The Unbearable Lightness of Being [Paperback]

 

 

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'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' follows the lives of Tomas (a Czechoslovakian surgeon), his wife Tereza and his mistress Sabina during the Prague Spring of 1968 and the turbulent years that followed the event.

At heart, The Unbearable Lightness of Being is the story of how three very different people attempt (and repeatedly fail) to reconcile their differing views of love. Tomas, for example, has promiscuous sex with as many women as possible, but he is only in love with one woman - his wife. For Tomas, love and sexuality are distinct and separate entities, and he has no moral scruples about loving one woman while sleeping with many:

"Tomas came to a conclusion: making love with a woman, and sleeping with a woman, are two separate passions, not merely different, but opposite. Loves does not make itself felt in the desire for copulation (a desire that extends to an infinite number of women) but in the desire for shared sleep (a desire limited to one woman)."

By contrast, Tomas' wife Tereza believes in marital fidelity - she loves her husband and blames herself for his womanizing life-style. Her despair in life comes from an unresolved personal mind-body dualism; she believes that Tomas loves her soul, but not her body. This fundamental difference in sexual behaviour is the conflict that underpins the entire novel - there's a heartbreaking pathos forged out of the relationship between Tomas and Tereza; their great depth of feeling is persistently tested by their irreconcilable views of love.

The third major protagonist is Sabina, an artist with an unusual take on the concept of `betrayal'. Sabina feels oppressed by her parochial ancestry and the artistic limitations imposed on her by the communist occupation. As a result she deliberately distorts - in a highly visual manner - the everyday objects that surround her. One particularly memorable scene has Sabina straddling a mirror on the floor of her studio, completely naked except for her father's bowler hat. This serves as her own personal deconstruction of her father's puritan legacy and turns the conservative image of the bowler hat into a symbol of her sexual emancipation.

But I don't want to rant on about the characters too much, because by far the most interesting voice in the novel is that of the narrator. Although he is never formally named, he speaks with a first-person identity and possesses an intimate knowledge of the characters and their actions. It's probably safe to assume that the voice of the narrator is actually the voice of Milan Kundera himself.

This narrator is the source of a great deal of comedy in the novel - for no sooner than a scene is over does the narrator immediately start to critique the action. He often criticises the characters, their behaviour and even, in some brilliantly observant and hilarious acts of humility, the actual writing of the novel.

This creates an unusual reading experience. It's almost as if Kundera wrote two books - one of them a novel, the other a harsh yet humorous critique of the novel. He then mashed them together into one coherent volume, so that the reader receives a running-commentary on the events of the book as they occur. My description probably doesn't do it justice, but I assure you, this works brilliantly well.

Further to his practical criticism, the narrator also engages in long philosophical speculations; this is what really sets the novel apart from all others that I've read. The philosophy is relevant and enlightening, yet simultaneously very tongue-in-cheek. The Unbearable Lightness of Being begins by challenging and dismissing Nietzsche's idea of eternal return (the concept that everything occurs and recurs ad infinitum), but then the novel constantly replays the same scenes over and over to the reader - albeit from different perspectives.

The narrator will open up a philosophical discussion by defining his terms in a charmingly idiosyncratic manner. These terms will then recur throughout the novel. As the narrator introduces more and more concepts into his discussion, the language of the text becomes more and more esoteric. So much so that, by the end of the novel, there is such a breadth of specific terminology being used that the final fifty pages or so would barely make any sense to somebody who hasn't read the first few hundred. In other words, Kundera develops his own secret philosophical lexicon and shares it with the reader. This successfully creates a unique feeling of intimacy between narrator and reader, who share a common language, unknown to anybody else, exclusive to this narrator-reader relationship.

The novel's philosophy is as broad in scope as it is focused in linguistic detail. Kundera rigorously analyses what it means to `be' in the world by exploring some unusual but striking contrasts. Sexuality is examined through multitude, not intimacy. Politics is explored through love and marriage. There's even a long, very funny and thought-provoking attempt to reconcile the act of being God, with the fact of bowel movements. The narrator even muses, as I've glossed over, on the creative operational aspects of writing:

"Characters are not born like people, of women; they are born of a situation, a sentence, a metaphor containing a basic human possibility that the author thinks no one else has discovered, or said something essential about."

