The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel
by Milan Kundera
List Price:
Our Price: $9.65
You Save: $7.34 (43%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.00 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Milan KunderaEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-10-27
ISBN: 0061148520
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Book Reviews of The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel
Book Review: "In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine."
Summary: 5 Stars
A story of the intersecting lives and fates of four main characters during and after the Soviet occupation of the 1968 Prague Spring. There is Tomas, a womanizing former surgeon and his long-suffering wife, Tereza, and a parallel couple, the woman being Tomas' main go-to mistress; there is also a dog, Karenin. The phrase, taken from Beethoven's String Quartet no. 16, "Muss es sein?" (Must it be?) is repeated throughout the book and answered by "Ess muss sein!" (It must be!") Their choices, moments of decision, and paths are constrained by the unruliness of love and the political climate, as well as mere coincidence. It was a heavy time; a professional career was threatened by pressures from the authority and colleagues, and your personal and professional life is always open to government manipulation and framing. Are the characters who seek to escape any more free than those who don't? Besides physically escaping the ties to homeland and relationships, Kundera suggests that the temptation of kitsch, as seen in the parades, songs, and more, are masks disguising the truly awful things that are being done. Yet still there are those like Tereza, who insists on photographing scenes from the middle of the Soviet invasion, and shows a willingness (even eagerness) to hold onto the truth, which is heavy and never light. Kundera takes a moment in the story to remark on this tension:
"The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body. 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. 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?"
As it is, the questions draw our attention to matters of the human condition, but we are left to grapple with them ourselves. Contained in this book are different sides of profound philosophical problems.
Classics Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Classics Books
Native sonby Richard Wright
Perennial Library; Published: 1987; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Native Son: And How Bigger Was Bornby Richard Wright
Perennial; Published: 1993-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $60.00
Raphael and the Noble Taskby Catherine Salton
Harper; Published: 2000-10-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.88
Price in other shops:
The Great Divorce CDby C. S. Lewis
HarperAudio; Published: 2003-11-25; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.05
Price in other shops:
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Black Coffee (Poirot)by Agatha Christie
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2002-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $68.32
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1960s)by Joan Didion
Flamingo; Published: 2001-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.25
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Plagueby Albert Camus
Vintage; Published: 1991-05-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.60
Price in other shops:
Copenhagenby Michael Frayn
Anchor; Published: 2000-08-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.85
Price in other shops:
Existentialism Is a Humanismby Jean Paul Sartre
Yale University Press; Published: 2007-07-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.54
Price in other shops:
Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues (The Paul Carus Lectures)by Alasdair MacIntyre
Open Court; Published: 2001-05-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.47
Price in other shops:
The Joke (Definitive Version)by Milan Kundera
Harper Perennial; Published: 1993-02-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.74
Price in other shops:
Beyond Good & Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Futureby Friedrich Nietzsche
Vintage; Published: 1989-12-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
The Diary of a Country Priest: A Novelby Georges Bernanos
Spring Arbor/Ingram; Da Capo Press; Published: 2002-01-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.58
Price in other shops:
The Spirit of the Liturgy (Milestones in Catholic Theology)by Romano Guardini
The Crossroad Publishing Company; Published: 1998-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.90
Price in other shops:
Death Comes for the Archbishop (Vintage Classics)by Willa Cather
Random House; Vintage; Published: 1990-06-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
The Book of Laughter and Forgettingby Milan Kundera
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 1999-04-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.25
Price in other shops: