A review by flara
The Joke by Milan Kundera

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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