Milan Kundera

Two newly translated works from one of the greatest literary writers and thinkers of the modern age, available together in English for the first time. Translating a work from its original language can be complicated; it’s a complex art that can easily mar and twist the intent and meaning of a writer’s words. Precise translations were of particular importance to Milan Kundera, who did not live to see all his books published in his native Czech language. Words, for Kundera, were the object of constant scrutiny. This fascinating volume includes two Kundera works from the 1980s, originally written for the now defunct French magazine Le Debat, which have never been available in in English. In “89 Words,” Kundera wryly recounts the many pitfalls in reading his own poorly translated works. When a friend of Kundera’s asked him about the words he considered the most—the ones he fretted over and loved—Kundera created a personal dictionary—his “89 Words.” This discerning essay, steeped in his signature barbed cheekiness, showcases his casually gutting philosophical reflections on what it means to be a writer in translation—the exile of life and art in another language. In the second work, “ A Disappearing Poem,” Kundera writes with a wistfulness and despair for his ever-more-distant home, offering an intimate look at the specificity of his native the richness of a heritage born in a “small nation” but whose significance is universal. Here, like in A Kidnapped West, we find the double condemnation of “Soviet civilization,” which had suffocated and persecuted Czech culture, and of Western Europe, which refused to neither acknowledge Kundera’s culture or understand it. Prefaced by lauded French historian Pierre Nora and translated from the French by award-winning Matt Reeck, these two texts return us to Kundera’s much-missed living presence. Subtle, alive, and full of wit and irony, 89 Words followed by A Poem that Disappears is an homage to a literary legend and a reminder of just how prescient his words and insights are today.

"Primeiro livro de não ficção do autor de A insustentável leveza do ser, A arte do romance é a confissão nascida da experiência prática do romancista. Nele são discutidas em profundidade a evolução do romance e seus aspectos centrais (de Cervantes a Proust, passando por Hermann Broch e Kafka), pelo olhar subjetivo de um artífice que vê ameaçada a continuidade de seu trabalho. Escritos ainda sob o forte impacto da crítica francesa da época do Nouveau Roman e dos ataques pós-modernos, os ensaios procuram restaurar o sentido do romance como gênero autônomo, após o esgotamento da experimentação modernista, sem ceder às tentações que desejavam a recuperação da narrativa romanesca do século XIX."

Passados mais de dez anos da publicação de seu último romance, Milan Kundera — um dos maiores escritores vivos — volta à ficção com uma trama breve e espirituosa ambientada em Paris nos dias de hoje. Autor de romances, volumes de contos, ensaios, uma peça de teatro e alguns livros de poemas, Milan Kundera, nascido na República Tcheca e naturalizado francês, é um dos maiores intelectuais vivos. Ficou especialmente conhecido por aquela que é considerada sua obra-prima, A Insustentável leveza do ser, adaptada ao cinema por Philip Kaufman em 1988. Vencedor de inúmeros prêmios, como o Grand Prix de Littérature da Academia Francesa pelo conjunto da obra e o Prêmio da Biblioteca Nacional da França, Kundera costuma figurar entre os favoritos ao Nobel de Literatura. Seus livros já foram traduzidos para mais de trinta línguas, e há mais de quinze anos o autor tem sua obra publicada no Brasil pela Companhia das Letras. Em 2013, o mundo editorial se surpreendeu com um novo romance de Kundera, que já não publicava obras de ficção desde o lançamento de A ignorância, há mais de dez anos. A festa da insignificância foi aclamado pela crítica e despertou enorme interesse dos leitores na França e na Itália, onde logo figurava em todas as listas de best-sellers. Lembrando A grande beleza, filme de Paolo Sorrentino acolhido com entusiasmo pelo público brasileiro no mesmo ano, o novo romance de Milan Kundera coloca em cena quatro amigos parisienses que vivem numa deriva inócua, característica de uma existência contemporânea esvaziada de sentido. Eles passeiam pelos jardins de Luxemburgo, se encontram numa festa sinistra, constatam que as novas gerações já se esqueceram de quem era Stálin, perguntam-se o que está por trás de uma sociedade que, ao invés dos seios ou das pernas, coloca o umbigo no centro do erotismo. Na forma de uma fuga com variações sobre um mesmo tema, Kundera transita com naturalidade entre a Paris de hoje em dia e a União Soviética de ontem, propondo um paralelo entre essas duas épocas. Assim o romance tematiza o pior da civilização e lança luz sobre os problemas mais sérios com muito bom humor e ironia, abraçando a insignificância da existência humana. Mas será insignificante, a insignificância? Assim Kundera responde a essa questão: “A insignificância, meu amigo, é a essência da existência. Ela está conosco em toda parte e sempre. Ela está presente mesmo ali onde ninguém quer vê-la: nos horrores, nas lutas sangrentas, nas piores desgraças. Isso exige muitas vezes coragem para reconhecê-la em condições tão dramáticas e para chamá-la pelo nome. Mas não se trata apenas de reconhecê-la, é preciso amar a insignificância, é preciso aprender a amá-la”.

Chantal, uma bela mulher mas não tão jovem, descobre na praia um mundo que não lhe agrada: os homens lhe parecem ridículos, infantilizados, voltados só para os filhos. Sãos todos "papais", desprovidos de qualquer encanto erótico. Fazendo graça, ela diz a si mesma: "Vivo num mundo em que os homens já não se viram para me olhar". Logo depois ela repetirá essa frase a seu companheiro, que, não vendo ali a ironia bem-humorada, será invadido por um sentimento de compaixão pela mulher que ele ama. Jean-Marc sabe que os olhares do companheiro não costumam bastar a uma mulher: a confirmação de um núcleo muito profundo da intimidade feminina parece depender de homens desconhecidos. Pouco a pouco Milan Kundera levará Chantal e Jean-Marc para a fronteira invisível que separa o real e o sonho. Seu conflito inicial se tornará um pesadelo em que o mais assustador será perder a identidade do outro.

