Milan Kundera

Rich in its stories, characters, and imaginative range, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is the novel that brought Milan Kundera his first big international success in the late 1970s. Like all his work, it is valuable for far more than its historical implications. In seven wonderfully integrated parts, different aspects of human existence are magnified and reduced, reordered and emphasized, newly examined, analyzed, and experienced.

A Novel

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Kundera whirls through comedy and tragedy towards his central question: how does a person, any person, live today? In constructing his answer, he writes of politics, sex, literature, modern man's alienation - and of their antidotes: laughter and forgetting.

Lila R E

I was reading this book during a weird few weeks while I was processing a lot of stuff and working things out so I think it simultaneously flew over my head a little and came into my life at the right time because, just like unbearable lightness, laughter & forgetting is so candid and insightful in its exploration of fundamentally, what it is to be human and I feel that I learnt so much. As is to be expected of essay collections/short stories some chapters are stronger than others… Litost was a particular stand out in that it was able to combine this really compelling storytelling with emotion and intelligence i have only really come across in Kundera’s writing. Generally not as engaging or life changing as unbearable lightness but still an important read for me.

I really did not enjoy this at first but it grew on me over time. Some parts are pretty brilliant. Others are slow, clunky, and (pointlessly?) misogynistic. Compared to 

this one discusses the Czech political climate more explicitly– Kundera's observations are so specific. I've yet to read anything that describes Czech attitudes so accurately.

Milan Kundera died while I was reading this book. He's gotta be one of my favorite authors. May he rest in peace.

Annie Millman

I really did not enjoy this at first but it grew on me over time. Some parts are pretty brilliant. Others are slow, clunky, and (pointlessly?) misogynistic. Compared to Unbearable Lightness this one discusses the Czech political climate more explicitly– Kundera's observations are so specific. I've yet to read anything that describes Czech attitudes so accurately.

Milan Kundera died while I was reading this book. He's gotta be one of my favorite authors. May he rest in peace.

Hannah Sween

Giving this two stars just for the quality of the prose. Kundera leaves no stone left unturned when it comes to creating symbolic connections to religion and philosophy. Otherwise, I found it deeply misogynistic and hard to read. I think Kundera goes beyond the use of misogyny just as a device to characterize his male figures, many of the moments of contempt for women that permeate the work feel too personal.

C'est un roman sur Prague et sur les anges, sur le rire et sur l'oubli.

Le livre du rire et de l'oubli

Sarah Escorsa

Michał

sofi

'This book is a novel in the form of variations. The various parts follow each other like the various stages of a voyage leading into the interior of a theme, the interior of a thought, the interior of a single, unique situation the understanding of which recedes from my sight into the distance. It is a book about laughter and about forgetting, about forgetting and about Prague, about Prague and about the angels.' The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is the most secret of Kundera's novels. This new translation is the first to be fully authorized by Milan Kundera.

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting A Novel

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