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yjb1778's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
An extremely efficient book, no fat at all. It’s themes are potent and wonderful to explore with this brief but impactful story. Kundera always portrays a deep and hidden part of humanity that is felt in love, relationships, or daily existence but is rarely talked about or reflected on. He communicates it that it feels like he’s talking directly to a part of me.
frankieior's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
emmasbook's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
anitasbooks's review against another edition
medium-paced
3.5
Ho letto questo libro per un gruppo di lettura e premetto che non avevo mai letto niente di Kundera prima d’ora.
Sapevo che non sarebbe stato molto il mio genere, per questo ero un po’ spaventata da questo titolo.
Però devo dire che mi è piaciuto.
La scrittura è davvero molto più scorrevole di quanto non immaginassi e i capitoli corti rendono la lettura molto più fluida e alleggeriscono il tema.
Sicuramente si tratta di una narrazione molto retorica che a me, a volte, dà fastidio. Però, in questo caso, sono riuscita a sopportarla e, anzi, ad apprezzarla.
Sarei curiosa di leggere altro di questo autore.
lyx's review against another edition
3.25
A charming little volume.
Chantal and Jean Marc's thoughts and actions were laid bare for us to read, one's interwoven with another's and how they affect each other in tiny moments of change.
My first Kundera read, I thoroughly enjoyed how even the tiniest and most uncomfortable doubts, thoughts, and reactions were written. It's as if reading within layers of inside jokes of two people, watching them and their minds work.
It's about two people and their little worlds. It's about how we perceive, how we are perceived, and how we think we're being perceived; and the mind's trick on us all.
Chantal and Jean Marc's thoughts and actions were laid bare for us to read, one's interwoven with another's and how they affect each other in tiny moments of change.
My first Kundera read, I thoroughly enjoyed how even the tiniest and most uncomfortable doubts, thoughts, and reactions were written. It's as if reading within layers of inside jokes of two people, watching them and their minds work.
It's about two people and their little worlds. It's about how we perceive, how we are perceived, and how we think we're being perceived; and the mind's trick on us all.
mghoshlisbin's review against another edition
4.5
"...the gaze of love is the gaze that isolates. Jean-Marc thought about the loving solitude between two old persons become invisible to other people: a sad solitude that prefigures death. No, what she needs is not a loving gaze, but a flood of alien, crude, lustful looks settling on her with no good will, no discrimination, no tenderness or politeness--settling on her fatefully, inescapably. Those are the looks that sustain her within human society. The gaze of love rips her out of it."
What is it in that desire to be noticed and to be looked at, that is so integral to the human experience? And what a complicated thing it is, to want to be seen while also being fearful of being judged? The conflict between the social desire to be noticed and the personal desire for solitude is a complex thought that is explored beautifully in Milan Kundera's Identity. When picking up this book as an "inbetween fantasy read", I did not expect to enjoy it so much. But it was fabulous! Short and sweet, with an incredible mixture of themes such as boredom, the real/unreal, the role of dreams and dreaming in our lives, the inner workings of personal relationships, perception vs. reality--this book really was a treat.
The story details a tumultuous period in the relationship between Chantel and Jean-Marc, a couple whom were entirely in love with one another, but succumb to misunderstandings, misperceptions, and their own desires. Chantel, an older woman who had previously been married and lost a child, is in a relationship with Jean-Marc, who is utterly infatuated with her but beleaguered by his distortions of events and his confusion about Chantel's personal journey of self. The story begins when Chantel, attempting to explain a confusing desire for external validation, proclaims, "Men don't turn to look at me anymore." Jean-Marc, moved and disturbed by this sentiment, begins to send Chantel love letters under the guise of a secret, alternate admirer. As he does so, tensions form, and the distinctions between reality and a mystical non-reality begin to blur.
I found the discussions of boredom and the need to contrive intrigue in our lives extremely compelling. Some examples that struck me quite intensely: Chantel and Jean-Marc willfully ignoring roads to resolution in their miscommunication in favor of continuing the illusion of suspense; the way in which Jean-Marc intentionally imagines horrific scenarios of Chantel's demise or alternative love affairs in order to spark his sole trigger for empathy; Chantel's colleague Leroy as a provocateur for the sake of itself. Even the way in which Chantel descends into a near obsession with finding the culprit of the love letters is inherently non-promiscuous--she, more than anything else, craved relief from routine, a disruption of the normalcy which had been granted to their relationship. And as much as Jean-Marc was disturbed by the changes in Chantel, by her "two-faced" nature, one could argue that it also fascinated him and made his ardor for her stronger.
Similarly, the themes of death and violence are intricate and compelling. In this novel, death and love seem to ride the same edge: Chantel, working in advertising for funeral homes, is always surrounded by death. Death as a freedom (to be "free" from those "spies" and "watchers"--presumably the prison walls of convention), death as punishment (as it had felt for the child of her previous marriage), and death as a potential disruption of boredom.
Finally we must consider the role of reality and unreality in the novel. The final dream which Chantel experiences, which is such an incredible change of pace, a switch to climax with near no warning by Kundera. I believe that it is an exploration of what happens when we allow our fantasies to create space for themselves in our lives. Throughout the novel, Chantel is haunted by moments where thoughts impose themselves upon her; they are out of character, weird, unusual and they direct the next decisions she makes. This dream is also an implant into her fantasy mind, a moment where the real (her love for Jean-Marc) fades, and is replaced by the terrible. It is an ode to our capacity to dream, but I think it is also cautionary. We should hold tight to the grounding experiences of death and love.