A partir do gesto que uma mulher faz a seu professor de natação quando sai da piscina, a personagem Agnes surge na mente de um autor chamado Kundera. Como a Emma de Flaubert ou a Anna de Tolstoi, a Agnes de Kundera se torna objeto de fascínio e de uma busca insondável. Ao imaginar o cotidiano dessa personagem, o narrador-autor dá corpo a um romance em sete partes, que intercala as histórias de Agnes, seu marido Paul e sua irmã Laura com uma narrativa retirada da história da literatura: a relação de Goethe e Bettina von Arnim. Com seus personagens reais e inventados, Kundera reflete sobre a vida moderna, a sociedade e a cultura ocidentais, o culto da sentimentalidade, a diferença entre essência individual e imagem pública individual, os conflitos entre realidade e aparência, as variedades de amor e de desejo sexual, a importância da fama e da celebridade, e a típica busca humana pela imortalidade. Em um diálogo ficcional entre Goethe e Hemingway, este diz “Em vez de ler meus livros, escrevem livros sobre mim.”, ao que aquele responde: “A imortalidade é um eterno processo.”. Se a morte está presente na trajetória de Agnes, também está na inclusão desses personagens já mortos, mas imortais, do cânone literário. “A morte e a imortalidade”, diz Kundera, “formam uma dupla indivisível, mais bela que Marx e Engels, que Romeu e Julieta, que Laurel e Hardy”. Com a leitura de sua obra, que explora a fundo os grandes temas da existência humana, podemos afirmar que o autor de A insustentável leveza do ser já garantiu seu lugar no panteão dos imortais.

Nos anos 60 em Praga, Tchecoslováquia, Tomas é um médico totalmente apolítico, que tem como hobby ter diversas parceiras sexuais, mas evitando sempre um maior envolvimento. Mas duas mulheres: Sabina, uma artista plástica, e Tereza, uma empregada de mesa, que sonha em ser fotógrafa, vão estar muito presentes na sua vida. Mas ao serem atingidos pelos acontecimentos de 1968, conhecido como "A Primavera de Praga", quando tanques soviéticos invadiram a capital tcheca para pôr fim a uma série de protestos, a vida deste triângulo amoroso é afectada, pois os seus sonhos são destruídos e as suas vidas mudam para sempre.

“We should welcome the context Kundera gives for the struggles between Russia and Europe, and the plight of those caught between them. His defense of small languages, small cultures, and small nations feels pressing.”—Claire Messud,  Harper's Magazine “Kundera focuses on the relationship of Europe’s central ‘small nations’ like Czechoslovakia and Ukraine to Western culture and argues that their cultural identities were increasingly threatened.”— New York Book Review  A short collection of brilliant early essays that offers a fascinating context for Milan Kundera’s subsequent career and holds a mirror to much recent European history.  It is also remarkably prescient with regard to Russia’s current aggression in Ukraine and its threat to the rest of Europe. Milan Kundera’s early nonfiction work feels especially resonant in our own time. In these pieces, Kundera pleads the case of the “small nations” of Europe who, by culture, are Western with deep roots in Europe, despite Russia imposing its own Communist political regimes in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Ukraine, and elsewhere. Kundera warns that the real tragedy here is not Russia but Europe, whose own identity and culture are directly challenged and threatened in a way that could lead to their destruction. He is sounding the alarm, which chimes loud and clear in our own twenty-first century. The 1983 essay translated by Edmund White (“The Tragedy of Central Europe”), and the 1967 lecture delivered to the Czech Writers’ Union in the middle of the Prague Spring by the young Milan Kundera (“Literature and the Small Nations”), translated for the first time by Linda Asher, are both written in a voice that is at once personal, vehement, and anguished. Here, Kundera appears already as one of our great European writers and truly our contemporary. Each piece is prefaced by a short presentation by French historian Pierre Nora and Czech-born French political scientist Jacques Rupnik.

Kundera ha detto una volta che aveva scritto Amori ridicoli "con maggior divertimento, con maggiore piacere" di tutti gli altri suoi libri. Quel divertimento, quel piacere si trasmettono a ogni lettore, irresistibilmente, appena apre queste pagine. In sette racconti, composti in una forma chiusa e perfetta, piena di corrispondenze, Kundera tratta l'amore: ma un amore a cui si accompagna ogni volta un altro elemento, la mistificazione, con effetto deflagrante. Il mondo, quale si presenta con aria di seriosa compostezza, va felicemente in pezzi sotto i nostri occhi, frantumato dalla duplice spinta dell'eros e della mistificazione. Così, in Amori ridicoli, l'essenza amorosa, nella sua leggerezza e nel suo pathos, si sprigiona finalmente come liberata da una costrizione.

Tomas, de lichtheid. Terezan, de zwaarte. Sabina, het verraad. Franz, de droom. Vier personages, vier manieren om in de wereld te staan, en het verhaal van hun botsing. Tomas ontmoet Tereza en trouwt met haar, maar kan zijn hang naar losse relaties niet opgeven. Sabina is zijn favoriete minnares: ook zij wil zich niet binden. Wanneer Franz, haar nieuwe geliefde, zijn vrouw voor haar in de steek wil laten, verdwijnt ze dan ook uit zijn leven. Hij zet zijn Grote Mars voort, terwijl Tereza en Tomas alsnog beleven wat onmogelijk leek: een idylle.

Sie kam ihm vor wie ein Kind, das jemand in ein pechbestrichenes Körbchen gelegt und auf dem Fluß ausgesetzt hatte, damit er es am Ufer seines Bettes barg. Der Prager Chirurg Tomas, der die Frauen begehrt und zugleich fürchtet, ein Erotomane, der seine Scheidung wie eine Hochzeit feierte und fortan der Liebe aus dem Weg ging, bricht für die Kellnerin Teresa mit einigen seiner Grundsätze. Seine erotischen Freundschaften, wie jene mit der Malerin Sabina, führt er aber weiter. Teresa verläßt ihn in Zürich, wo sich die beiden, inzwischen verheiratet, nach dem russischen Einmarsch in Prag, niedergelassen haben. Sie kehrt in ihr Heimatland zurück...

Tal vez por haber sido escritas en el perodo (entre 1959, y 1968) ms feliz de la vida de Milan Kundera, segn sus propias palabras, estas narraciones son las ms alegres, las ms seriamente desvergonzadas y las ms reflexivamente divertidas de su obra. La farndula de personajes hedonistas que desfila aqu ante nosotros en busca de los juegos mltiples y contradictorios de la amistad, el amor y el sexo no puede sino incitar a la risa, atrapados como estn en el mundo loco de severidad, hermetismo e inquisicin que les rodea. Una risa autntica, traviesa; un humor sabio, sagaz y gozador, al que ya nos tiene acostumbrados el autor de La insoportable levedad del ser.

