I just read the joke this week, having picked it up a couple months ago. It is unbelievable that that book was a debut, I was incredibly impressed. I l loved that some of the themes like lightness and heaviness and Nietzsche where already there.
It’s been sitting on my shelf for years. Is it a hard, dense read? Or is it immensely readable? Somewhere in-between? I’m not sure why, but I keep putting off reading it.
Great video, thanks. I clicked on this video out of curiosity then discovered he'd written The Unbearable Lightness of Being - which I've been meaning to read for a while!
Book of laughter and forgetting has a story titled Mother which just amazes me every time I read it. The nuance with which generation gap , sexuality , marital tension n bliss are juxtaposed is just beyond my capability even to describe
i immensly enjoyed this video, he is my favorite author, i just want to add that the characterizsation that the book of laughter and forgetting is titled that way because it features stories that fail and the answer to failure is laughter is unfitting. every story has a reoccuring motif of forgetting and laughter is explained in the section of the poets as the opposite of love or atleast indicates an absence of it.
I agree with the narrater, The Joke was the first book I read by Kundera.It is my favorite. I followed that with laughable loves ( a collection of short stories) and the rest, I consumed like candy.
This is very helpful as I haven’t read any of his novels. I can easily imagine the sense of liberation he must have felt in moving from an authoritarian society to one based on the individual.
My little Czech soul will always be thankful, Prague spring was always a full of hope until waking up on August 21. 1968 and Russian and Bulgarian tanks were ready to fire!
Thank you , Fiction Book, always thought-provoking on writers, Philosophy, Histories. Milan Kundera was an interesting author and your analysis is brillant as always, by contrasts of where the writer was born, what years and where they might up and France has given freedom for many artists and creative works, whether it is painting, dance, music, novelists, poltical adventures of history and philosophy. You are always informative with connections of various areas of thought and distance. Countrysides of landscapes. I have read, "The Joke," my favoite also. "The Unbearable Lightness of being." The film with Daniel Dey Lewis was brilliantly played in his role of Tomas. (Why? He is Daniel Dey Lewis) One of our great actors of this generation. 👏 I have unfortunately not read Kunderi essays. Another quest I will look into. Thank you again for all you videos. This world is blessed by having you here. ❤
Looking deeper into the Joke, where the quest to conquer all of our desires only leads to a insatiable appetite to temporarily satisfy our eternal thirst of our emotional needs of success. Which was comprehended as an unrelenting eternal Joke that has no endings even onto the next generation where our life's, a joke. To pursue something that's always a step ahead of our desire for complete satisfaction. JamesWhiskey
I did not know Kundra considered himself French. The only book i read of his was The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and viewed it very Czech. But anyway, it makes me sad that the literary cannon is mainly English and French authors, and hence Kundra only had a chance bcs of his French identity
He was Czech. He defected from Czechoslovakia in 1975. France gave him asylum. But all of his books were written in Czech through the 1980s. By the 1990s he began writing in French.
So is The unbearable lightness of being some type of anti book to Houellebecq's debut novel from 1994, since that is supposed to predict incels and we here have the opposite of an incel? Or maybe the observation is that Houellebeq always compares the sexual market with the free market, while Milan Kundera shows the same thing happening in a socialist country? Or maybe I am lost in my thinking. I have read the books, but I might not have understood it and mostly remember the movie.
It's a pity he was never awarded the Nobel prize; but then again, this prize is bankrupt and has no credibility at all. Many great writers like Tolstoy, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Borges, and Checkov never got it, while some who wrote only short stories - and don't forget songwriters - were awarded the prize because they were "politically correct", sadly literary merit alone will get you nowhere!!!!
The joke, his first novel, is a masterpiece. His essays in french language are amazing.
I just read the joke this week, having picked it up a couple months ago. It is unbelievable that that book was a debut, I was incredibly impressed. I l loved that some of the themes like lightness and heaviness and Nietzsche where already there.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is one of my favourite novel of all time.
It's my favourite as well . ✌
It’s been sitting on my shelf for years. Is it a hard, dense read? Or is it immensely readable? Somewhere in-between? I’m not sure why, but I keep putting off reading it.
Very readable
Mine too- I came to read it from my then favorite novel- Anna Karenina 😊
@@clemfarley7257 vr, e
“Tomas would have been lethal in the age of Tinder” 🤣
Kundera is my favorite modern writer . Many thanks for this review
Another excellent review. Just reading the unbearable lightness now and this helps me understand it better .thank you❤
Great video, thanks. I clicked on this video out of curiosity then discovered he'd written The Unbearable Lightness of Being - which I've been meaning to read for a while!
