Reviews - The Unbearable Lightness of Being

6.11k reviews for:

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Milan Kundera

3.96 AVERAGE

jerrythe5th's review

3.75

challenging informative reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I havent really had as much time as I would like with this book

This is definitely one of the hardest pieces I have ever read.
I am not a big fan of dualism, looking for it, think about it, talking about it. Its a waste of time really. However this “lightness” is an interesting concept, showing us how to live life.
Kundera is also making up new terms that are (atleast for me) hard to understand most of the time. But they do have something to say.
And I can agree with his political statements made.

The characters are interesting but not interesting enough. This book should have been way shorter.

laraynemichelle's review against another edition

4.0

I am not one who enjoys stories about infidelities and yet here we are, with the book now in my favorites pile. And that is because the infidelity, the characters, the plot are merely what Kundera uses to explain the philosophy and psychology of the decisions they choose to make, the life they choose to live, the way they are and become.

I have to be honest though, there are times wherein his philosophical pondering is confusing to me, but it does makes sense the more I read. Especially at first, having different assumptions on what this book is, it has taken me by a pleasant surprise.

elephant_train's review

5.0

God what a book. Gut wrenching and sweet at the end. I enjoyed all the characters constant analysis of their lives and loves and betrayals. This is one of those book where I don’t exactly know how to feel about the characters and the events between them but am definitely going to return to one day. Like man what a book, so dense with different life. From affairs to love to politics and history and back to affairs and love and death. I think each character was contemptible in their own ways but ultimately remarkably human and forgiven.

mlacwasan's review

1.0

Maybe I am missing something but I found all of the characters to be somehow both annoying and not well fleshed out? The most interesting portions was where slice of life engaged with the surrounding political context but I found Tomas’s womanizing to be so dull. I didn’t finish the last 10% of the book bc it was simply a slog to get through a few pages at a time bc I cared so little about the main characters day to day.

carlos_'s review against another edition

3.5

emotional sad tense 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

3.5⭐

La(s) historia(s) narrada(s) en este libro (que por cierto, no me esperé que en realidad fuera una novela, ya que todo el tiempo pensé que era un ensayo) nos habla sobre la dinámica de 4 personas, a las cuales vamos conociendo a lo largo de un tiempo en sus vidas, sus vivencias, sus logros, fracasos y su vida amorosa.

Honestamente siento que es un libro que no es para todo mundo, por lo que no sabría si recomendarlo o no, ya que si bien, es un libro que nos difícil de leer, si llega a hacerte pensar por sus dilemas morales y cuestiones filosóficas, pero que en términos generales es una lectura de la que uno aprende un poco sobre el ser humano y las relaciones durante la vida y de cómo estas dinámicas llegan a impactar de manera directa o indirecta a un individuo u otro.

x1menar0cardz's review against another edition

no puedo evitar pensar en que algo cambió en mi, sin embargo, no sé qué fue. Todo el libro me lo imaginaba distinto a lo que realmente es, y por alguna razón me gustó bastante más de lo que yo misma creí, nada de lo que soy es realmente con un propósito, nada tiene por qué serlo.