Take a photo of a barcode or cover
millennial_dandy 's review for:
The Joke
by Milan Kundera
"Marketa was the type of woman who takes everything seriously (which made her totally at one with the spirit of the era)." So says protagonist Ludvik early on in 'The Joke.'
This quote appears to be truth both of the zeitgeist and the potential reading experience of this novel. The Joke is certainly poigniant at times, and none of the characters are reduced to cartoony representations of humanity. Indeed, their very humanness lends itself to the comedy the title promises and Kundera delivers. But, like any joke, not everyone is going to get it or find it funny.
This is certainly Ludvik's experience when he dares to tell a saucy joke during the communist regime (to great personal detriment).
"I do [consider myself an optimist]," I said timidly. "I like a good time, a good laugh," I said, trying to lighten the tone of the interrogation. --"Even a nihilist can like a good laugh," said one of them. "He can laugh at people who suffer."
The narrative is peppered with jokes and quips and clever turns of phrase, some pointed, some some ironic and wry, some situational, some absurd:
"I found myself celebrating my downfall with a wedding ceremony."
There's also a great scene in the second act wherein the men Ludvik is working with collectively decide to throw a footrace by failing in increasingly absurd and silly ways: tripping spectacularly, running comically slowly, etc.
In other words, the greatest irony is that Ludvik swears up and down to 'The Party' that his joke was just that, 'a joke,' not something to be taken seriously. And yet, over and over again, we see Kundera employ humour (however wry it might be) as an act of resistence.
We meet other fantastic POV characters throughout the novel, notably a childhood aquintance of Ludvik's who is now desperately clinging to the vestiges of a once robust folk culture, and the wife of Ludvik's self-proclaimed adversary--the man he blames for getting him kicked out of the party--who he determines to have an affair with as a means of exacting revenge (of course, in a novel called 'The Joke,' this doesn't go quite the way either he or Helena (the wife) expected).
A fabulous novel with definite re-readability, although do note a massive trigger warning for graphic descriptions of rape.
This quote appears to be truth both of the zeitgeist and the potential reading experience of this novel. The Joke is certainly poigniant at times, and none of the characters are reduced to cartoony representations of humanity. Indeed, their very humanness lends itself to the comedy the title promises and Kundera delivers. But, like any joke, not everyone is going to get it or find it funny.
This is certainly Ludvik's experience when he dares to tell a saucy joke during the communist regime (to great personal detriment).
"I do [consider myself an optimist]," I said timidly. "I like a good time, a good laugh," I said, trying to lighten the tone of the interrogation. --"Even a nihilist can like a good laugh," said one of them. "He can laugh at people who suffer."
The narrative is peppered with jokes and quips and clever turns of phrase, some pointed, some some ironic and wry, some situational, some absurd:
"I found myself celebrating my downfall with a wedding ceremony."
There's also a great scene in the second act wherein the men Ludvik is working with collectively decide to throw a footrace by failing in increasingly absurd and silly ways: tripping spectacularly, running comically slowly, etc.
In other words, the greatest irony is that Ludvik swears up and down to 'The Party' that his joke was just that, 'a joke,' not something to be taken seriously. And yet, over and over again, we see Kundera employ humour (however wry it might be) as an act of resistence.
We meet other fantastic POV characters throughout the novel, notably a childhood aquintance of Ludvik's who is now desperately clinging to the vestiges of a once robust folk culture, and the wife of Ludvik's self-proclaimed adversary--the man he blames for getting him kicked out of the party--who he determines to have an affair with as a means of exacting revenge (of course, in a novel called 'The Joke,' this doesn't go quite the way either he or Helena (the wife) expected).
A fabulous novel with definite re-readability, although do note a massive trigger warning for graphic descriptions of rape.