The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season314 pages, about 6 hours: about the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbAn essay on Nietzsche’s eternal return comes first, before Tomas and Tereza are introduced.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 13 reviews from critics and book blogs, one credits the plot and 11 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesOne Substack critic likens its style to Sartre’s Nausea; a book blog puts it in the company of Crime and Punishment.
The case for it
on the sentences
“there is a witticism, an observation, a gut-punch sentiment that leaves you reeling.”
a Substack review on Tereza’s retelling
“This revisiting via an alternative perspective was one of the things I enjoyed most”
a book blog on the dog Karenin
“except, perhaps, the dog – whose life Kundera describes beautifully”
four stars · a book blog on the prose
“The prose is stripped back with a scattering of beautiful, poetic sentences and metaphors.”
a book blog
The case against
on the philosophical asides
“Kundera seems more often coy than profound, his apothegms usually verging on the commonplace.”
Kirkus Reviews, 1984 on Tomas the window-cleaner
“he is employed as a window-cleaner, and seems to spend his work days having sex”
a book blog on the plot and characters
“The plot is too slow-paced. The characters do not seem real.”
a book blog on the complicated prose
“struggled a bit to wade through some of the complicated prose”
a book blog
