This is the first novel by the author of Immortality, which won The Independent Award for Foreign Fiction in 1991. Milan Kundera is also the...
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Mar 11, 2008
Keith
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On Monday at around 3 o'clock in the afternoon I decided I was going to read "The Joke." I don't really know why; it occurred to me out of the blue -- the only thought I'd ever given Kundera before that point was that the titles of his books obviously lived in a world devoid of irony in order to persist in their existence, and that that unironic world was one I wanted no part of. On the other hand, I really liked the title "The Joke" and I'd always liked the font in which it
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Apr 29, 2007
علی
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I like Kundra because he doesn’t imprison me in a fastened frame of a classic narration. Reading Kundra seems as if you meet an old friend after ages in a cafe shop, and while she/he relates her / his life story, you zip your coffee, listen to the cafe music, hear some chats and laughs at nabouring tables, look at the peddlers at side walk, or a passing tramvay, … as life is flowing around, ….
کوندرا را به این دلیل بسیار دوست دارم که مرا در چهارچوب بسته ی یک روایت زندانی نمی کند. خو More...
کوندرا را به این دلیل بسیار دوست دارم که مرا در چهارچوب بسته ی یک روایت زندانی نمی کند. خو More...
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Dec 16, 2007
شوخي از اولين رمانهاي ميلان كوندراست كه ما با سرخوردگي هاي مردي مواجه مي شويم كه يك شوخي با اصول حزب كمونيست چكسلواكي سالهاي دهه 1960 تمامي زندگي اش زير و رو مي شود.خوش بيني ترياك توده هاست شوخي او با جمله معروف ماركس:دين ترياك توده هاست.روابط آدمها و شي شدگي انسان در برابر توتاليتريسم حزب در بستري از جريانات تاريخي از خصوصيات كوندراست.
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Dec 27, 2007
Andrew
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Read this book in my spare time during a short stint working in a bookstore and it immediately and I dare say permanently lodged itself into my list of beloved books.
Why this book's rating lies below four stars befuddles me. It's an exciting and provocative tale of the dehumanization of a person by an autocratic state. Fuck 1984 and Brave New World; Kundera saw them all and raised.
Why this book's rating lies below four stars befuddles me. It's an exciting and provocative tale of the dehumanization of a person by an autocratic state. Fuck 1984 and Brave New World; Kundera saw them all and raised.
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Jul 06, 2007
maren
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There were definitely times when I wanted to breakdown about my own life while reading this book. I wanted to shake my fist and curse the powers that be for being cruel tricksters for playing us all in one long painful joke. However, what do you do at the end of the joke? Laugh. This book inspires you want to laugh too and to realize the futility of hanging on to every personal injustice that has been been committed against you; likely you are no better than the perpetrator, and he/she is no
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Jan 13, 2012
There was a time when I read a lot of Milan Kundera but with the exception of The joke they have blended together in my memory.
The novel is a twist on a revenge novel like The Count of Monte Cristo. There has been a wrong here too and the perpetrator of it has moved in the Hero's love. The digging though is part of the punishment and not a means to escape. The twist though is that the attempt at revenge goes awry.
What we see instead is a series of contrasts between the More...
The novel is a twist on a revenge novel like The Count of Monte Cristo. There has been a wrong here too and the perpetrator of it has moved in the Hero's love. The digging though is part of the punishment and not a means to escape. The twist though is that the attempt at revenge goes awry.
What we see instead is a series of contrasts between the More...
Aug 15, 2011
Anjali
rated it:
Milan Kundera is one of those writers who can leave a long lasting effect on you. I met (you know what I mean) Kundera when I read his The Unbearable Lightness of Being and was so taken by surprise that I wondered if I was actually reading that book or dreaming. I did not care about the story that much, but the philosophical notes that interspersed the story chapters were the best part about that book. Having been completely blown away by his first book, it was only natural that I picked up The
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Jul 12, 2011
Anthony
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Existential. Chauvinistic. Political. Whatever label you aim to apply to Kundera, there is only one word that truly describes who he is and what he is to the novel: Artist. Kundera owns a lot of real estate on my book shelf. So, having read a lot of his work I can say that as his first novel, The Joke demonstrates that Kundera developed an early mastery of his stylistic use of multiple narrators to explore the intentions of human thought and emotion. As is appreciated in all of Kundera’s work
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Jun 17, 2011
Wenning
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" i have a highly sensitive mechanism, a circuit breaker of reticence, that keeps me from opening up too far, from revealing my feelings; and reciting verse seems to me more than just talking about my feelings, it is as if I were standing on one leg at the same time; a certain unnatural-ness in the very principle of rhythm and rhyme embarrasses me when i think of indulging in it in anything but solitude"
"A wave of anger washed over me, anger against myself, at my age at More...
