Love, Politics, and Strange Bedfellows

Having read the book in the 80's, and just finished listening to this production, what do I think might be important to someone considering this for the first time? The long and the longer:

*[This is a complex book, but not a difficult book. Don't be intimidated or turned off by "metaphysical philosophies", "psychoanalytical and existential themes", "post modern period " blah blah--unless you are reading this for a philosophy class. (In which case--get the textbook, lots of pencils and paper.) The title simply refers to 2 conflicting main philosophies, and getting these out of the way makes this less imposing. Roughly posited: Nietzche's idea of eternal return - every life/action repeats itself throughout time, therefore our decisions have weight (or heaviness); and Parmenide's philosophy of each person lives one life instead of recurring forever (therefore lightness), with the Kunderian addendum that the insignificance of our decisions causes great suffering and makes our being unbearable.
Get that out of the way and proceed bravely, because you do not need a background in philosophy to understand this book--just patience. Kundera himself has no formal education in philosophy. The philosophies lay the ground work for Kundera to argue his own ideas about love, oppression, existence, and coincidence...which he does--both sides in fact--with dreamy-like lyricism and maxims enjoyable only if you are willing to take the time to ponder what you are reading; this is one of those "savor" books. Again, it is not difficult, but complex--like eating an artichoke compared to a carrot. But if you want difficulty, you can get into Kundera's lifestory, his politics and theories--and dig in very deeply.]

Not completely a political, theological, philosophical, or romantic treatise- -the book is full of interesting ideas and weighty commentaries on each of these subjects. Set during the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the story of four tumultuous relationships serves mostly as a stage for the narrator's (obviously Kundera) personal, and sometimes intrusive, philosophies, moving along without any linear plot, and with characters that remain largely undeveloped. It is hard to compare to anything else I've read, except very vaguely with Gabriel Garcia Marquez in feel.

The narration was good, and I enjoyed hearing the book performed, but I could not have appreciated the book completely without having read the text version before. As to why this book so often receives rave reviews, I offer (and share) Pulitzer Prize winner M. Kakutani's appraisal: "The best books grow with us. Rather than presenting the same experience each time we reread them, they offer us newer, deeper, broader rewards that connect to many different aspects of the life we have been leading while we were away from them." Your appreciation of this book might be relative to where you are in life and your own personal struggles. I see it very differently than I did 20 years ago, but I still gain insight.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being isn't in my top ten, and I don't recommend this to every reader for reasons I hope I've made clear, but with rephrased and often quoted passages like these, you can understand its literary value and appeal:
"When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object."
"Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost."
"What can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?"
"True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power."

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A THOUGHTFUL JOURNEY

This is not a typical love story. When the opening paragraph of a story references Friedrich Neitzsche, we may conclude this is not going to be light, easy reading. Kundera is a new author for me. I like to learn something about the background of a new author; I find I can better understand where the writer is trying to take the reader (listener) if I know from whence he comes. (Thank you, Google.)

Milan Kundera was born in the Czech Republic in 1929. He grew up in the Balkan area in the aftermath of WWI, the German Occupation in WWII followed by the Russian Occupation, rebellions and subsequent uprisings. He emigrated to France in 1975. His life has been long and intense and gave opportunities to gain wisdom and a wide overview of life.

The story is built around three major characters and Karenin, a dog: Tomas, a successful surgeon in Prague who is an unabashed womanizer with a wife and son; Tereza, a young student working as a photo-journalist during the turmoil in the Balkans who falls in love with Tomas; and Sabina, a free spirit artist with a faithful lover while she is Tomas’ mistress. Around these characters, Kumdera weaves his philosophical questions of irrevocable, never to return periods of life and eternally returning cycles to be repeated over and over again.

His writing is lucid and compelling. There is love in many forms, from erotic sex to the love of a beloved dog. And, there are points to ponder as we examine our own experiences. His novel is worth the thoughtful hours required to follow him.

48 people found this helpful

Heavy Reading but worth it.

I have always wanted to read this book but put it off over the years. I knew it would not be light reading and since I am definitely a speed reader, I knew I would be tempted to skip some of the philosophical stuff and concentrate on the plot. So having it read to me was ideal – no speed reading (oh, except that on my iPod I could speed it up, but I never did!). This is a well-known and highly reviewed book by the Czech writer Milan Kundera. He uses the stories of two couples to inject his philosophical musings about Prague in the 1960s and 1970s particularly during the period of the 1968 Russian invasion and the damping effect it has on Czech society and on our couples in particular. The main character, Tomas, is a womanizing surgeon who goes from one lover to the other until he stumbles on Tereza who totally confuses him. He doesn’t give up his other affairs but she has a definite hold on him. The author compares the ideas of “lightness” – we have one life to life and this is it – to “heaviness” – life is an unending cycle of repeats. It is much more complicated than that, of course. Despite the “coolness” of the narrative, you get attached to the characters as you follow them from youth to aging and see the deadening effect of totalitarianism on individuals and effects their choices have. It is very definitely worth reading and because it is not light reading, it is an excellent book to have read to you. I am very glad I finally know what it is all about.

20 people found this helpful

PONDEROUS.

