Reviews with content warning for Rape - Žert

Quite a reflective romantic book for him you’ll admit, and I don’t mean erotic romance. If nothing that’s what touched me while reading, especially considering the Russo-Ukriane war at this moment ridiculously still drags on. Love the ending.

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valentijn's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This by far by favourite book of literature that I have ever read. It is beautifully dark exploration of life under an oppressive regime in where all expression is judged, equalised and unified. It is one of the few books that contain quotes that I find so beautifully worded that I wanted to write them down to use them in daily conversations.

Our story follows an arrogant young university student that tries to impress a girl with his intellect. When she does not recipacte his interest, he becomes upsets and tries to shock her. When the authorities see the letter, he is faces severe consequences of his speech and has to leave university. The book then tells of his life afterwards as a political outcast, a struggle to find himself after being ousted from his community identity, the relationship between folk stories & modernity and how to find your place after being abandoned.

It goes pretty dark places at times, so don't read it if you're sensitive to stories involving (sexual) abuse. The connection to "cancel" culture, it should be said, seems to me overstated and an attempt to force a modern narrative onto a story where it does not fit and does not benefit from it.

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maxmflick's review against another edition

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funny reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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ludmireads's review

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Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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flara's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book twists and turns in the ways I did not expect. Having finished reading I am still confused at what has just happened. The author would spend 250 pages to build something up, to give it grave importance, only to reduce it to nothing on page 251. I've read a couple of Kundera's other books prior to The Joke, which is why I was initially confused by the misogyny and the role that women played in the novel. I guess that the views are era-appropriate, but they just didn't sit right with me and I was starting to seriously question Kundera's early writing. It took me 200 pages to realise that what truly bothered me was masterfully written main character and his personality, rather than the writer himself. I found myself hating Ludvik with a burning passion that almost discouraged me from reading the book altogether.

Criticisms:
(1) The writing is quite dense. Inner monologue, dialogue, philosophical banter, and descriptions are all mashed together with minimal transition. While I usually enjoy philosophical analogies, I did find the writing difficult to follow at times and I also found myself re-reading certain passages more than once simply because I kept loosing track of what was going on. I would not recommend this book as an introduction to Kundera's work, even though it is a masterpiece.
(2) I just don't really care for folklore and its relevance to the plot is mostly lost on me.

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tovejansson's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

A beautiful book, would be a lot better if Kundera didn’t hate women so much

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