Interweaves story and dream, past and present, and philosophy and poetry in a sardonic and erotic tale of two couples–Tomas and Teresa, and Sabina and her Swiss lover, Gerhart.
One of the books I’m planning on re-reading this year.
Author
cavanaughbardo
3 years ago
I became a Milan Kundera convert when I read his masterpiece “Unbearable Lightness of Being,” and I pull it out ever so often to remind myself of how a writer is able to capture moments and characters with such muscular, lyrical, mathematical certainty. This novel, exploring the relationships between the womanizing Tomas, his fragile wife Sabina and his mistress Tereza during the tumultuous Prague Spring of 1968, is a bitter, tragic, and yes, whimsical portrait of abandonment, lust, a political uprising crushing the status quo, the (often) unrealistic expectations and demands couples make on marriages, and, finally, this eerie acknowledgment that life itself is a puff of time. (That’s the philosophical bits, but Kundera is also a very witty and disarming writer.) No spoilers…
Read and THEN watch the fine, fine film.
Author
evastachniak
3 years ago
I read Kundera obsessively in the 80s. The Unbearable Lightness of Being stands out as one of his best. A classic by now it still haunts me. The lightness and heaviness of life, commitments, fate…T
Author
kapikantzari
3 years ago
Favorite book of all the time
Author
jenniferpletcher
3 years ago
This is the story of Thomas and Tereza, Sabina and Franz during the Russion Invasion of the Czech Republic in the 1960s. Tereza is in love with Thomas who is a incorrigible womanizer. His mistress is Sabina, but Thomas is not her only lover. Franz is also in love with Sabina, but married to someone else.
The main characters are Thomas and Tereza, and their lives together. Even thought Tereza is midly aware of his womanizing, she stays with him until the end of their lives. Thomas knows he doesn’t deserve her, but he cannot help who he is.
The author describes the thoughts and feelings of all the characters, and works at getting to the core of understanding who they are. All of thier misgivings, all of their fears and doubts, are brought to light in this novel. The book delves into the difficulty that is life and the struggles that many people have on a daily basis when in relationships with others.
The author’s one line says it all: “Being – of the human life – is unbearably light because it is lived in a straight line – there is no true interpretation, nothing to grab onto, as our lives are driven forward by chance and fortuity.”
I don’t know how I felt about this book. Again – I think listening to it didn’t do me any favors. But again – my prudishness came into play here as well because there is a lot of infidelity in this book, a lot of talk about sex, and a lot of talk about the human body. This is just a warning in case you feel that this is a book you might be interested in. I know there was deeper meaning around these parts of the book, but just so you are aware.
By milankundera
One of the books I’m planning on re-reading this year.
I became a Milan Kundera convert when I read his masterpiece “Unbearable Lightness of Being,” and I pull it out ever so often to remind myself of how a writer is able to capture moments and characters with such muscular, lyrical, mathematical certainty. This novel, exploring the relationships between the womanizing Tomas, his fragile wife Sabina and his mistress Tereza during the tumultuous Prague Spring of 1968, is a bitter, tragic, and yes, whimsical portrait of abandonment, lust, a political uprising crushing the status quo, the (often) unrealistic expectations and demands couples make on marriages, and, finally, this eerie acknowledgment that life itself is a puff of time. (That’s the philosophical bits, but Kundera is also a very witty and disarming writer.) No spoilers…
Read and THEN watch the fine, fine film.
I read Kundera obsessively in the 80s. The Unbearable Lightness of Being stands out as one of his best. A classic by now it still haunts me. The lightness and heaviness of life, commitments, fate…T
Favorite book of all the time
This is the story of Thomas and Tereza, Sabina and Franz during the Russion Invasion of the Czech Republic in the 1960s. Tereza is in love with Thomas who is a incorrigible womanizer. His mistress is Sabina, but Thomas is not her only lover. Franz is also in love with Sabina, but married to someone else.
The main characters are Thomas and Tereza, and their lives together. Even thought Tereza is midly aware of his womanizing, she stays with him until the end of their lives. Thomas knows he doesn’t deserve her, but he cannot help who he is.
The author describes the thoughts and feelings of all the characters, and works at getting to the core of understanding who they are. All of thier misgivings, all of their fears and doubts, are brought to light in this novel. The book delves into the difficulty that is life and the struggles that many people have on a daily basis when in relationships with others.
The author’s one line says it all: “Being – of the human life – is unbearably light because it is lived in a straight line – there is no true interpretation, nothing to grab onto, as our lives are driven forward by chance and fortuity.”
I don’t know how I felt about this book. Again – I think listening to it didn’t do me any favors. But again – my prudishness came into play here as well because there is a lot of infidelity in this book, a lot of talk about sex, and a lot of talk about the human body. This is just a warning in case you feel that this is a book you might be interested in. I know there was deeper meaning around these parts of the book, but just so you are aware.