"A wave of anger washed over me, anger against myself, at my age at More...
Apr 06, 2011
Splashconception
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This book was a delicious, emotionally scrumptious really. I did, unfortionately, almost give up on it about half-way through the book because there was a rather long character exposition about Morovian folk art and the character Jaraslov, who is a fiddle player and who I found to be the least interesting of the characters in the novel, probably because I could not relate to him on any level. But I came back to it and I am glad I did. The exploration of human nature, especially the nature of h
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Jan 23, 2011
Ajay
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The Joke (Is On Us) - Milan Kundera
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'The Joke' is the first book of Milan Kundera that I read. I had seen a mention in a magazine where had been referred to. So when I saw this book and read the blurbs and it's basic content as given in the back cover, I bought it. Have you ever read a book by a writer for the first time, discovering (from your personal view) the writer for the first time, and then wanted to buy and read all the books written by the author then and there? Well , t More...
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'The Joke' is the first book of Milan Kundera that I read. I had seen a mention in a magazine where had been referred to. So when I saw this book and read the blurbs and it's basic content as given in the back cover, I bought it. Have you ever read a book by a writer for the first time, discovering (from your personal view) the writer for the first time, and then wanted to buy and read all the books written by the author then and there? Well , t More...
Dec 08, 2009
Inna
rated it:
my favourite quote:
“I had always liked to tell myself that Lucie was something abstract, a legend and a myth, but now I knew that behind the poetry of these words hid an entirely unpoetic truth: that I didn’t know her; that I didn’t know her as she really was, as she was in and to herself. I had been able to perceive (in my youthful egocentricity) only those aspects of her being that were turned directly to me (to my loneliness, my captivity, my yearning for tenderness and affection); she h More...
“I had always liked to tell myself that Lucie was something abstract, a legend and a myth, but now I knew that behind the poetry of these words hid an entirely unpoetic truth: that I didn’t know her; that I didn’t know her as she really was, as she was in and to herself. I had been able to perceive (in my youthful egocentricity) only those aspects of her being that were turned directly to me (to my loneliness, my captivity, my yearning for tenderness and affection); she h More...
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Dec 25, 2008
Vanessa
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Feb 03, 2012
Artem
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"Никто не искупит учиненных неправд, ибо все неправды будут забыты."
"Человек, существо, взыскующее справедливости, уравновешивает тяжесть зла, которая была ему взвалена на плечи, тяжестью своей ненависти."
"Вся моя жизнь, думается, всегда была слишком перенаселена тенями, а настоящее занимало в ней, по-видимому, не вполне достойное место. Мне представляется движущаяся лестница (это время) и на ней человек (это я), что бежит не в том направлении, в More...
"Человек, существо, взыскующее справедливости, уравновешивает тяжесть зла, которая была ему взвалена на плечи, тяжестью своей ненависти."
"Вся моя жизнь, думается, всегда была слишком перенаселена тенями, а настоящее занимало в ней, по-видимому, не вполне достойное место. Мне представляется движущаяся лестница (это время) и на ней человек (это я), что бежит не в том направлении, в More...
Aug 09, 2011
Lucian
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Although I actually took very little pleasure out of reading this book--of the three novels I've read by him, easily the inferior--Kundera possesses an uncanny ability to create sympathy and empathy between the reader and his characters. There's something...relatable to be found in each and every one of them, whether because we see a part of ourselves within them or because we see something of someone we know. Otherwise, not particularly memorable: it elucidates the same themes--as far as my lit
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May 04, 2011
Fatema
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رواية لا يستطيع كتابتها إلا قلمٌ بارع حدّ "الشيطنة" وحدّ "إثارة الرعب" ..
لا تكشف أسرارها وجمالياتها إلا بتأنٍ وتمهّل فاتن،.فــ على الرغم من تمحور الكتاب حول قدرة "مزحةٍ" ما على تغيير مسار حيوات ومصائر، إلا أن هذه الفكرة المتألقة وحدها ليستْ سر هذه الرواية. إنها هذه الحبكة السردية التي تجاوزت حدّ الإتقان إلى المكر اللذيذ، والتلاعب الخلاّق.
