Comments | zachwolff: Kundera

zachwolff

Kundera

May 17, 2006 22:42

I just finished reading El Libro de Amores Ridículos, by Milan Kundera. I read it a couple years ago in English, The Book of Laughable Loves. I like the English title better than the Spanish, and the difference makes me want to learn something about Czech to know what Kundera originally wrote. The book is a collection of short stories, all ( Read more... )

Comments 8

But they're all Just Kundera. . . ecopunk May 21 2006, 22:09:59 UTC

It's been a while since I've read Laughable Loves, but I remember thinking at the time that the main character in each story (as well as Thomas in The Unbearable Lightness of Being) seemed like the same person--Milan Kundera. While the main characters are all complex (albeit in the same way), his side characters tend to be little more than props for the story and Kundera's ideas--female characters especially ( ... )

Re: But they're all Just Kundera. . . zachwolff May 22 2006, 17:45:15 UTC

Wow, harsh.

Maybe I just like it so much because I identify with the Kundera characters. Don't know if you ever heard the story that Carla (did you even know her? my Japan chronology is all tangled up in my head right now) once said I was just like Thomas from Unbearable Lightness, and I took it as a compliment, which, it turns out, is the opposite of how she meant it.

Still, I think your criticism goes a bit too far. I've only read Unbearable Lightness, Immortality and Laughable Loves, and I only really remember the last clearly, so I can't defend him too thoroughly, but for me the non-Kundera characters in Laughable Loves at least are quite well developed, especially considering that we're talking about a collection of short stories. The characters that come to mind right now are the girl who role-plays a seductive hitch-hiker while her boyfriend role-plays the guy picking her up and the older woman who runs into a former lover after realizing her dead husband has been evicted from his grave. You could still probably argue, ( ... )

Re: But they're all Just Kundera. . . ecopunk May 23 2006, 23:08:24 UTC

I'll go through Laughable Loves tonight and see what I think, try to identify my problem with Kundera more clearly.

Re: But they're all Just Kundera. . . annersjapaners May 25 2006, 21:49:08 UTC

"Carla...once said I was just like Thomas from Unbearable Lightness, and I took it as a compliment, which, it turns out, is the opposite of how she meant it ( ... )

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