Može se, bez dvoumljenja, kazati da Kundera uživa glas jednog od najprivlačnijih pisaca danas u Evropi. Osnovno obeležje Kunderinih pripovedaka može se izreći ovako: svrsishodan izraz, odmeren tempo, blaga ironija koja ne pogađa "glavnog junaka", nego se stavlja u pomalo pomerenu perspektivu, smisao za detalj i veština posmatranja, stvaranje osobene atmosfere, vešto fabuliranje, dobra poenta, čvrsto komponovanje. Iz ovih priča izbija onaj dah koji nam je znan iz najboljih dela "Češke filmske škole".

Klima, a celebrated jazz trumpeter, receives a phone call announcing that a young nurse with whom he spent a brief night at a fertility spa is pregnant. She has decided he is the father. And so begins a comedy in which, during five madcap days, events unfold with ever-increasing speed. Klima's beautiful, jealous wife; the nurse's equally jealous boyfriend; a fanatical gynecologist; a rich American, at once Don Juan and saint; and an elderly political prisoner who, just before his emigration, is holding a farewell party at the spa, are all drawn into this black comedy, as in A Midsummer Night's Dream. As usual, Milan Kundera poses serious questions with a blasphemous lightness which makes us understand that the modern world has taken away our right to tragedy.

There are situations in which we fail for a moment to recognize the person we are with, in which the identity of the other is erased while we simultaneously doubt our own. This also happens with couples--indeed, above all with couples, because lovers fear more than anything else "losing sight" of that loved one. With stunning artfulness in expanding and playing variations on the meaningful moment, Milan Kundera has made this situation--and the vague sense of panic it inspires--the very fabric of his novel. Here brevity goes hand in hand with intensity, and a moment of bewilderment marks the start of a labyrinthine journey during which the reader repeatedly crosses the border between the real and the unreal, between what occurs in the world outside, and what the mind creates in its solitude. Of all contemporary writers, only Kundera can transform such a hidden and disconcerting perception into the material for a novel, one of his finest, most painful, and most enlightening. Which, surprisingly, turns out to be a love story.

A man and a woman meet by chance while returning to their homeland, which they had abandoned twenty years earlier when they had chosen to become exiles. Will they manage to pick up the thread of their strange love story, interrupted almost as soon as it began and then lost in the tides of history? The truth is that after such a long absence "their memories no longer match." We always believe that our memories coincide with those of the person we loved, that we experienced the same thing. But this is just an illusion. Then again, what can we expect of our weak memory? It records only "an insignificant, minuscule particle" of the past, "and no one knows why it's this bit and not any other bit." We live our lives sunk in a vast forgetting, a fact we refuse to recognize. Only those who return after twenty years, like Odysseus returning to his native Ithaca, can be dazzled and astounded by observing the goddess of ignorance firsthand.Milan Kundera is the only author today who can take such dizzying concepts as absence, memory, forgetting, and ignorance, and transform them into material for a novel, masterfully orchestrating them into a polyphonic and moving work.Author Biography: The Franco-Czech novelist Milan Kundera was born in Brno and has lived in France, his second homeland, for more than twenty years. He is the author of the novels The Joke, Life Is Elsewhere, The Farewell Party, The Books of Laughter and Forgetting, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Immortality, and the short story collection Laughable Loves, all originally written in Czech. Like Slowness, his two earlier nonfiction works, The Art ofthe Novel and Testaments Betrayed, were originally written in French.

Di questo libro Kundera ha scritto: «Nel Libro del riso e dell’oblio, la coerenza dell’insieme è data unicamente dall’unicità di alcuni temi (e motivi), con le loro variazioni. È un romanzo, questo? Io credo di sì». E lo stesso vale per i numerosissimi lettori che questo libro ha avuto dal 1979 a oggi e che vi hanno riconosciuto una delle più audaci imprese letterarie del nostro tempo: un «romanzo in forma di variazioni». Cambiano totalmente i personaggi e le situazioni, in ciascuna delle sette parti in cui (come d’obbligo in Kundera) il libro si divide. Ciascuna è autosufficiente – e tutte si susseguono «come le diverse tappe di un viaggio che ci conduce all’interno di un tema, all’interno di un pensiero, all’interno di una sola e unica situazione la cui comprensione, per me, si perde nell’immensità». Su tutto, un gesto si mostra con peculiare insistenza: il tentativo di sottrarsi alla cancellazione di ciò che è avvenuto. Come dice un personaggio del romanzo: «la lotta dell’uomo contro il potere è la lotta della memoria contro l’oblio».

"C.S.: Lei non ha parlato quasi per nulla del "Valzer degli addii". "M.K.: Eppure è il romanzo che in un certo senso mi è più caro. Come "Amori ridicoli", l'ho scritto con più divertimento, con più piacere degli altri. In un altro stato d'animo. Anche molto più in fretta." "C.S.: Ha solo cinque parti. "M.K.: Si fonda su un archetipo formale del tutto diverso da quello degli altri miei romanzi. E' assolutamente omogeneo, senza digressioni, composto di una sola materia, raccontato con lo stesso tempo, è molto teatrale, stilizzato, basato sulla forma del vaudeville. In Amori ridicoli, si può leggere il racconto Il simposio, il cui titolo è un'allusione parodistica al Simposio di Platone. Lunghe discussioni sull'amore. Ebbene, questo Simposio è composto in tutto e per tutto come Il valzer degli addii: vaudeville in cinque atti".

This breathtaking, reverberating survey of human nature finds Kundera still attempting to work out the meaning of life, without losing his acute sense of humour. It is one of those great unclassifiable masterpieces that appear once every twenty years or so. 'It will make you cleverer, maybe even a better lover. Not many novels can do that.' Nicholas Lezard, GQ

In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. This magnificent novel juxtaposes geographically distant places, brilliant and playful reflections, and a variety of styles to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world’s truly great writers.

Em 1972, o jovem encenador francês Georges Werler encontrou-se com Milan Kundera em Praga e trouxe clandestinamente para Paris o manuscrito de Jacques e o seu Amo. Kundera havia escrito a peça após a invasão russa, quando toda a sua obra, passada e futura, fôra, riscada das letras checas. Foi o seu velho amor por Jacques le Fataliste que inspirou a Kundera este "divertimento no tempo da peste", esta libérrima "Variação sobre Diderot". A peça nada tem de lição filosófica; o que nela se exalta é o prazer da invenção, o humor e o racionalismo lúdico de Diderot, a sua extraordinária liberdade formal que, segundo Kundera, jamais encontrou paralelo na evolução da história do romance. Na época em que Praga viveu o seu "fim do Ocidente", Kundera saboreou essa estonteante liberdade de Diderot como quem saboreia um valor condenado e sem futuro. Hoje, quase trinta anos depois, Jacques e o seu Amo permanece como uma espantosa peça literária, à altura dos melhores romances do seu autor.

