The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Really enjoyed this book. Paticularly Sabina's character - a representation of the ‘lightness' and ephemerality in a world without eternal return.
“The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.”
really loved the discussions on private vs public life. Quite a dense book in terms of ideas so definitely neet to come back to it more but great
“True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.”

Each rereading results in focusing a different lens - in this case, the motifs diminished in favor of the misalignments. Of the characters, it seems it is the men who only manage to make it through the first circle of the implied infinite labyrinth - Sabina moves more fluidly in a linear fashion of betrayals; while Tereza remains relatively unwavering in her attachments.

"Comprendimos desde hace mucho tiempo que ya no era posible subvertir al mundo, ni remodelarlo, ni detener su pobre huida hacia adelante. Sólo había una resistencia posible: no tomarlo en serio"

A quien le guste Kundera le será imposible no leer esta novela corta con un poco de nostalgia, en la que casi con certeza será su última obra.

Publicada a sus 84 años (desconozco si fue escrita antes), no puedo dejar de verla como auto-referencial. Su invitación a celebrar la insignificancia, como oposición a la solemnidad, tiene como trasfondo el cuestionamiento del sentido de la vida, que quizás el propio Kundera se encuentre analizando en el ocaso de su propia vida. Y para celebrar la insignificancia, claro, hace falta humor, que al autor no le falta.

Como siempre, en el camino Kundera deja grandes relfexiones y diálogos, como la división que traza entre la gente que pide disculpas y la que insulta al chocarse con otra; las reflexiones sobre el significado del ombligo como portador de sensualidad; y la back-story de Kalinin, quien da nombre a Kaliningrado.

2nd reading, Jan 2013. Still sublime.

I see in it an exaltation of the deliberate life. Of wakefulness. A recognition that we have one life to live; that the choices we make (or which are made for us) have their consequences but we can never know how it would be “otherwise”. I see open-eyed appreciation of beauty in myriad forms. The unexpected clash between honesty and openness. The satisfaction of staying true to one's values. I see a warning against the Disneyfication of our world.

We never really get to know the characters—not in the conventional sense—but we recognize their inner conflicts. And we learn or re-learn to keep our eyes open and to embrace joy where we find it.

Honestly, I just found the book difficult to follow. There were some meaningful moments and tidbits of cleverly worded sentiments that stood out to me. Which is why I couldn't bring myself to just give up on this. But honestly, understanding the book would have been easier if I knew anything about the soviet period it was set in. As it was, there was just a lot I was skipping over or not understanding because I didn't get the context probably. Maybe this is one I  can come back to in a while. 

This book was pretty good especially the last chapter when it's talking about Tomas' dog. I feel like this book would've been better for me but I guess I'm too simple minded to fully understand all his metaphors. I really enjoyed the metaphors I understood and the fact that he throws in some Czech history and it's Russian Communistic control was interesting

I managed to finish the book, but two things really bothered me throughout. The first thing that really jumped out at me is how pretentious the novel read. Instead of focusing solely on the story itself, Kundera felt a need to make it seem much more philosophical than it really is. Which leads me to my next issue: the main character is a cheating asshole. That's really all there is to it. Though to be fair, I was warned of this in the synopsis on the back cover, and the ending does make up for it slightly. That being said, the story arc was fairly average, if slightly hard to follow at times. Deserves no more than 3 stars in my opinion.