Name: Vojtech's review of The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Item: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Rating: 5
Author: Vojtech

Milan Kundera

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a story of irreconcilable love and infidelities in which Milan Kundera addresses himself to the nature of twentieth-century 'Being', offering a wide range of brilliant and amusing philosophical speculations. First published in 1984, Kundera's masterly novel encompasses the extremes of comedy and tragedy and was at once hailed by critics as a contemporary classic. This special hardback edition commemorates the twentieth anniversary of its first publication in English. 'There are novels that are tragic, or entertaining, and this one is both. There are very few that give a fresh perspective on existence, and force the reader to reassess his own life and attitudes.' Sunday Times 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a work of the boldest mastery, originality and richness.' Vanity Fair

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Daria claymore

לעולם אינו יכול לדעת במה עליו לרצות, משום שהוא חי רק פעם אחת ולא ניתן לו להשוות את חייו להווה לחייו הקודמים ולא לתקן אותם בחייו הבאים

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.

The unbearable lightness of being

Elina Berzina

Vojtech

In this novel - a story of irreconcilable loves and infidelities - Milan Kundera addresses himself to the nature of twentieth-century 'Being' In a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous events, a world in which everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. We feel, says the novelist, 'the unbearable lightness of being' - not only as the consequence of our private acts but also in the public sphere, and the two inevitably intertwine.Juxtaposing Prague, Geneva, Thailand and the United States, this masterly novel encompasses the extremes of comedy and tragedy, and embraces, it seems, all aspects of human existence. It offers a wide range of brilliant and amusing philosophical speculations and it descants on a variety of styles.

Colleen

3 Stars

The short version is that I just was not in the mood for this book. What can I say? Sometimes books find you at the perfect time. Other times, well, the stars don't align. The Unbearable Lightness of Being is an odd book, introspective and philosophical while also self-indulgent. I can see why this is literary classic, but it just did not resonate with me. That also has to do with my impatience with the main character, Tomáš and his spineless, philandering ways. I didn't particularly like any of the other characters either.

Despite that, I have to admit that the writing was beautiful at times. There were some good quotes. Too bad I was not in the mood to ponder them deeply.


  “Anyone whose goal is 'something higher' must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.”

The story was also set in the interesting background of Russian invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia during the Cold War. But the writing swung between poetic and verbose. And as I mentioned, I did not like any of the characters although I understood what they represented.


  "The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become. Conversely, the absolute absence of burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant. What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?”

I may revisit this book at some point in the future. I have a feeling my future self might like it more if it finds me at the right moment.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 3 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 2 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 2 Stars
Originality: 4 Stars

Varol Aksoy

kadın erkek ilişkilerine dair enfes bir kitaptı. 2013 benim için Milan Kundera yılı olacaktı, bu okuduğum ilk kitabı oldu ve kesinlikle doğru adamı seçtim diyorum. :)

haifa

While reading the book I was hesitant, would I be pretentiously left with disturbing existential questions once the book ends? Most writers never seek to answer their questions even when they seemed to answer them. But then you realise, these stories are full of flat admissions. Kundera's intrusive narration make sure the reader would only muse along with him, and never bear the heaviness of assumption, so much so that sometimes it leaves you wondering "Why is he telling me everything? Why doesn't he make space for my thoughts?" When as a reader you have barely anything to make meaning of, as you ease into his musings, you are suffering it, the unbearable lightness.

Also something interesting: Some friends who have read the book, found it to be about love and the idea of being loved, while I barely paid any attention to it, truly, there were much more interesting premises to meditate over.

So in the end, the question is, are we weighed down by our self-imposed burdens or are we going to suffer the unbearable lightness of shedding them?