'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' is a wonderful book. It's tragically moving yet charmingly funny and self-aware. Pathos and philosophy, comedy and culture criticism all merge seamlessly and intelligently. If I was forced to draw any criticism against it, it would be that the narrator is significantly more interesting than any of the characters, but this is a very minor complaint. At worst you might argue that the book is merely a love-story masquerading as philosophical didacticism; at best The Unbearable Lightness of Being may inspire you to re-assess what it means to be in love, be in work, be political; in fact, you may find yourself questioning what it means to `be' in the world altogether.

I happened to pick this book up by accident. Intrigued by its title, I read through the first two pages. It was very dense, and I thought it would be a hard read...but it flowed easily while touching many philosophical questions. As you followed the characters along, you realize how the characters represent what is human in all of us. This book was an amazing experience. Kundera develops the characters so well, that you become very attached to them. They become a part of you. Kundera also beautifully describes their thoughts and experiences. He puts into words everything you have thought about life and people and (mis-)communication but never really made it to the surface of your thoughts. A wonderful read that keeps you captivated until the end. It's not difficult to read, but you will constantly be thinking.

Milan Kundera is an unconventional storyteller. He never lets you forget his presence as author and narrator and even goes so far as to speak in the first person. He introduces his characters like acquaintances and his stories like anecdotes although parable is the more appropriate word. The story is far from incidental in his work and his characters are fully fleshed and involving but Kundera never lets his reader forget a wider significance. He also takes lengthy asides to expound a particular point or explore a particular train of thought yet this all adds rather than detracts from the beauty of the work.
Primarily this is a work about love and freedom which Kundera explores metaphorically through the opposition of weight and lightness. The essential question asked by this book is is it better to be weighed down by responsibility or to chose the unbearable lightness of being where our actions are "as free as they are inconsequential"? What price love?
This is explored through a number of different prisms and Kundera is equally at home discussing medieval theology as he is the death camps. Perhaps inevitably the Prague Spring of 1968 is given a major role and Kundera, as one who lived on both sides of the iron curtain is keen to demonstrate the way such experiences shape perception.
Kundera writes with a simple wisdom that makes his truths seem self evident and make you more aware of the way you view the world. The themes he deals with are both localised and universal. This is certainly one of my favourite books of all time and one that I keep on coming back to, either in its entirety or in small section like a reference book. Unsurpassed.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Captures the essence of our times
The book's title says it all. Kundera manages to depict the slippery feelings of our times, the anxiety, the love(s), the fleeting moments and the quick silver passing of time... Read more

Published 25 days ago by archibaldb

5.0 out of 5 stars Favourite book
This is my second copy of this book as I was heart broken when I lost my first copy. This is definitely Kundera's best read to date.

Published 1 month ago by Mindy

4.0 out of 5 stars The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984) is a philosophical novel concerned with existentialism and Nietzschean theories. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Matthew (Bibliofreak.net)

1.0 out of 5 stars The Unbearable Rantings of a Dirty Old Man
I'm two thirds of the way through this nonsense and really struggling to finish it. All that's kept me going is the occasional descriptions of life during the Prague Spring, which... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Tré Skacriterion

5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic
The book arrived in excellent condition and very quickly. By now, must admit, I have also finished reading it... keep feeling unbearably light.

Published 3 months ago by agnieszka

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful
This is a beautiful, simple yet sophisticated novel which involves the story of many intertwined lives, revealing aspects of our own lives, our expectations, and how we relate to... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Psimikakis Chalkokondylis

3.0 out of 5 stars less than the sum of its parts
This book tells stories of Tomas (a philandering surgeon, later a window-cleaner), Tereza (his main partner in life), Sabina (one of his lovers) and Franz (one of her lovers)... Read more

Published 8 months ago by William Jordan

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking...
A thought provoking read. Definately held my attention in the 1st half more as it delved into politics a little too much for my liking in the 2nd. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Dearest123

5.0 out of 5 stars "Something higher"...
... and the vertigo that might accompany it. The fear of falling. Tereza saw "book readers" as a secret fraternity, as indeed, particularly in the audiovisual age, they are. Read more

Published 12 months ago by John P. Jones III

2.0 out of 5 stars Not for me
I was so looking forward to reading this based on the reviews. I enjoyed the first part of the book but slowly lost interest as the characters didn't convince me. Read more

Published 13 months ago by JJ

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