I see in it an exaltation of the deliberate life. Of wakefulness. A recognition that we have one life to live; that the choices we make (or which are made for us) have their consequences but we can never know how it would be "otherwise". I see open-eyed appreciation of beauty in myriad forms. The unexpected clash between honesty and openness. The satisfaction of staying true to one's values. I see a warning against the Disneyfication of our world.

We never really get to know the characters—not in the conventional sense—but we recognize their inner conflicts. And we learn or re-learn to keep our eyes open and to embrace joy where we find it.

Michael @ Knowledge Lost reviewed The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Review of 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is an existential novel about two men, two women, a dog and their lives. The book takes place in Prague in the 1960s and 1970s and explores the artistic/intellectual life of Czechoslovakian society during this Communist period. Tomáš is a womanizing surgeon and intellectual, his wife Tereza is a photographer struggling with all her husband’s infidelities. Sabina a free spirited artist and Tomáš’s mistress and Franz is a professor and also a lover or Sabina. Then there is Karenin, the dog with an extreme disliking to change.

I know the synopsis doesn’t really do much to make this novel interesting but that’s just the basics of it. Really, this is a novel challenging Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence. A concept which hypothesizes that the universe has been recurring, and will continue to recur. This book explores the idea that people only have one life to live and what occurs will only occur once and never again. The book also explores love and sex and whether the two are connected; for Tomáš they are not but for Tereza they are.

There is a lot more philosophical aspects to understand but as I don’t have much knowledge in those areas lets focus on the novel. This was surprisingly easy to read and lyrical and almost dreamlike feel to it but then there is a lot of emotional devastation as well. Not just with Tomáš’s actions but with the communist control over everyone.

From the very start you while see the gorgeous poetic prose within Milan Kundera’s writing and the unique plot concept will initially drive this book for the reader. Then you will continue reading it for the devastating beauty of love, sex, jealously, politics and existence. Once you finish, you might reflect on the philosophical and existential nature of this book. In the end it’s just one of those books that sounds a little weird and unappealing but is really worth reading.

This review originally appeared on my blog; literary-exploration.com/2013/02/04/book-review-the-unbearable-lightness-of-being/