Ünlü çek yazarı Milan Kundera'yı, bu yeni romanında, yine bir içe bakış ustası olarak görüyoruz. İnsan ruhunun derinliklerinde dolaşmayı seven bir yazar. Usta bir kurgucu ve söz cambazı olan Milan Kundera, düşünceleri, tartışmaları, gevezelikleri seviyor. Bize hep şunu anımsatıyor: 'İnsanlar düşününce Tanrı güler.' "Kimlik" adlı bu son romanında Milan Kundera bir aşkın yıpranışını, bitişini anlatıyor. Erkek, kadından on dört yaş küçüktür. Bu büyük aşkın arasına uzunca bir ayrılık girer. Yeniden buluştuklarında birşeyler eskimiştir. Geçen zamanın getirdiği değişiklikler, aralarındaki her şeyi sorgulamaya başlamalarına yol açar. Bu mutlu çiftin arasındaki güven duygusu, giderek kuşkuya dönüşür, artık birbirlerini gözetlemektedirler. Yaşadıkları, gerçek bir karabasandır. Milan Kundera, bu güzel romanında kimliğin, aşkın, dostluğun nasıl dağılıp gittiğini gösteriyor bize.

Román ve formě variací o osudech několika postav zasažených iracionalitou společenských a dějinných mechanismů. Próza se skládá ze sedmi relativně samostatných částí rozdělených dále na krátké číslované kapitoly. Pouze čtvrtá a šestá část na sebe chronologicky navazují a jsou spojeny osobou Taminy, kolem níž se osudy postav z ostatních částí volně seskupují. Tamina je mladá vdova, žijící ze vzpomínek na manžela, který zemřel brzy poté, co spolu emigrovali do Francie. Protože by si ráda upřesnila kontury bývalého šťastného manželství, nenávratně propadajícího do zapomnění, pokouší se získat od tchyně své deníky, jež zůstaly v Čechách. Ačkoliv tomuto cíli obětuje i svou věrnost "až za hrob", nikdo z jejích přátel nakonec do Prahy nejede a Taminin pocit vykořeněnosti je ještě posílen trapností zbytečné oběti. Pokračování jejího příběhu (šestá část nazvaná Andělé) je uvedeno variací na motiv, jímž celá kniha začíná: úvahou nad Clementisovou čepicí na hlavě K. Gottwalda řečnícího z balkónu domu, kde míval krámek otec F. Kafky. Tamina podlehla nabídce mladíka Rafaela a nechala se odvézt na ostrov obývaný komunitou dětí, jejichž život je naplněn bezstarostnými hrami, ale i neúprosnou disciplínou. Děti mezi sebe Taminu přijímají, avšak stále více si všímají, čím se dospělá, přemýšlivá žena od nich liší. Kultický obdiv k její velikosti a ženskosti se postupně mění v nenávist. Tamina se nemůže ztotožnit s primitivními ideály jejich "ráje" a pokouší se z ostrova uplavat. V dalších příbězích se setkáváme s intelektuálem Mirkem, sledovaným Státní bezpečností a nakonec uvězněným (Ztracené dopisy), s umně zaranžovaným milováním ve třech (Maminka), s dvěma hloupoučkými americkými studentkami, jež se domnívají, že pochopily Ioneskův absurdní humor (Andělé), s láskou nesmělého studenta k řeznické paničce (Lítost) i s několika příklady toho, jak snadné je překročit hranici "za níž věci přestávají mít smysl" (Hranice). Kniha smíchu a zapomnění je třetím románem, který Kundera vydal nejprve ve Francii a prvním románem psaným v cizině. Od předchozích knih se liší nejenom méně běžným tvarem, ale také otevřenou kritikou Husákova režimu, kvůli níž Kundera přišel o čs. občanství.

Ludvik Jahn, joven estudiante universitario y activo miembro del Partido Comunista checo, envía a una compañera de clase una postal en la que se burla del optimismo ideológico imperante. La broma no les hace la menor gracia a los dirigentes universitarios y, tras un juicio sumario, expulsan a Ludvik de la universidad y del Partido. Pero, paradójicamente, al caer en desgracia, se abre para Ludvik un mundo aún desconocido. Atrapado entre dos amores, el de Lucie, tierno y desesperado, y el de Helena, apasionado y cínico, Ludvik va, sin embargo, de tropiezo en tropiezo, transformando su vida en un cúmulo de situaciones a cual más grotesca y risible. De hecho, con el paso del tiempo, la vida de Ludvik se convertirá en una enorme broma pesada: ya no podrá culpar al destino, porque ya no puede sino culparse a sí mismo.

Proyectar una luz sobre los problemas más serios y a la vez no pronunciar una sola frase seria, estar fascinado por la realidad del mundo contemporáneo y a la vez evitar todo realismo, así es La fiesta de la insignificancia. Quien conozca los libros anteriores de Kundera sabe que no son en absoluto inesperadas en él las ganas de incorporar en una novela algo «no serio». En La inmortalidad, Goethe y Hemingway pasean juntos durante muchos capítulos, charlan y se lo pasan bien. Y en La lentitud, Vera, la esposa del autor, dice a su marido: «Tú me has dicho muchas veces que un día escribirías una novela en la que no habría ninguna palabra seria… Te lo advierto: ve con cuidado: tus enemigos acechan». Pero, en lugar de ir con cuidado, Kundera realiza por fin plenamente en esta novela su viejo sueño estético, que así puede verse como un sorprendente resumen de toda su obra. Menudo resumen. Menudo epílogo. Menuda risa inspirada en nuestra época, que es cómica porque ha perdido todo su sentido del humor. ¿Qué puede aún decirse? Nada.

Chantal y Jean-Marc viven juntos en París y se quieren, se quieren tanto que incluso parecen confundirse. Y es que, a veces, se dan situaciones en las que, por un instante, ninguno de los dos parece reconocerse, en el que la identidad del otro se disuelve y, de rechazo, duda de la suya propia. Todo el que ama, todo el que convive en pareja, lo ha vivido alguna vez, porque lo que más teme en el mundo quien ama es «perder de vista» al ser amado. Pues eso es lo que, poco a poco, va a empezar a ocurrirles a Chantal y a Jean-Marc. Pero ¿en qué instante, ante qué gesto y en qué circunstancia precisa comienza ese aterrador proceso? Kundera atrapa al lector en el pánico que acompaña ese instante de extravío y éste ya no tendrá más remedio que adentrarse en el laberinto que recorren Chantal y Jean-Marc y en el que más de una vez deberá cruzar la frontera de lo real y lo irreal —o entre lo que ocurre en el mundo exterior y lo que elabora una mente en solitario.