This may boil down to my own issues latching onto the translation or something, but this was an unbearably boring, repetitive slog. I couldn't finish it--if I had to hear the narrator say the phrase, "es muss sein" one more time I was going to throw my phone in the toilet. The descriptions in the sex scenes made me want to abandon the activity for the rest of my life. How can there be so much sex in a book, while feeling completely un-erotic the entire time? The characters were lackluster, and the female characters were so basic and boring that I got the idea that maybe the author has a negative opinion of women on the whole. Listening felt like you were listening to a friend read their mediocre poetry out loud, and you have to keep faking enjoyment of it. Such a frustrating experience.

6 people found this helpful

Muss es Sein? Es Muss Sein! Es Muss Sein!

After hearing last month that the great Slavic translator Michael Henry Heim had died, I thought it was about time to float up and read some Kundera. I enjoyed the concept of ULoB probably better than the actual book (although I still felt the book was exceptional).

I certainly have my own issues with both Nietzsche's idea of eternal recurrance and Kundera's alternative and existential 'lightness of being', but couldn't avoid liking the lugubrious way Kundera approached his subject and the way he explored the messy triangulations of life, love, history, sex, death and politics in this novel.

One glaring weaknesses, for me at least, was Kundera's tendency to turn his major characters into philosophical props. It was when Kundera waxed directly philosophical about kitsch or kindness that the novel resonated the strongest for me.

26 people found this helpful

Unbearable

I purchased this book because of all the rave reviews and the general impression that it is a classic without which an education is incomplete. It did not grab me in the first 30 minutes - not even a little - but I thought I should give it some time to develop. After three hours, It still felt like doing penance to continue listening. I saw it through to the bitter end in the vain hope that I might find something to like about it. I never did.

The story is not in the least linear. It starts in the middle, goes back and retells the first part from a different characters viewpoint, then seems to careen wildly from earlier happenings, to later, to in-between, often without warning. I don't normally find the device of beginning the story in the middle and allowing it to unfold in other directions - sequential story telling isn't what I look for, and can be a little boring, but this was beyond the pale.

Frequently during the narrative, the author would step in to expound on some philosophical or political viewpoint, often employing imagery of a crude and vulgar nature. I'm not a prude, but I find lengthy orations about excrement or sexual degradation rather off-putting. During these chapters he is addressing the reader directly and discussing the fact his characters as figments of the imagination, which of course one knows in a novel, but it pretty much negate any illusion he may have been able to create before these segments.

I found the characters very uni-dimensional. I was never able to conjure the slightest empathy for any of them, and didn't really care what happened to them - except, perhaps, for the dog - Karenin. There were a few concepts that I found thought-provoking, but not worth the 9 1/2 hours I invested. I was reminded of an incredibly bad Italian horror film I once went to with my husband - we endured the entire 90 or so minutes with the thought that SOMETHING worthwhile has to happen. It never did. This book made me feel the same way.

I may be admitting to being a philistine by submitting this review, but so be it. I would not recommend it as a joke.

4 people found this helpful

Found it very moving

Any additional comments?

I never got around to reading this when it first came out. Now I'm glad I waited. As a more mature person I found it very moving. Kundera weaves the stories of three major characters and several secondary ones around meditations and commentaries on philosophy, the nature of being itself, human uniqueness, sexuality, love, rebellion, and abandonment. Political context, especially Prague after the Russian invasion, gives him a chance also to meditate and comment on the nature of freedom, both inner and outer.

Another especially interesting and frankly jarring aspect of the writing was the interposition of dream sequences, deftly placed so that at first the reader (listener) doesn't immediately know whether the narration is of a dream or of reality.

The narrator, Richmond Hoxie, was superb.

Very highly recommended.

4 people found this helpful

Great Novel; Great Reading

I have read this book (in book form) three times and seen the movie three times. And now heard it twice.

The book is a marvel--weaving together a moving story, memorable characters (especially, of course, Tereza), and thought-provoking, poetic meditations on love, fate, literature, art, music, and beauty..

But the despair that ultimately underlies the novel is troubling. This lightness of being sits heavy on the heart when all is said and done.

This crisp, clear, carefully modulated reading, was perfect. Richmond Hoxie's performance was exactly, syllable-by-syllable, right.

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Great start but...

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It is time well spent, there are lots of ideas and great character portrayals but after a while I felt like I was being lectured at. I wanted the ideas to be more an integral part of the narrative instead of being long discussions in the voice of the character but still totally outside of the character's likely behaviour. It was too frustrating.

Would you ever listen to anything by Milan Kundera and Michael Henry Heim (translator) again?

Yes. There was enough wonderful to get over the fact that there was too much of a good thing. The narrator has a lovely voice too and I'm terribly picky about narrators.

6 people found this helpful

I am every character

If you could sum up The Unbearable Lightness of Being in three words, what would they be?

Estrujar el alma

What other book might you compare The Unbearable Lightness of Being to and why?

I've seen glimpses of the books it references, such as "Anna Karinina" of Tolstoy in the over all feeling.
Also I drew some parallels in the story telling of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez. It also follows time and tragedy.

It is also very unique.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There have been too many to count. Two that I remember most clearly are the of the bowler hat, and the other is of the park benches in the river.

Any additional comments?

It is unique to me in the sense that there is no named character that is not fully fleshed out, and each character is the best and the worst in everyone. There is no character I don't love, and none that I don't hate. I can clearly see myself in all of them.

7 people found this helpful