'A cult figure.' Guardian 'A dark and brilliant achievement.' Ian McEwan 'Shamelessly clever ... Exhilaratingly subversive and funny.' Independent 'A modern classic ... As relevant now as when it was first published. ' John Banville A young woman is in love with a successful surgeon - a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanising. His mistress, a free-spirited artist, lives her life as a series of betrayals - while her other lover stands to lose everything because of his noble qualities. In a world where lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and fortuitous events, and everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance and weight - and we feel 'the unbearable lightness of being'. A masterpiece by one of the world's truly great writers, Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being encompasses passion and philosophy, infidelity and ideas, the Prague Spring and modern America, political acts and private desires, comedy and tragedy - and illuminates all aspects of human existence. What readers are saying: 'Some books change your mind, some change your heart, the very best change your whole world ... A mighty piece of work, that will shape your life forever.' 'One of the best books I've ever read ... A book about love and life, full of surprises. Beautiful.' 'This book is going to change your life ... It definitely leaves you with a hangover after you're done reading.' 'A must read - loved it, such beautiful observations on life, love and sexuality.' 'Kundera writes about love as if in a trance so the beauty of it is enchanting and dreamy ... Will stay with you forever.' 'A beautiful novel that helps you understand life better ... Loved it.' 'One of those rare novels full of depth and insight into the human condition ... Got me reading Camus and Sartre.' 'One of the best books I have ever read ... An intellectual love story if ever there was one.'

Ammerins Moss-de Boer

One of my favorite books ever, I fell in love with it in the first chapter and I'm so proud of Milan Kundera for being born in the same country as me and writing about its history too

Nikola

Prashanth Srivatsa

You are mesmerized by Prague’s beauty, but Kundera's perception of love leaves a strange taste in your mouth. Coupled with a more cultured YOLO that he propagates, the book reduces the significance of actions, urges us to pursue "lightness", to abandon compassion, separate love and sex, and everything else that bogs us down and keeps us closer to reality. Written beautifully and layered around the tumultuous Russian invasion of Czech, amid communists, artists and infidels, the book is a rocky drive into questioning the purpose of your actions, and definitely requires a second read.

Obada Mu

“And therein lies the whole of man's plight. Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition.”

Jesse Morley

Oh yes, life is so poetic, Milan. Tereza was indeed wrong to hold Tomas' infedility against him—it is her fault that he was too scared to leave someone who loved him unconditionally and asked so little in return. Yuck.

Anabel

eliz

2.5

I liked and still intrigued about the questions raised from the beginning of the book, but as I summarize(?) the entirety of the plot, I'm left hanging with the problems unsolved. to conclude, I think I learned less than I expected.

the amount of patience I had to put through continuous pages of erotic nonsense deserves a praise btw

excerpts:
p. 8 "...that not knowing what he wanted was actually quite natural. We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come. There is no means of testing which decision is better, because there is no basis for comparison." ... "And life can be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself? That is why life is always like a sketch."
p. 92 "For Franz music was the art that comes closest to Dionysian beauty in the sense of intoxication. No one can get really drunk in a novel, or a painting, but who can help getting drunk on Beethoven's Ninth, [etc.] Franz made no distinction between "classical" music and "pop"."

sometimes this hit like a truck. especially the parts w tereza and her mother; (If a mother was Sacrifice personified, then a daughter was Guilt, with no possibility of redress) and (I sometimes have the feeling that her entire life was merely a continuation of her mother’s), etc etc. good read for some introspection! difficult read in general, though.

toch

linda

I loved and hated this book. 

There were just some parts I didn’t understand, some parts that I felt too pretentious. The whole part about Beethoven and “es muss sein” didn’t resonate with me. I didn’t understand the part about Petrin Hill. The discussion of the Grand March I liked, the critique of communism was okay, but overall, I felt that Kundera was trying to tackle too much at once.

I like the way Kundera sketches his characters, the symbolism he etched into the odd details. I still remember Sabina’s bowler hat. The necklace that Marie Claude belittles her over to demonstrate her power. The suitcase Tereza leaves at the station. Those images stick well. 