A partir del gesto encantador de una mujer de cierta edad, el escritor crea el personaje de Agnes, alrededor de la cual aparecerán su hermana Laura, su marido Paul, y todo nuestro mundo contemporáneo en el que se rinde culto a la tecnología y la imagen. Pero ¿y si el hombre no fuera sino su imagen ?, pregunta otro personaje, Rubens, quien comprueba finalmente que de la más excitante de sus amantes sólo le quedan dos o tres fotografías mentales. Esta novela transforma todos los aspectos del mundo moderno en cuestiones metafísicas. Su forma es polifónica: las aventuras de los personajes imaginarios se mezclan con la historia de dos candidatos a la inmortalidad, Goethe y Bettina von Armin; la reflexión sobre el nacimiento del homo senti-mentalis en la historia de Europa alterna con las peripecias parisienses del singular profesor Avenarius, para quien el mundo de hoy no sirve sino como objeto de juego. Kundera tiene el don de decir del modo más cristalino lo que a uno le resulta más difícil decirse, y en esta novela alcanza la cima de esta facultad.

La insoportable levedad del ser narra una extraordinaria historia de amor, es decir, de celos, sexo, traiciones, muerte y, también, de las debilidades y paradojas de Teresa, Tomás, Franz y Sabina, cuyos destinos se entrelazan irremediablemente. Los celos de Teresa hacia Tomás, el terco amor de éste por ella -junto con su irrefenable deseo de otras mujeres-, el idealismo de Franz, amante de Sabina, y la necesidad de Sabina de perseguir una libertad que sólo conduce a una insoportable levedad, se convierten en una reflexión sobre los problemas filosóficos que afectan a nuestra existencia.

" Tu m'as souvent dit vouloir écrire un jour un roman où aucun mot ne serait sérieux. Une Grande Bêtise Pour Ton Plaisir. J'ai peur que le moment ne soit venu. Je veux seulement te prévenir : fais attention. " J'incline la tête encore plus bas. " Te rappelles-tu ce que te disait ta maman ? J'entends sa voix comme si c'était hier : Milanku, cesse de faire des plaisanteries. Personne ne te comprendra. Tu offenseras tout le monde et tout le monde finira par te détester. Te rappelles-tu ? - Oui, dis-je. - Je te préviens. Le sérieux te protégeait. Le manque de sérieux te laissera nu devant les loups. Et tu sais qu'ils t'attendent, les loups. "

In una notte di mezza estate si intersecano, come in una féerie, due storie di seduzione, separate da più di duecento anni e oscillanti vertiginosamente fra l’inebriante e l’esilarante.

"L'optimisme est l'opium du genre humain ! L'esprit sain pue la connerie. Vive Trotski !" : première plaisanterie de Ludvik, qui lui vaut d'être exclu du Parti Communiste à l'unanimité. Seconde plaisanterie, de la vie cette fois : des années après sa radiation, Ludvik tente de se venger d'un des membres du parti qui s'est montré particulièrement dur, en lui volant sa femme, qui s'avère ne plus lui appartenir depuis longtemps déjà. La vengeance a donc échoué. Cependant, d'une plaisanterie à l'autre, Kundera nous aura offert un bijou d'humour noir, mais aussi une réflexion brillamment illustrée sur l'unicité des choses et des êtres, ponctuée d'évocations superbes des coutumes moraves, d'incursions dans le monde absurde du totalitarisme communiste et d'introspections lucides. En alternant savamment les points de vue de Ludvik, Helena, Jaroslav et Kotska, Kundera semble nous signifier qu'au bout du compte, c'est l'idée même d'individu qui lui importe.

"Le monde des théories n'est pas le mien. Ces réflexions sont celles d'un praticien. L'oeuvre de chaque romancier contient une vision implicite de l'histoire du roman, une idée de ce qu'est le roman. C'est cette idée du roman, inhérente à mes romans, que j'ai fait parler." Milan Kundera.

Laughable Loves is a collection of stories that first appeared in print in Prague before 1968, but was then was subsequently banned. The seven stories are all concerned with love, or rather with the complex erotic games and stratagems employed by women and especially men as they try to come to terms with needs and impulses that can start a terrifying train of events. Sexual attraction is shown as a game that often turns sour, an experience that brings with it painful insights and releases uncertainty, panic, vanity and a constant need for reassurance. Thus a young couple on holiday start a game of pretence that threatens to destroy their relationship, two middle-aged men go in search of girls they don't really want, a young man renews contact with an older woman who feels humiliated by her ageing body, an elderly doctor uses his beautiful wife to increase his attraction and minister to his sexual vanity. In Laughable Loves, Milan Kundera shows himself, once again, as a master of fiction's most graceful illusions and surprises.

Dal momento in cui Jaromil viene concepito, egli è il poeta. Così vuole sua madre, e fantastica che Jaromil sia nato non per fecondazione del marito ma di un Apollo di alabastro. Con lo stesso spirito, questa madre accompagnerà invisibilmente il figlio nel letto dei suoi amori, come lo assisterà sul letto di morte: morte di un poeta adolescente che voleva darsi tutto alla rivoluzione. Il poeta, la madre, la giovinezza, la rivoluzione: chi non sente una qualche reverenza verso queste parole? In esse avvertiamo il soffio dell’età lirica, dello spirito adolescente, di ogni pretesa di innocenza. Ma questo romanzo, tanto più duro nella sostanza quanto più arioso nel suo articolarsi e agile nel suo sarcasmo, ci mostra anche il «sorriso insanguinato» dell’innocenza. Qui non si dice nulla contro la poesia in sé, ma si svela una possibilità del mostruoso che è interna alla poesia e ben pochi sanno riconoscere. E qui si mette in scena, con una precisione e una distanza che non hanno uguali, quell’èra in cui «il poeta regnava a fianco del carnefice». Ora non potremo più guardare al poeta, alla madre, alla giovinezza, alla rivoluzione con occhi devoti. Ora saremo condotti per mano a constatare come, per un poeta che la morte coglierà prima dei vent’anni, il supremo compimento possa anche essere la delazione. «Forse polizia e poesia vanno molto più d’accordo di quanto alcuni non pensino» riflette il poeta. La vita è altrove è apparso per la prima volta nel 1973.