كنتُ أقرأ، ثم أعود إلى صفحات سابقة، وأنا متأكدة أن هذا المشهد قد مرّ علي سابقا. لأكتشف، أن روايته تمت عن طريق More...
لا تكشف أسرارها وجمالياتها إلا بتأنٍ وتمهّل فاتن،.فــ على الرغم من تمحور الكتاب حول قدرة "مزحةٍ" ما على تغيير مسار حيوات ومصائر، إلا أن هذه الفكرة المتألقة وحدها ليستْ سر هذه الرواية. إنها هذه الحبكة السردية التي تجاوزت حدّ الإتقان إلى المكر اللذيذ، والتلاعب الخلاّق.
كنتُ أقرأ، ثم أعود إلى صفحات سابقة، وأنا متأكدة أن هذا المشهد قد مرّ علي سابقا. لأكتشف، أن روايته تمت عن طريق More...
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Apr 09, 2009
Sarah
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There's something about this book that reminds me of "Snow" - something about the author returning to his hometown after a lot of political and personal change has taken place, and trying to reconcile those incongruities. Or not trying to reconcile them, but taking them apart, and remarking on them, and looking at how they've influenced what's happened along the way.
He has some interesting things to say about the relationship between political culture and folk or art cultur More...
He has some interesting things to say about the relationship between political culture and folk or art cultur More...
Sep 13, 2011
Abby
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This was my birthday gift from Angela. And reading this novel made one thought rise to the surface of my mind: “What’s the point? Why try to write at all? I know I’ll never get even CLOSE to being this good.” This book is beautiful. Kundera is a genius. This novel tells the story of a foreign world (at least to me), the Czech Republic before it was the Czech Republic, when a communist regime controlled every aspect of your life. Communism frames the tragic stories of this novel’s characters, men
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Sep 01, 2011
Fernanda
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¡ME ENCANTÓ!
He quedado prendada de los personajes, me emocionó el final, me hizo sentirme triste, desilusionada, pero también moría de la risa con las ironías y humillaciones humanas tras la búsqueda de un final digno, de una venganza, de la cúspide de una desesperación mal aplicada.
La historia implica una simple acción que busca venganza y algo vil, que fue provocada por una serie de hechos en la vida del protagonista. Personajes que cruzan sus caminos de alguna manera, te More...
He quedado prendada de los personajes, me emocionó el final, me hizo sentirme triste, desilusionada, pero también moría de la risa con las ironías y humillaciones humanas tras la búsqueda de un final digno, de una venganza, de la cúspide de una desesperación mal aplicada.
La historia implica una simple acción que busca venganza y algo vil, que fue provocada por una serie de hechos en la vida del protagonista. Personajes que cruzan sus caminos de alguna manera, te More...
Aug 02, 2011
The Joke is Milan Kundera's first novel. Set against a backdrop of eastern europe during the communist regime it tells the story from the point of view three different people whose paths cross at different points in their lives. These chance encounters spur the characters to reflect on how their lives and those of the others have changed since the last time they met. As with many great authors Kundera'a prose is not only narrative but also philosophical, with thoughts and ideas interpreted throu
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Aug 27, 2011
Agnese
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è ufficiale: Kundera è uno degli scrittori più monotematici che esistano. Credevo di amarlo dopo aver letto "L'insostenibile leggerezza dell'essere", un libro che è tutt'ora sulla lista dei miei preferiti. Solo adesso, con altri tre suoi libri alle spalle ("Amori ridicoli", "L'identità" e "Lo scherzo"), mi rendo conto che la mia era solo una cotta destinata a passare non appena avessi approfondito la conoscenza con lui.
"Lo scherzo" è il pr More...
"Lo scherzo" è il pr More...
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Feb 19, 2010
Sarah
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This book was a bit of a struggle to read. If it weren't for a close friend of mine buying it, giving it to me to read, expecting me to read it so then I could give it back to him to read & then compare notes on it, I'm not so sure I would've stuck with it.
I love Kundera's reflections on life as a whole, and his thesis on the separation between body and soul. These parts are highly engaging, although maybe not the most uplifting. I enjoyed parts of the narrative, although the pl More...
I love Kundera's reflections on life as a whole, and his thesis on the separation between body and soul. These parts are highly engaging, although maybe not the most uplifting. I enjoyed parts of the narrative, although the pl More...