Cool, thanks!
Book of laughter and forgetting has a story titled Mother which just amazes me every time I read it. The nuance with which generation gap , sexuality , marital tension n bliss are juxtaposed is just beyond my capability even to describe
Thank you very much
I read Unbearable lightness of being more than one time, it bring so many thoughts.
Great video! I believe TULOB was his best work! I really love it. I hope to read his essays soon.
Thank you so much for this ❤️✨
I hope you can do another video on best South American novels.
Yes.❤
Thank you for reviewing The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It has remained one of my favourites s8nce first reading it in 1991.
i immensly enjoyed this video, he is my favorite author, i just want to add that the characterizsation that the book of laughter and forgetting is titled that way because it features stories that fail and the answer to failure is laughter is unfitting. every story has a reoccuring motif of forgetting and laughter is explained in the section of the poets as the opposite of love or atleast indicates an absence of it.
further i want to add that forgetting and the war on it is subject on different levels of human connections, namely in love and in politics/history
I am sorry so much for death of Milan Kundera! I remember reading of his books in the summer some years ago!
I agree with the narrater, The Joke was the first book I read by Kundera.It is my favorite. I followed that with laughable loves ( a collection of short stories) and the rest, I consumed like candy.
A video on Charles Baudelaire please
This is very helpful as I haven’t read any of his novels.
I can easily imagine the sense of liberation he must have felt in moving from an authoritarian society to one based on the individual.
My little Czech soul will always be thankful, Prague spring was always a full of hope until waking up on August 21. 1968 and Russian and Bulgarian tanks were ready to fire!
perfect
Immortality is the best one
Have you read his "art of the novel"? Is it any good?
Thank you , Fiction Book, always thought-provoking on writers, Philosophy, Histories.
Milan Kundera was an interesting author and your analysis is brillant as always, by contrasts of where the writer was born, what years and where they might up and France has given freedom for many artists and creative works, whether it is painting, dance, music, novelists, poltical adventures of history and philosophy.
You are always informative with connections of various areas of thought and distance.
Countrysides of landscapes.
I have read, "The Joke," my favoite also. "The Unbearable Lightness of being." The film with Daniel Dey Lewis was brilliantly played in his role of Tomas. (Why? He is Daniel Dey Lewis) One of our great actors of this generation. 👏
I have unfortunately not read Kunderi essays. Another quest I will look into.
Thank you again for all you videos. This world is blessed by having you here. ❤
Hello, I was wondering if you could make a video on Fernando Pessoa, the portugese poet please?
Looking deeper into the Joke, where the quest to conquer all of our desires only leads to a insatiable appetite to temporarily satisfy our eternal thirst of our emotional needs of success. Which was comprehended as an unrelenting eternal Joke that has no endings even onto the next generation where our life's, a joke. To pursue something that's always a step ahead of our desire for complete satisfaction. JamesWhiskey
0:13
Carl Chapek?
The book I like the best from him is "Laughable Loves" (1969) - "Směšné lásky". Seven bright short stories about "real life" love.
Tamas did not fail to love his wife.
I did not know Kundra considered himself French. The only book i read of his was The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and viewed it very Czech. But anyway, it makes me sad that the literary cannon is mainly English and French authors, and hence Kundra only had a chance bcs of his French identity
He was Czech. He defected from Czechoslovakia in 1975. France gave him asylum. But all of his books were written in Czech through the 1980s. By the 1990s he began writing in French.
Why he has an indian name ?🤔🤔
Milan is a common indian name and kundra is also q very popular sirname
So is The unbearable lightness of being some type of anti book to Houellebecq's debut novel from 1994, since that is supposed to predict incels and we here have the opposite of an incel? Or maybe the observation is that Houellebeq always compares the sexual market with the free market, while Milan Kundera shows the same thing happening in a socialist country? Or maybe I am lost in my thinking. I have read the books, but I might not have understood it and mostly remember the movie.
ULOB published 1984.
You got hiss french relation wrong..
Whatsup with the voice
Thomas, well at least he has his wife till the end... Can't stop what you love. Just wonder how many children 😂
It's a pity he was never awarded the Nobel prize; but then again, this prize is bankrupt and has no credibility at all. Many great writers like Tolstoy, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Borges, and Checkov never got it, while some who wrote only short stories - and don't forget songwriters - were awarded the prize because they were "politically correct", sadly literary merit alone will get you nowhere!!!!
Great video but would REALLY appreciate some kind of spoiler alert.
Please give subtitles.