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles. A chance encounter leads a man to spend the afternoon with an older woman, now a widow, who escaped him fifteen years earlier. Neither of them doubts that the day will end in disgust, but for one intimate moment each finds a way to overcome mortality. Written in 1969, before Milan Kundera was known to English-speaking readers, this story renders male and female characters painful equals, and prompted Philip Roth to admire its 'detached Chekhovian tenderness'. Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.

Et je me demande : qui a rêvé ? Qui a rêvé cette histoire ? Qui l'a imaginée ? Elle ? Lui ? Tous les deux ? Chacun pour l'autre ? Et à partir de quel moment leur vie réelle s'est-elle transformée en cette fantaisie perfide ?

Kundera initially intended to call this novel The Lyrical Age. The lyrical age, according to Kundera, is youth, and this novel, above all, is an epic of adolescence; an ironic epic that tenderly erodes sacrosanct values: childhood, motherhood, revolution, and even poetry. Jaromil is in fact a poet. His mother made him a poet and accompanies him (figuratively) to his love bed, and (literally) to his deathbed. A ridiculous and touching character, horrifying and totally innocent ("innocence with its bloody smile"!), Jaromil is at the same time a true poet. He's no creep, he's Rimbaud. Rimbaud entrapped by the communist revolution, entrapped in a sombre farce.

Cover alternativa: link Un uomo e una donna si incontrano per caso mentre tornano al loro paese natale, che hanno abbandonato vent’anni prima scegliendo la via dell’esilio. Riusciranno a riannodare i fili di una strana storia d’amore, appena iniziata e subito inghiottita dalla storia? Il fatto è che dopo una così lunga assenza «i loro ricordi non si somigliano». La nostra memoria è flebile: viviamo sprofondati in un immenso oblio, e ci rifiutiamo di saperlo. Solo coloro che, come Ulisse, tornano dopo vent’anni a Itaca possono contemplare, attoniti e abbagliati, la dea dell’ignoranza.

«Nessuno, oggi, possiede la grazia di Kundera: il suo tocco: quella combinazione inimitabile di ironia e amarezza, di malinconia e leggerezza. Basta aprire il libro, leggere due righe, corteggiare un’immagine, inseguire disperatamente un motivo; e ci diciamo sorridendo: “È Kundera”» (Pietro Citati su L’immortalità).

"Il suo romanzo ci dimostra come nella vita tutto quello che scegliamo e apprezziamo come leggero non tarda a rivelare il proprio peso insostenibile. Forse solo la vivacità e la mobilità dell'intelligenza sfuggono a questa condanna: le qualità con cui è scritto il romanzo, che appartengono a un altro universo da quello del vivere." (Italo Calvino) "Chi è pesante non può fare a meno di innamorarsi perdutamente di chi vola lievemente nell'aria, tra il fantastico e il possibile: mentre i leggeri sono respinti dai loro simili e trascinati dalla 'com-passione' verso i corpi e le anime possedute dalla pesantezza. Così accade nel romanzo: Tomáš ama Tereza, Tereza ama Tomáš: Franz ama Sabina, Sabina (almeno per qualche mese) ama Franz; quasi come nelle «Affinità elettive» si forma il perfetto quadrato delle affinità amorose." (Pietro Citati)

Tomas et Teresa sont les deux pôles du roman. Faut-il choisir de porter le poids du passé sur ses épaules, comme Teresa qui ne peut se passer de la Tchécoslovaquie, qu'elle a pourtant fuie après le Printemps de Prague, de même qu'elle ne peut vivre sans Tomas, ce mari qu'elle chérit d'un amour jaloux et, par là, à jamais insatisfait ? Ou bien faut-il préférer à cette pesanteur la légèreté de l'être qui caractérise Tomas et Sabina, la maîtresse amie qui seule peut comprendre le médecin séducteur explorant les femmes comme s'il disséquait des objets d'étude au scalpel ? Ne sachant quelle orientation est la plus supportable, le roman offre tour à tour le regard des différents personnages. Même le chien Karénine a droit au chapitre. Mais ce ballet incertain teinté d'irréalité apparaît vite comme une interrogation dialectique qui oscille entre réflexion et délire poétique pour aboutir à la conclusion que la pesanteur et la légèreté, pareillement insoutenables, ne procèdent jamais d'une décision véritable. --Sana Tang-Léopold Wauters

Wydana po raz pierwszy w 1984 roku „Nieznośna lekkość bytu” jest najsłynniejszą powieścią Milana Kundery oraz swego rodzaju ukoronowaniem jego twórczości. Zbiegają się w niej wszystkie tematy, do których pisarz w swojej twórczości nieustannie powraca. Splot życiorysów kilku postaci (i psa), które na różne sposoby dochodzą do wniosku, że jedynym, co zostaje im dane jest właśnie tytułowa lekkość. Głównym problemem, który interesuje Kunderę w tej książce jest kwestia przypadku jako czynnika, który determinuje ludzkie losy. Miłość jest przypadkiem. To przypadek decyduje, że zakochujemy się właśnie w tej, a nie w innej osobie. Przypadek decyduje również o tym, czym zajmujemy się przez całe życie, kim jesteśmy, z jakimi ludźmi się stykamy. W epoce totalitaryzmu zaś czynnik losowy jest tym bardziej paradoksalny, im bardziej wszechwładny ustrój stara się go wyeliminować i narzucić obywatelom sztuczne ograniczenia. Pomiędzy tymi dwoma żywiołami – prawdziwym i wymyślonym – poszczególne biografie wirują jak folia na wietrze. Sposób w jaki napisana jest „Nieznośna lekkość bytu” doskonale koresponduje z tematem - napisana jest lekko, pozornie chaotycznie. Wypełniona stwierdzeniami o charakterze ogólnym, których nie można traktować inaczej niż jako stwierdzenia właściwie nieważne. „Wtedy, w Paryżu, Milan dał mi rękopis »Nieznośnej lekkości bytu«. Przeczytałam go z ogromnym przejęciem. Nie tylko przypomniało mi to moje doświadczenia z Pragi w 1968 roku, ale jakoś niebywale korespondowało z emigracją i polskim Sierpniem. Wydawało mi się, że w tej powieści zawarta jest suma doświadczeń, które mogą być cenne dla polskiego czytelnika, i spytałam Kunderę, czy zgodzi się, bym przetłumaczyła powieść na polski. Zgodził się z entuzjazmem, a potem bardzo uważnie przeczytał przekład, chociaż polskiego nie zna, więc nie mógł ocenić jego jakości”. – Agnieszka Holland, Newsweek

Nos sete contos de Risíveis amores, Milan Kundera retira do amor e do sexo a seriedade que normalmente costuma recobri-los. As situações se desenvolvem a partir de um mal-entendido, de um jogo com o outro. A mentira - ou a a arte de iludir e ser iludido - está sempre em foco. Mas o engano, que se inicia como brincadeira, revela depois como o auto-engano governa todos os aspectos da vida. Assim, dois namorados fingem que não se conhecem e aos poucos percebem como são, de fato, dois estranhos. Em outro conto, um homem muito hábil mente e brinca com as pessoas, mas elas são tão crédulas que ele perde o controle da situação. Não são apenas histórias de amor que fazem rir. São, também, histórias sobre tentativas de repor alguma verdade na experiência amorosa.

