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Product Description
Review
Kundera's forte is a sort of gently sad, sexy comedy in which his characters know they shouldn't. . . but do anyway. According to one of the apothegms in this book of allegorical sketches, "The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past"; and that's a key to Kundera's work. Governments - like Kundera's own Czechoslovakia, which took back his citizenship after French publication of this book a year ago - are seen in clumsy attempts at rewriting history. And people behave pretty much that way too, especially when it comes to sex - which in Kundera's scheme usually ends up in one or both of two categories: hysterically laughable or too sad for words. A widowed waitress, desiring the return of her love letters and diaries left behind in Czechoslovakia after she fled, submits to the crude attentions of a younger man who promises to make the trip to fetch them out - but of course he doesn't. Poets get together to confess powerlessness before women. A group-sex party is too absurd for certain participants to hold back the guffaws. And, at his best, when lightly allegorical, Kundera gently nudges us over to his way of looking at things. But when he leaves out the representational level altogether, he's much less successful - as when, here, he belabors a concept of the "border" that separates us from our political and social and sexual true states. Intriguing yet uneven work, then, from a writer (The Joke, The Farewell Party) whose moody humor only sometimes builds up enough steam to move this quilt-like book along. (Kirkus Reviews)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
'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.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
44 of 49 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book was the best accident that ever happened to me. I picked it up because it was cheap and it stopped me reading Dean Koontz which can only be a good thing! It has a fractured, post modern narrative which leaps back and forth and the author brings into question who is writing and what is being created. The language he uses is amazing at times for it's sheer simplicity. The words seem to dance around each other - quite literally at times as in the chapter where the whole world begins to dance in a ring which floats off into the sky. Kundera owes a lot to Kafka although he seems to have a more optimistic outlook on life. He also reminds me at times of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as strange things begin to happen yet none of the characters notice anything strange! He creates fantastically interesting theories and perfect sentances. Read it.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found this book fascinating. It sent me on a journey and I had no idea where I went or what was going to happen at the end. Nothing happened at the end except that I knew I had been on a wonderful journey. Reading Kundera is like eating a bar of chocolate without the calories. His writing flows like a stream and you are gently taken along it and even if you do not understand all he says you dont really mind because its just such a nice journey.
19 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is a collection of similar short stories or, as Kundera explains it, a novel written in the experimental style of several variations on the same theme, and indeed all the stories/chapters are dependent on each other, and there is only one reasonable way of reading this book: from the first page to the end. The theme in question, as the title suggests, is that of laughter and forgetting, and this novel is worth reading just for its thought-provoking discussions on this subject. But all these discussions are just one of the several ingredients which make this novel a rich, enjoyable and unforgettable novel. Kundera's story telling and character crafting are at his best. Each plot is intelligent, funny as well as dramatic, evolves unpredictably and is delivered with great confidence. The novel is written very clearly and is immensely easy to read, although it is very hard not to stop often to think about what is written. All characters, and there are dozens of them, have a life of their own, are described in immense detail, and they often surprise the reader as well as the author. Kundera is also included in the character list, and this is his most autobiographic novel I've read. This novel is a must read for those who have enjoyed some of Kundera's novels. I also suggest this novel (and The Unbearable Lightness of Being) as an introduction to Kundera's works. This book is about laughter, forgetting, love, sex, history, politics, philosophy, beauty, ugliness, youth, old age and yourself, and is written by one of the most talented authors of our times.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
hmm not that impressed really
I didn't laugh once and took so long to get through it, I forgot what the plot was. Or was there actually a plot? Read more
Published 10 months ago by Penny M
no forgetting
I first discovered this book 20 years ago and was entranced by the characters and the stories. Kundera is one of the few authors who makes me feel like he has climbed inside my... Read more
Published 22 months ago by andrea
PHENOMENAL, FANTASTIC, INSERT YOUR OWN SUPERLATIVE
Having read this, it makes me regret either giving almost any other book a five-star rating or the fact that it's not possible to give six stars in special circumstances. Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2008 by Easily Me
Laugh, cry, forget, transcend
Seven stories intertwined by intent, fantasy and romance. Excellent and lean prose; epigrammatic, well-footed, lofty but not imposing. Read more
Published on 29 Jun 2007 by NorthernLight
Once again Kundera at his "Unbearable" best!
Simply brilliant!
Kundera once again keeps you quite literally captivated for 312 pages and then has you just asking for more. Read more
Published on 15 Mar 2001 by surfinbobbyd@hotmail.com
Its a book about laughter and forgetting...
Milan Kundera always lives up to the titles. Unbearable lightness of being was quite satisfyingly about the unbearable lightness of being. Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2000
thought provoking and funny
A fairly short and orderly book. Although it's quite easy to read, there is much to think about. The Ionesco/Rhinocerous chapter is very funny. Read more
Published on 12 Jun 1999
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