A review by daaan
The Art of the Novel by Milan Kundera

4.0

As with almost all Milan Kundera novels, this book is broken into 7 parts, each with it's own style and form. Given this is a work of nonfiction primarily focused on literary criticism that has made it slightly difficult to rate, as some sections were harder to read than others. The 1st, 2nd and closing sections were astounding, the insight into Kundera's writing style and his core beliefs were excellent. Section 5 was also brilliant, discussing Kafka, who I've read enough of to be able to grasp the truth of what was written. The 3rd 4th sections were harder to read as they were about a book I've never read and not quite enough detail was given to understand the points Kundera was making, but did give enough to make me want to acquire said books. The 6th section was an interesting experiment, and there were some flashes of inspiration there, but I found it unsatisfying. It also references a lot of Kundera's other works, many of which I've not read and that bogged the reading down quite a bit. All in all, a great read, one that I may well go back to after reading further works referenced.