I figured that while Kim and I were in Prague this year, it would be appropriate to read something with a little local color. Seeing as Milan Kundera was of Czech origin (and having read and loved The Unbearable Lightness of Being), I picked up The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Good choice, because it included a lot of interesting personal reactions to much of the politics of Czechoslovakia during the communist period.Like Unbearable Lightness, TBOLAF isn't so much a straightforward story, but a philosophy that wanders through different ideas like a path in the woods, meeting different characters and joining diffrerent events as it goes. In fact, where lightness wanders, Laughter and Forgetting even gets lost a few times. Not always in a bad way - it just strays from the path, looks around at another part of the forest, and then stumbles upon the path again.
The story follows a bunch of different characters in different stories. Kundera claims that some of them are real and some are made up. Likewise, it is obvious that the story goes back and fourth in an inconstant pattern between real and fiction as well. The characters and plots in the story have little or nothing to do with each other (with the exception of the author's presence who knew or wrote them into existence).
Many of the themes in lightness are repeated here. In many ways this book feels almost as if its a 'study' for lightness - sort of like sketches of an idea versus the finished painting. In a way, the sketches have their own beauty and capture an immediacy that is lost in the final painting, but it also doesn't reach the level of "complete-ness" (for lack of a better word).
8 comments:
I've never read Kundera. I was always too suspicious of the chicks and sleazeball hippie guys who swore by it. But I should probably read it. Did this book come first?
Nice start!
I'm not sure- it certainly read like it did. That doesn't mean you should start with it though. "Unbearable Lightness" is a much better book - or maybe it just seems that way to me because i read it first and there is a lot of overlap of theme. Like i said in the review though, it also seems like it has a much more 'finished' quality. I'd start with that one if you were interested.
Its definatly got chick and sleazeball-hippy cred. I wouldn't let that get in the way of reading it though - just because that crowd adopted it doesn't of course change the actual book. Its like Kundera's home town of Prague itself - very popular with coffee-drinking-america-disparing-artist-ex-patriots; but it was and remains a beautiful and culturally rich city independent of that fact.
Great to have a new 50 blog to follow - welcome to the seminar.
I, too, have never read Kundera. sounds interesting though.
Did you stay in a hostel in Prague? I am suspicious of hot eastern european women and hostels after seeing Hostel the movie.
Thanks!
No, actually, we usually stay in hostels, but the weird thing about prauge is that the private rooms in the hostels are often as much as (or more expensive than) normal hotel rooms.
(looking for private rooms 'cause i was traveling with my girlfriend)
Anway, if you were interested, I'd have to recommend "Unbearable Lightness" first, and if you liked it, check out "Book of Laughter..." - its a great book, but not as polished.
I have yet to see Hostel - worth seeing?
I read ULoB and remember enjoying it, but it's been a long time. It was actually one of the first books in the Barbara Lynn-inspired book club.
One image from that book has stayed with me: the narrator says that he is afraid that (his GF) can smell his lover's vagina on his hair. On his head. It's really puzzled me about just what the hell kind of sex they were having if his hair smells.
It's a little like that Lewis Black bit about, "if it wasn't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in coollege."
What?
I have only read Unbearable Lightness of Being and liked it a lot. Especially the concept conveyed in the title and how it plays out on the story, but in terms of relationships and the ever tumultuous backdrop of overthrown governments in Czecloslvakia.
I, too, have read and loved ULOB and TBOLAF, in the same order and with very similar thoughts as well.
Kundera's books do have that artsy, bohemian appeal probably due to his flair for writing about sex/love/relationships amidst the political backdrop that was Czechoslovakia. That bit about "poetic memory" in ULOB was a memorable one.
I'd love to hear about you and your partner's trip to Prague (been there twice).
Ah! Prague was beautiful. I'll post some pictures soon, and let you know! We had a great time- it was cold, but the hotwine helped!
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