Milan Kundera's lightest novel, a divertimento, an opera buffa, Slowness is also the first of this author's fictional works to have been written in French. Disconcerted and enchanted, the reader follows the narrator of Slowness through a midsummer's night in which two tales of seduction, separated by more than two hundred years, interweave and oscillate between the sublime and the comic. Underlying this libertine fantasy is a profound meditation on contemporary life: about the secret bond between slowness and memory, about the connection between our era's desire to forget and the way we have given ourselves over to the demon of speed. And about "dancers" possessed by the passion to be seen, for whom life is just merely a perpetual show emptied of every intimacy and every joy.

Sedm povídek, jejichž námětem je láska zasazená do komických souvislostí, anebo spíš to, co lidé v komických souvislostech pokládají za pokus o milostný vztah. Svazek obsahuje povídky Nikdo se nebude smát, Zlaté jablko věčné touhy, Falešný autostop

Wybitny pisarz zabiera czytelnika w podróż przez twórczość wybranych artystów – Bacona, Dostojewskiego, Malapartego, France’a, Janaćka. Nie skąpi celnych obserwacji, które stanowią punkt wyjścia do głębokiej refleksji nie tylko na temat sztuki. To również świadectwo samotności jednostki wobec czasu, cierpienia, historii i wreszcie śmierci.

"A defense of fiction and a lesson in the art of reading." — New York Times Book Review " Testaments Betrayed  is to be savored paragraph by paragraph. . . . It must be purchased, read, pondered, and argued within the margins. And frequently reread." —  Washington Post A brilliant and thought-provoking essay from one of the twentieth century’s masters of fiction, Testaments Betrayed is written like a the same characters appear and reappear throughout the nine parts of the book, as do the principal themes that preoccupy the author. Kundera is a passionate defender of the moral rights of the artist and the respect due a work of art and its creator’s wishes. The betrayal of both—often by their most passionate proponents—is one of the key ideas that informs this strikingly original and elegant book.

Kundera brilliantly examines the work of such important and diverse figures as Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne, Diderot, Flaubert, Tolstoy, and Musil. He is especially penetrating on Hermann Broch, and his exploration of the world of Kafka's novels vividly reveals the comic terror of Kafka's bureaucratized universe. Kundera's discussion of his own work includes his views on the role of historical events in fiction, the meaning of action, and the creation of character in the post-psychological novel.

Rich in its stories, characters, and imaginative range, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is the novel that brought Milan Kundera his first big international success in the late 1970's. Like all his work, it is valuable for far more than just its historical implications. In seven wonderfully integrated parts, different aspects of human existence are magnified and reduced, reordered and emphasized, newly examined, analyzed and experienced.

"Un rideau magique, tissé de légendes, était suspendu devant le monde. Cervantes envoya don Quichotte en voyage et déchira le rideau. Le monde s'ouvrit devant le chevalier errant dans toute la nudité comique de sa prose...... c'est en déchirant le rideau de la préinterprétation que Cervantes a mis en route cet art nouveau ; son geste destructeur se reflète et se prolonge dans chaque roman digne de ce nom ; c'est le signe d'identité de l'art du roman."

Published simultaneously with Identity, here is a masterful new translation of Milan Kundera's most brilliantly plotted and sheerly entertaining novel -- a dark farce of sex, murder, and motherhood. Set in an Old-Fashioned Central European Spa Town, Farewell Waltz follows the lives of eight characters: a pretty nurse and her repairman boyfriend; an oddball gynecologist; a rich American who is at once a saint and a Don Juan; a popular trumpeter and his beautiful obsessively jealous wife; a disillusioned former political prisoner about to leave his country and his young female ward. Perhaps the most accessible of Milan Kundera's novels, Farewell Waltz poses the most serious questions with a blasphemous lightness that makes us see that the modern world has deprived us even of the right to tragedy. Translated from the French text prepared by the author himself a quarter century after the novel was originally written, Farewell Waltz sparkles anew with wit, humor, and irony. A valuable addition to HarperFlamingo's impressive Kundera backlist, it offers readers a chance to discover, or rediscover, one of the very best works of a legendary writer. "It is hard to imagine anything more chilling and profound that Kundera's apparent lightheartedness". -- Elizabeth Pochoda "Kundera ... remains faithful to this subtle, wily, devious talent for a fiction of 'erotic possibilities". -- New York Times Book Review

From the internationally acclaimed, bestselling author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, an unexpected and enchanting novel—the culmination of his life's work. Casting light on the most serious of problems, and at the same time saying not one serious sentence; being fascinated by the reality of the contemporary world, and at the same time completely avoiding realism—that’s The Festival of Insignificance. Readers who know Milan Kundera’s earlier books know that the wish to incorporate an element of the “unserious” in a novel is not at all unexpected of him. In Immortality, Goethe and Hemingway stroll through several chapters together talking and laughing. And in Slowness, Vera, the author’s wife, says to her husband: “you’ve often told me you meant to write a book one day that would have not a single serious word in it…I warn you: watch out. Your enemies are lying in wait.” Now, far from watching out, Kundera is finally and fully realizing his old aesthetic dream in this novel that we could easily view as a summation of his whole work. A strange sort of summation. Strange sort of epilogue. Strange sort of laughter, inspired by our time, which is comical because it has lost all sense of humor. What more can we say? Nothing. Just read.

All too often, this brilliant novel of thwarted love and revenge miscarried has been read for its political implications. Now though, a quarter century after The Joke was first published, and several years after the collapse of the Soviet-imposed Czechoslovak regime, it becomes easier to put such implications into perspective in favor of valuing the book (and all Kundera 's work) as what it truly is: great, stirring literature, that sheds new light on the eternal themes of human existence. The present edition provides English-language readers an important further means toward revaluation of The Joke. For reasons he describes in his Author's Note, Milan Kundera devoted much time to creating (with the assistance of his American publisher-editor) a completely revised translation that reflects his original as closely as any translation possibly can: reflects it in its fidelity not only to the words and syntax but also to the characteristic dictions and tonalities of the novel's narrators. The result is nothing less than the restoration of a classic.