I will come back to this novel with further thoughts I am sure. There were many other aspects I had many thoughts about--the inefficacy of language to convey meaning, the dissociation that is created between the persona we curate for society and how we appear to ourselves and our loved ones, and others. But perhaps I will re-read this in a year and come back with some new thoughts.
What is it in that desire to be noticed and to be looked at, that is so integral to the human experience? And what a complicated thing it is, to want to be seen while also being fearful of being judged? The conflict between the social desire to be noticed and the personal desire for solitude is a complex thought that is explored beautifully in Milan Kundera's Identity. When picking up this book as an "inbetween fantasy read", I did not expect to enjoy it so much. But it was fabulous! Short and sweet, with an incredible mixture of themes such as boredom, the real/unreal, the role of dreams and dreaming in our lives, the inner workings of personal relationships, perception vs. reality--this book really was a treat.
The story details a tumultuous period in the relationship between Chantel and Jean-Marc, a couple whom were entirely in love with one another, but succumb to misunderstandings, misperceptions, and their own desires. Chantel, an older woman who had previously been married and lost a child, is in a relationship with Jean-Marc, who is utterly infatuated with her but beleaguered by his distortions of events and his confusion about Chantel's personal journey of self. The story begins when Chantel, attempting to explain a confusing desire for external validation, proclaims, "Men don't turn to look at me anymore." Jean-Marc, moved and disturbed by this sentiment, begins to send Chantel love letters under the guise of a secret, alternate admirer. As he does so, tensions form, and the distinctions between reality and a mystical non-reality begin to blur.
I found the discussions of boredom and the need to contrive intrigue in our lives extremely compelling. Some examples that struck me quite intensely: Chantel and Jean-Marc willfully ignoring roads to resolution in their miscommunication in favor of continuing the illusion of suspense; the way in which Jean-Marc intentionally imagines horrific scenarios of Chantel's demise or alternative love affairs in order to spark his sole trigger for empathy; Chantel's colleague Leroy as a provocateur for the sake of itself. Even the way in which Chantel descends into a near obsession with finding the culprit of the love letters is inherently non-promiscuous--she, more than anything else, craved relief from routine, a disruption of the normalcy which had been granted to their relationship. And as much as Jean-Marc was disturbed by the changes in Chantel, by her "two-faced" nature, one could argue that it also fascinated him and made his ardor for her stronger.
Similarly, the themes of death and violence are intricate and compelling. In this novel, death and love seem to ride the same edge: Chantel, working in advertising for funeral homes, is always surrounded by death. Death as a freedom (to be "free" from those "spies" and "watchers"--presumably the prison walls of convention), death as punishment (as it had felt for the child of her previous marriage), and death as a potential disruption of boredom.
Finally we must consider the role of reality and unreality in the novel. The final dream which Chantel experiences, which is such an incredible change of pace, a switch to climax with near no warning by Kundera. I believe that it is an exploration of what happens when we allow our fantasies to create space for themselves in our lives. Throughout the novel, Chantel is haunted by moments where thoughts impose themselves upon her; they are out of character, weird, unusual and they direct the next decisions she makes. This dream is also an implant into her fantasy mind, a moment where the real (her love for Jean-Marc) fades, and is replaced by the terrible. It is an ode to our capacity to dream, but I think it is also cautionary. We should hold tight to the grounding experiences of death and love.
I will come back to this novel with further thoughts I am sure. There were many other aspects I had many thoughts about--the inefficacy of language to convey meaning, the dissociation that is created between the persona we curate for society and how we appear to ourselves and our loved ones, and others. But perhaps I will re-read this in a year and come back with some new thoughts.
lucy_qhuay's review against another edition
1.0
Chantal is bitter about the fact men no longer turn their heads and look at her when she is passing in the street. She feels undesirable and her unhappiness is clear, so Jean-Marc, her partner, knowing she is not content with only his love and admiration, decides to write her letters as if he was a secret admirer.
At first, Chantal thinks it was a mistake or that someone is playing a trick on her, but as letters keep arriving, she gets caught in a strange erotic game, consumed with the need to know who's the anonymous observer.
She eventually finds out the truth and gets pissed, thinking this was all a ploy orchestrated by Jean-Marc to catch her cheating on him, so that he could dump her.
On the other hand, Jean-Marc himself, who started this whole business to make her happy, gets more and more jealous, since she decides to keep the letters a secret, and wonders whether that happens because she was prepared to, indeed cheat on him with some nameless man.
They sort of fight, she leaves to London to supposedly punish him and have mad sex with a bunch of people, he goes after her, there are a lot of weird erotic dreams involving old people and animals and then BAM, it is the end and this may have all been a dream their paranoid little minds came by at the same time.
Let's be honest here.
I thought Kundera's writing style was really good and, ocasionally, there were some bits of wisdom I really loved. For example:
'Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's very beautiful.
However, this book didn't make any sense.
I know 'Identity' was supposed to be about how the biggest fear of someone in love is to lose their significant other, while still having that person right beside them, that is, to no longer recognize the person they fell in love with in the face of the person that is right there.
And I can see this idea to some extent, but this is basically a story about two very dysfunctional people that are, in essence, a couple with severe communication issues.
Plus, as this may have been a dream anyway, I don't see the point of all the weird stuff that happened.
Not recommended at all.
gr_23's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
marilupignetta's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5