I loved the parts about 1) Tereza and her mother, Tereza as a young girl 2) Karenin. I cried when I read the scene where Tomas was digging a grave for him, just the way Tereza wanted. He’s loyal. 

I still don’t know what the unbearable lightness of being is, but I like that Kundera didn’t put a values judgement on it. He didn’t say that being light and carefree is irresponsible, that all of our actions must have consequence. Kundera doesn’t condemn Tomas or Sabina; he even paints them in a sympathetic light. For Tereza and Tomas, fidelity required sacrifice. It’s funny to think that Mao wrote about the same stuff in 为人民服务 in 1944 (“人固有一死, 或重于泰山， 或轻于鸿毛”), and even then, he was quoting 司马迁, who lived during the Western Han. So it’s definitely a question we’ve been entertaining for a long time.

Hana Sadoun

Nada Ghazi

Four main characters, whom their aspects of fitting in varies, whether in lightness of heaviness, and how they're related to love, sex, emotions, decisions and almost everything in life.
That leaves you wondering;
Are happiness and lightness compatible? Is that we can't be happy and light at the same time? Do we find serenity in melancholy? 

-
People would think that being heavy is an indicator of melancholy, otherwise, being so light is the ultimate happiness. But what if you fell into an unbearable lightness of being? Would you think the same? Would you bear the unbearable?

Simply, there's no answer, unless you could experience eternal return, in which you can experience boyh cases and eventually decide.
-
Kundera, people, as always. Invade your thought with romantic philosophy. Yes, I mean it. In which you find yourself walking in each character's shoes and keep wondering and wodering and wondering..

-
PS: Last chapter "Karenin's smile" is pure agony.

Kareem ElBatrawy

هل السعادة هى أن تمتلئ روحك و نفسك ام بالتنزه عن كل شئ فتتحرر و تعيش طليقه؟
هل من الممكن أن نحب بقلوبنا و نخون بأجسادنا؟
هل المتعة تكمن فى أن نساير الركب و نضمن الاستقرار ام فى الشعور الدائم بخيانة المألوف؟
هل التخلى عن الإنسانية هو الرجوع للجنة ام أن الإنسانية هى الطريق للجنة؟
هل السيطرة هى مصدر القوة ام أن الضعف يضعنا فى موقف السيطرة؟

هذه تحفة فلسفية نفسية بكل المقاييس..قد تحتاج للقرأة أكثر من مرة..فى كل مرة..ستتكتشف الجديد.

Shrouk Shafie

رواية فريدة وغريبة جدا من نوعها، 4 اشخاص حياتهم متصلة ببعضها البعض بشكل او بآخر وكمان توضيح اثر احوال البلاد عليهم بعد الحرب العالمية الثانية، بالنسبالي كانت معلومات كتير تاريخية جديدة عليا. 

لم اتعاطف مع توماس ويمكن اكون متعاطفة الى حد صغير مع تيريزا بسبب طفولتها. يمكن لو كان فيه توضيح لماضي شخصية توماس كان هيبقى افضل كتير.. 

اسئلة الرواية الوجودية دقت في بالي واكيد في بال الكثير من قبل كده.. يمكن يوم من الايام نلاقي اجابة؟ 
Muß es sein? Es muß sein.

Saima A

I've said it before. This book was the perfect mix between fiction and philosophy. 

It's not full of paragraphs of soul hitting philosophical depth but full of little glimpses of insightful observations in almost everything in life. When all these nuggets are added together...it makes this a real treat to read.

Kundera observes the ongoings of his character's lives, intellectualises it and tells the reader about it in such a conversational (of a sort) manner.

Kundera explores how the little things, metaphors, images, and the big things, our pasts, country, family affect our psyche and major life decisions at well structured points throughout his depiction of his character's lives, supplementing the decisions they make. It explores politics, sex, love, religion, what it means to be human in a time where things are spiralling and out of control. Kind of like being in a coming of age film.

