The cover description says it is a story of irreconcilable love and infidelities. I picked up this book because I wanted to read Kundera. I wanted to read Kundera for a while but kept on delaying because I have heard all along that he was a cerebral writer and was not easy to read. The final push came from my friend who described him as a simple yet complex writer. According to my friend you can dwell on a sentence or a phrase from Kundera’s works for hours just to get a sense of what the author was trying to say. I was interested. Kundera did not disappoint me. He was not too intimidating either. The book is about relationships and the essential polygamous nature of man-woman relationships. While reading the book one wonders whether monogamy is a myth that society carefully nurtures. The story revolves around Tomas, Tereza, Sabina, Franz and others. The book begins by challenging the “mad myth of eternal return” which Nietzsche called the heaviest of burdens. “What then shall we choose weight or lightness?” Questions are raised on love, betrayal, sexuality, repression, freedom of speech etc.
Tomas a surgeon who has had over 200 women (erotic friendships) in a span of twenty five years is forced to leave his profession on account of writing a critical letter to the editor of a newspaper condemning the communists. Sabina is a woman who thrives on the concept of betrayal .She abandons Franz who leaves his wife of twenty years to be with her. Franz dies while travelling abroad with his mistress and in his death his wife finally claims him as her own. Tereza is torn between her love for Tomas and the anxiety over his constant infidelities which tear her apart. Tomas realises he loves Tereza but thinks love and sexuality cannot be equated. Tereza’s dog Karenin plays a key role in the novel and is instrumental in bringing Tereza and Tomas together in the end.
The book is strewn with sentences like these
“We can never know what to want because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come”..
” And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?”
“In a society run by terror, no statements whatsoever can be taken seriously. They are all forced ..”
I wonder if the translation has been able to capture the spirit of the original of such a philosophical novel. The 300 page book should be read slowly and in leisure.
Follow the link below to read more about the story
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unbearable_Lightness_of_Being
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