Aug 04, 2011
Dariana
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Milan Kundera seams to say in his first novel, that somebody is playing with our lives, somebody is connecting and disconnecting the events in which we are attracted with or without our will. It pushes us into a hollow or it offers us a sudden freedom, that we don't know how to use. Somebody is laughing about us by proposing us ideals that turn into their own semblance, without stopping to follow us and poison our existence. Somebody is looking merciless to us and records every move we make with
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Nov 15, 2009
Blair
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why did i meet her?
what did our encounter mean and what was it trying to tell me?
do love stories, apart from happening, being, have something to say? for all my skepticism, i had clung to a few superstitions -
the strange conviction, for example, that everything in life that happens to me has a sense beyond itself, that it gradually reveals a secret, that it takes the form of a rebus whose message must be deciphered
that the stories we live in life comp More...
what did our encounter mean and what was it trying to tell me?
do love stories, apart from happening, being, have something to say? for all my skepticism, i had clung to a few superstitions -
the strange conviction, for example, that everything in life that happens to me has a sense beyond itself, that it gradually reveals a secret, that it takes the form of a rebus whose message must be deciphered
that the stories we live in life comp More...
Jun 30, 2009
SKCircles
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Un bouquin très éloigné de mes lectures habituelles, mais Festival du Livre du Cercle des Huit oblige... me voilà contrainte et forcée de découvrir un tout autre univers que celui de la fantasy dans lequel je baigne souvent. Qu'en ressort-il ? J'ai lu La Plaisanterie d'une traite, me demandant bien où l'auteur voulait en venir. Réponse : nulle part, en fait ! Il s'agit simplement d'une chronique humaine dans la société communiste des années 50. Certes, on ne s'évade pas vraiment avec ce genre de
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Jan 22, 2011
Gordon
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An excellent novel by Milan Kundera, which I picked up based upon the mention of it in Tony Judt's excellent book "Postwar." It is the story of lives blasted and corrupted by communist Czechoslovakia, set in the apathetic 1960's with characters bearing the scars of the recent Stalinist past.
Also of great interest is the method of storytelling, as four different protagonists share a first-person telling, and sometimes retelling, of the story. However two of the most key ch More...
Also of great interest is the method of storytelling, as four different protagonists share a first-person telling, and sometimes retelling, of the story. However two of the most key ch More...
May 22, 2010
Demi
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"[N:]ow history is nothing more than the thin thread of what is remembered stretched out over the ocean of what has been forgotten; but time moves on, and new eras will arise, eras the limited memory of the individual will be unable to grasp; centuries, millennia, will therefore fall away, centuries of paintings and music, centuries of discoveries, battles, books and the consequences will be dire: man will lose insight into himself, and his history - unfathomable, inscrutable - will shrink
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Jul 28, 2009
Jessica
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Finally got some literature in this month, I was beginning to forget to think... This book has acute observations of human nature and history, and was interesting because Communism in Czechoslovakia is a foreign time and place to me. I liked the format because it revealed so much of each character and how does that one quote go? They're not mirrors of ourselves but complex people with their own history and selves. That's not the quote btw.. the one in the book is about how people when they are y
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Jan 18, 2010
John
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Read this years age and have often thought of the change in ceremony and music (hence art) with the introduction of recorded music. Reading it again, I am still struck by that, and the shallowness of many of our ceremonies especially marriage and christening. Even though they are often performed in a church, real religion is not an integral part of our culture and the ceremonies are as empty as the "welcoming of new citizens to life."
And that is probably tangential to the politic More...
And that is probably tangential to the politic More...
Sep 12, 2009
Hadi
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شاید باورش سخت باشد ولی انقدر قدرت تصویر گری شخصیت یا شخصیت ÷ردازی کندرا زیاد است که با شخصیت لوسی در فصل 7 این داستان ارتباط نزدیکی پیدا کردم انگار که سال هاست او را می شناسم و
حتی عاشق اش بوده ام دختری ÷اک و معصوم که حقیقت واقعی عشق را در کشوری کمونیست می داند ای کاش واقی بود و لذت دیدار چنین شخصیت هایی را در روزگار معاصر می یافتیم More...
حتی عاشق اش بوده ام دختری ÷اک و معصوم که حقیقت واقعی عشق را در کشوری کمونیست می داند ای کاش واقی بود و لذت دیدار چنین شخصیت هایی را در روزگار معاصر می یافتیم More...
