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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
The title of this book isn't nearly as good as the other books I read by Kundera: the Unbearable Lightnes of Being, or (even better) the Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Still, I enjoyed it immensely. It's about two things: living under Communism and being manipulative, confused, miserable and unsatisfied. So, I guess it's about one thing. If possible, I recommend reading it while taking a train through Romania.
ok knjiga al dosta velik deo se tiče istorije čehoslovačke i komunizma u istoj, za preskočit
Un autre excellent Kundera et une excellente analyse de François Ricard à la fin du roman !
I may give this book 5 stars later on. I've got the feeling it has to sink in a bit, that I will however keep thinking about it for quite some time. The writing (or should I say the translation?) was beautiful, the characters were surprisingly likeable - I was glad Lucie got some story for herself in the end - and the story was interesting in so many ways, in its views on communism, Czech Republic, history, cynism and revenge. I loved the fact that it was nowhere in your face horrible, but just sad at times.
I may give this book 5 stars later on. I've got the feeling it has to sink in a bit, that I will however keep thinking about it for quite some time. The writing (or should I say the translation?) was beautiful, the characters were surprisingly likeable - I was glad Lucie got some story for herself in the end - and the story was interesting in so many ways, in its views on communism, Czech Republic, history, cynism and revenge. I loved the fact that it was nowhere in your face horrible, but just sad at times.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
'Joke' by Milan Kundera (1967) - a great novel about little fatal events changing one's entire life - and about the abnormality of such things.
The protagonist, Ludvik, enjoys a comfortable social status - a student at a university and member in several youth organizations, he commits an unnoticeable, seemingly innocent act - he makes a silly joke. It doesn't matter what kind of joke - it is suffice to say that this entire act was thoughtless and inofensive per se, small in comparison with greater events in his life.
But Ludvik lived in an epoch where there was no time and place for jokes - as people, with religious devotion, served an omnipotent ideology, frantically willing to devour, crush everything that couldn't correspond to new standards. It was the short but notable period when Czechoslovakia, the writer's native country, was shaken by a wave of fanatism and repressions - the 1950s, the age of Stalinism.
Thereby, after some months, the joke - which everyone had taken seriously - is placed in the limelight and regarded as an act of heresy, as an insult of the very core of collective ideology. The colleagues and friends turn their vindictive fury against Ludvik, and his timid acts of self-defense are nullified by the zeal of his inquisitors - indeed, the wheel of history itself proclaimed him guilty.
And, finding himself estranged, forced to abandon his status, Ludvik grows a strong grievance against the society that committed such a heinous act of alienation - labeling him an enemy, without the right to appeal. The years of his youth are now marked by this profound alienation, exclusion from the civilized society - and even after his pardonement owing to the dawn of a more lenient time, his estrangement is kept intact - not by any external power, but by his inner soul.
And so, even after entering once again an intellectual's smug life, Ludvik is living, to paraphrase one of the narrators, in a personal hell. His actions, his thoughts are all stemming from the old but vivid trauma, making him un unlikeable but relatable character-narrator. His ultimate actions, as well as the recollections of his early past, are presented through various perspectives of his pals, former friends, and victims.
The novel, in my opinion, focuses on the long-term consequences of a fatality - but also condemns the circumstances that allow such fatalities to occur; the historical epoch when such things were the norm, a time which, the author concludes, will have to be ultimately forgotten.
Originally published by me on r/literature in July 2024
The protagonist, Ludvik, enjoys a comfortable social status - a student at a university and member in several youth organizations, he commits an unnoticeable, seemingly innocent act - he makes a silly joke. It doesn't matter what kind of joke - it is suffice to say that this entire act was thoughtless and inofensive per se, small in comparison with greater events in his life.
But Ludvik lived in an epoch where there was no time and place for jokes - as people, with religious devotion, served an omnipotent ideology, frantically willing to devour, crush everything that couldn't correspond to new standards. It was the short but notable period when Czechoslovakia, the writer's native country, was shaken by a wave of fanatism and repressions - the 1950s, the age of Stalinism.
Thereby, after some months, the joke - which everyone had taken seriously - is placed in the limelight and regarded as an act of heresy, as an insult of the very core of collective ideology. The colleagues and friends turn their vindictive fury against Ludvik, and his timid acts of self-defense are nullified by the zeal of his inquisitors - indeed, the wheel of history itself proclaimed him guilty.
And, finding himself estranged, forced to abandon his status, Ludvik grows a strong grievance against the society that committed such a heinous act of alienation - labeling him an enemy, without the right to appeal. The years of his youth are now marked by this profound alienation, exclusion from the civilized society - and even after his pardonement owing to the dawn of a more lenient time, his estrangement is kept intact - not by any external power, but by his inner soul.
And so, even after entering once again an intellectual's smug life, Ludvik is living, to paraphrase one of the narrators, in a personal hell. His actions, his thoughts are all stemming from the old but vivid trauma, making him un unlikeable but relatable character-narrator. His ultimate actions, as well as the recollections of his early past, are presented through various perspectives of his pals, former friends, and victims.
The novel, in my opinion, focuses on the long-term consequences of a fatality - but also condemns the circumstances that allow such fatalities to occur; the historical epoch when such things were the norm, a time which, the author concludes, will have to be ultimately forgotten.
Originally published by me on r/literature in July 2024
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
This is a strange and languid novel - the pace of action is always moderated by the narrator of that section, each of whom displays a sense of detachment from the vital spirit of life - but it illuminates the central themes brilliantly. Our inability to know the minds of others, and to make our own minds known, is shown over and over again in different vignettes of recollection, but in Kundera's hands this never gets boring. I found myself being drawn further and further into his bleak picture of Czechoslovakia; by the time it reached the denouement, I felt emotionally bound to the characters, even though I disliked them all!
This edition also contains an interesting introduction from Kundera himself on the subject of translation, a subject all too easy to ignore when one only reads English!
This edition also contains an interesting introduction from Kundera himself on the subject of translation, a subject all too easy to ignore when one only reads English!
Is it passé to invoke the Bechdel test in 2019?
I decided to pick this up more because of its relevance as a cultural artefact than anything else which is good because in terms of the plot and characters I found the chauvinism to be very distracting. Appreciated the ideological themes and occasional bits of prose but ultimately I’m deterred from moving on to The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which I’d planned to read next.
I decided to pick this up more because of its relevance as a cultural artefact than anything else which is good because in terms of the plot and characters I found the chauvinism to be very distracting. Appreciated the ideological themes and occasional bits of prose but ultimately I’m deterred from moving on to The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which I’d planned to read next.