The Unbearable Lightness of Being 9 out of 10

 The Unbearable Lightness of Being

9 out of 10

This is an excellent novel, that has almost all the important themes analyzed, or at least touched on.

Having said that, I must say that passages dealing with the communist regime did not thrill me in particular.

But this is just because I have lived under a regime that was worse than the somewhat liberal Czech communist system.

Tomas is the hero of this masterpiece that has so many philosophical interludes, meditations on and references to religion.

The interesting comments on raising the penis on command, the idea that if man is created in the image of God, then the latter should also have intestines...

-          And what about shit?

Speaking of which, we have the story of the son of Stalin.

He was captured and shared a camp with British officers.

These were appalled by the filth left in the toilet by the son of the dictator who is called in the book the most powerful man on earth.

Stalin's son would not answer the requests of the British to clean up after himself.

Outraged, the officers addressed the issue to the commander of the prison camp and when the German brought it up, the son of the Soviet tyrant was furious.

He thought this is so unacceptable that he went straight into the electrified fence.

I did not feel very sorry to hear that.

Tomas is a womanizer and that is so much in the news today.

In fact, with this side of his revealed, he would be an outcast in the modern, civilized world.

But, as it happens, some of the many women that he has sex with are attracted by this aspect of his manhood.

He loves Tereza so much that, aft they managed to cross the border and he is offered a job in Switzerland, the surgeon returns to Prague to reunite with his greatest love.

Notwithstanding his great affection for his wife, Tomas has sex even twice a day, with two different women, during the period of his life in which he is reduced to washing windows.

He had written an essay about Oedipus, the king who was innocent, that is he killed his father and slept with his mother, but without knowing their true, blood relations.

When the king finds out about it, he takes responsibility and inflicts punishment by blinding himself.

Communist apparatchiks do not do that and instead of assuming their guilt, they keep finding excuses.

The authorities were not pleased with this comparison and pressed Tomas to renege it and furthermore, accuse others of making him write it.

When the great surgeon refuses, he is made to wash windows.

There are some very hot passages, for instance the one were Tomas has an encounter with a peculiar looking woman.

Milan Kundera writes that some men are attracted to exotic women and this was the case with the hero.

This was a client who wanted the former surgeon to come to her place, supposedly to wash the windows.

The sex they have is describes, with details like he kept playing with her sphincter, that hole being his favorite part in the body.

These passages are interesting and exiting.

The author has very intriguing comments of many philosophical issues, such as the one announced in the title, on which Parmenides commented.

Compassion is felt when we are at the same level with the other, while pity implies a sort of condescension.

That was another relevant statement.

I also loved the story of Karenin, his devotion, suffering and death.

A real, strong, pure feeling seems to be the one involved in loving an animal, or someone in a similar position.

And Milan Kundera is very accurate here too.

This chef d'oeuvre explains Mitch, but also takes the reader to...the Thai border with Cambodia, where Franz, one of the other protagonists tries to enter that country and help.

Wonderful novel, included on the Le Monde list of best 100 books of the last century.