This novel explores the significance of decisions, the lack of significance on decisions, the unavoidable significance of decisions, and the unavoidable lack of significance of the decisions we make.

one of the best written books i have ever read

🍊

** spoiler alert **
           this is the first philosophy and romance book that i have read. i enjoyed it a lot (even more than expected). i also learned a thing or two from it but the first few chapters of the last part ruined it for me. is it really necessary to talk about shit (literally) in detail? because i think not. 

if it wasn't for karenin, i wouldn't give this book four stars. the unbearable lightness of being is my second most annotated book :)

Mary Rose Luksha

I would have given this book 4 stars, but...I just...didn't like the end I suppose. It's my own fault because it calls it "a novel of ideas" on the back, so I knew what I was in for. And I found the ideas very fresh, and I was impressed that the ideas seemed to come from the characters and not the author. (Which is probably how I made it through the whole book.) And maybe it's just me, and I didn't understand the end of the book, but I just felt that the first few sections all tied together very well...but the last two seemed like parts of another work. 

But the colorful language in this book was unreal. I could feel the texture of the book as I was reading it, and I was incredibly impressed that this is a translation. I mean, I am a bargain hunter so I usually end up getting Barnes and Noble editions of books, and those translations are a punishment, so maybe I'm not used to good translations; but this one just blew my mind. And based mostly on the color of language, I gave this book 3 stars.

Pamela Ramirez Olivares 

Me encantó pero es duro de leer (en el sentido emocional). El constante contraste entre la levedad y la pesadez y la complejidad de les personajes me hizo sufrir pero a le vez disfrutar mucho el libro. 
Hermosas metáforas y con muchos pasajes bastante existenciales y poéticos, no es una lectura liviana para nada. 
Lloré con el final pero lo encontré muy resuelto, me hubiese gustado algo con más incertidumbre o caos.

i may return to review this properly, but for now…hm. the prose has its moments, a lot of which i liked more than i’d probably admit, and the nonlinear format made it feel dreamlike, perhaps a little surreal. but i can’t stand how the women are written—which concerns both the characters themselves and how the men regard them. 

seesawing between 3 and 3.5, but 3 for now because i am not in the mood to be kind at a book that doesn’t seem to see women as anything beyond their sexuality

The perfect book I never want to read again. I just don’t like the whole vibe. Always felt a little pseudo-intellectual. Maybe this book about 

Which is a shame because I wanted to like this most known Czech book in the world. Giving 5 stars for the benefit of the doubt. 

The perfect book I never want to read again. I just don’t like the whole vibe. Always felt a little pseudo-intellectual. Maybe this book about kitsch is actually a kitsch.

Which is a shame because I wanted to like this most known Czech book in the world. Giving 5 stars for the benefit of the doubt. 

wylan

i was quite hesitant to pick up this novel, as i've heard both praise and critique of the author and his work. and i need to say, in a way i agree with both sides.
i was expecting misogyny and i did get it, unsurprisingly, but a bit different than i expected - what i saw was a weird balance of good writing and having complex main characters overall, while still resorting to stereotypes or inappropriate writing choices for the female characters, sabina and tereza. i mean, my favorite character was tomáš by far, but the way he views women was... well, very objectifying. but the characters are supposed to be criticized and picked apart, so i actually enjoyed reading about assholes. but if you're more sensitive to just... male misogynistic writing, be aware of that, and a lot of discussions of sexuality and its role in relationships.
however, the book over all was outstanding and especially the philosophy in it - i should have annotated the book. it gives one a lot to think about, i really enjoyed how all the ideas in the novel are connected, showcased and put into words. i read the book in the original language and his use of the tongue is incredibly charming, i need to say it's one of my favorite czech texts as of late.
despite disagreeing with kundera on lots of things, i was still able to enjoy reading the novel and i'll be reading more from him in the future. i believe it's not everyone's cup of tea, but definitely worth a try:)

Vojtech &
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

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