In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. This magnificent novel juxtaposes geographically distant places, brilliant and playful reflections, and a variety of styles, to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world’s truly great writers.

Trong Đời nhẹ khôn kham, sự biến mất cái tôi cá nhân không phải do máy móc kỹ thuật mà do nhà nước chuyên chế. Nhân vật Jan Prochazka và giáo sư Vaclav Cerny chơi thân với nhau, nhưng họ không thể ngờ rằng tất cả cuộc trò chuyện trong bàn tiệc đều được bí mật ghi âm lại. Vào năm 1970 hay 1971, muốn làm mất uy tín của Prochazka, cảnh sát cho phát những cuộc nói chuyện ấy trên đài phát thanh.

Sometimes - perhaps only for an instant - we fail to recognise a companion; for a moment their identity ceases to exist, and thus we come to doubt our own. The effect is at its most acute in a couple where our existence is given meaning by our perception of a lover, and theirs of us.With his astonishing skill at building on and out from the significant moment, Kundera has placed such a situation and the resulting wave of panic at the core of the novel. In a narrative as intense as it is brief, a moment of confusion sets in motion a complex chain of events which forces the reader to cross and recross the divide between fantasy and reality. Profound, sad and disquieting but above all a love story, Identity provides further proof of Kundera's astonishing gifts as a novelist.

"Ne yapacağını bilemeden bir avlunun karşı tarafındaki duvara dalıp gitmek; bir aşk anında karnındaki inatçı gurultuya kulak vermek; ihanet etmek; ihanetin göz kamaştırıcı yolunu terk ederek gücü kendinde bulamamak; Büyük Yürüyüş'te kalabalıklarla birlikte yumruğunu havaya kaldırmak; gizlenmiş mikrofonlar önünde espri gösterisi yapmak - bu durumların hepsini tanıdım, hepsini yaşadım... Romanlarımdaki kişiler kendime ilişkin gerçekleşmemiş olabilirliklerdir... Her biri benim ancak kenarında dolaştığım bir sınırı aşmıştır... Çünkü romanın sorguladığı sır o sınırın ötesinde başlar. Roman yazarın itirafları değildir; bir tuzak haline gelmiş dünyamızda yaşanan insan hayatının araştırılmasıdır." - Milan Kundera

Román Žert postihuje úděl intelektuála v totalitní společnosti. Ironický lístek adresovaný krásné, ale hloupé dívce a zachycený pozornými funkcionáři uvede do pohybu lavinu, která vrhá lidské osudy do nicoty. Svým existenciálním vyzněním však tento zoufalý románový výkřik přesahuje politické souvislosti.

Δύο πρόσωπα που αναζητούν το ένα την ταυτότητα του άλλου, έπειτα απο πολύχρονη ωστόσο συμβίωση. Που αναζητούν όμως και το καθένα τη δική του ταυτότητα, μέσα απο τη σχέση με τον άλλο, και μέσα απο ένα στρατήγημα που δοκιμάζει την αγάπη τους, για να την αποκαταστήσει στο τέλος. Μιά διαδρομή απο την πραγματικότητα στην επικράτεια του ονείρου: οι ήρωες και μαζί τους ο αναγνώστης περνούν τα αόρατα σύνορα απο την πραγματική ζωή στη φανταστική, παρασυρμένοι απο πρόσωπα, μοτίβα, χρώματα, τα οποία επανέρχονται απο τον ένα κόσμο στον άλλο, υπονομεύοντας την πραγματικότητα και οδηγώντας ανεπαίσθητα σ έναν εφιάλτη που θα τον καταλύσει ο έρωτας.

เดิมทีผู้เขียนตั้งใจจะตั้งชื่อนวนิยายเล่มนี้ว่า ‘วัยแห่งกวีกานต์‘ ในความเห็นของคุนเดอรา วัยแห่งกวีกานต์คือวัยเยาว์ และนวนิยายเล่มนี้ เหนืออื่นใดเป็นมหากาพย์ของความเป็นหนุ่มสาว มหากาพย์แนวเสียดสีซึ่งค่อยๆ กัดกร่อนลอกเปลือกคุณค่าที่สำคัญต่างๆ ไม่ว่าจะเป็น ความเป็นเด็ก ความเป็นแม่ การปฏิวัติ แม้กระทั่งกวีนิพนธ์ จาโรมิล - ตัวเอกในเรื่อง - จริงๆ แล้วเป็นกวี แม่ของเขาสร้างเขาให้เป็นกวี เธอไปเป็นเพื่อนเขา (แบบเปรียบเปรย) ขึ้นเตียงรัก และ (แบบตรงตามตัวอักษร) ขึ้นเตียงที่เขานอนตาย จาโรมิลเป็นตัวละครที่น่าขันและน่าประทับใจ ชวนขวัญผวาและไร้เดียงสาโดยสิ้นเชิง ในขณะเดียวกันก็เป็นกวีที่แท้จริงด้วย เขาไม่ใช่คนน่ารังเกียจ เขาเป็นกวีเอก กวีเอกผู้ติดกับดักของการปฏิวัติคอมมิวนิสต์ ติดกับดักอยู่ในใบหน้าเคร่งขรึม ควบคู่ไปกับ ‘ดอน กิโฆเต้‘ และ ‘มาดามโบวารี‘ ‘ชีวิตอยู่หนอื่น‘ น่าจะเป็นหนังสือซึ่งเขียนถึงกวีนิพนธ์ได้โหดที่สุดเท่าที่เคยมีมา กวีนิพนธ์ในฐานะที่ลี้ภัยของพระเจ้า

Sometimes - perhaps only for an instant - we fail to recognise a companion; for a moment their identity ceases to exist, and thus we come to doubt our own. The effect is at its most acute in a couple where our existence is given meaning by our perception of a lover, and theirs of us.With his astonishing skill at building on and out from the significant moment, Kundera has placed such a situation and the resulting wave of panic at the core of the novel. In a narrative as intense as it is brief, a moment of confusion sets in motion a complex chain of events which forces the reader to cross and recross the divide between fantasy and reality. Profound, sad and disquieting but above all a love story, Identity provides further proof of Kundera's astonishing gifts as a novelist.