آه حدثوني عن التي أفكر بها دائماً (كان هذا البيت يعود كلازمة). أخبروني كيف كانت تشيبها الأعوام (كان من جديد يريد أن يمتلكها بأسرها مع خلودها البشري...
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Nov 30, 2011
Mashael
rated it: 
قرأتها منذ شهر تقريباً وعجزت عن كتابة رفيو مع أنها من أفضل الروايات التي مرت عليّ ,
,كأن كونديرا يكتب من أجل أن يصحح الأخطاء القديمة التي ارتكبها,قرأت سابقاً عنه أنه كان متحمساً للشيوعية ومنتمياً إليها,ولكن ماذا حصل ؟ لم يعد يقف في صف الجماعة,وأخذ يبتعد ويعلن عن خيبة أمله عن طريق الرواية.
جاروميل هذا الشاب الذي كان شاعراً,هاجم به كونديرا سذاجة واندفاع الشباب و الشعر الذي كان كونديرا نفسه يكتبه سابقاً, كان جاروميل متحمساً للثورة الشيوعية بيد أنها أصبحت قمعاً أكثر منه إنقاذ للتشيك , تس More...
,كأن كونديرا يكتب من أجل أن يصحح الأخطاء القديمة التي ارتكبها,قرأت سابقاً عنه أنه كان متحمساً للشيوعية ومنتمياً إليها,ولكن ماذا حصل ؟ لم يعد يقف في صف الجماعة,وأخذ يبتعد ويعلن عن خيبة أمله عن طريق الرواية.
جاروميل هذا الشاب الذي كان شاعراً,هاجم به كونديرا سذاجة واندفاع الشباب و الشعر الذي كان كونديرا نفسه يكتبه سابقاً, كان جاروميل متحمساً للثورة الشيوعية بيد أنها أصبحت قمعاً أكثر منه إنقاذ للتشيك , تس More...
Dec 11, 2008
Eszter
rated it:
the first hundred pages or so made me really anxious because i just couldn't make myself like the book, and who am i, really, if i am actively disliking a book by kundera?? i was like, yeah, uh huh, i get what you're doing with the misogyny, but please, either knock it off or redeem your little monster of a protagonist, stat. and why are there still two hundred more pages left? what. a. chump. (though i was hoping he was just toying with me.)
then! before i knew what was happening, ku More...
then! before i knew what was happening, ku More...
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May 02, 2011
Il racconto lineare della vita di un poeta, dall'infanzia alla maturità, fino alla morte, del suo rapporto con la madre, l'amore e le ideologie nella Praga in cui si costruisce l'utopia comunista filosvietica, diventa l'occasione per una riflessione generale, meglio un'osservazione quasi clinica - e un po' anche cinica -, sul ruolo della poesia e dell'arte nella vita umana.
E la vita è altrove, come dice il titolo. La vita di Jaromil è tutta votata da un lato a perseguire l'obiettivo di diventare More...
E la vita è altrove, come dice il titolo. La vita di Jaromil è tutta votata da un lato a perseguire l'obiettivo di diventare More...
Jan 04, 2012
Corey
rated it: 
Life is Elsewhere is Kundera’s brazen send-up of the world of poetry, particularly the world of poets who involve themselves with politics. It follows in the tradition of the nineteenth century novel where your given the main character’s life from birth onwards, although it does cut out portions, a la A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The main character is Jaromil, a man who has a painfully awkward childhood (complete with a few hysterically funny scenes) who grows up to believe he’s de
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Nov 03, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
“Because real life is elsewhere. The students are tearing up the cobblestones, overturning cars, building barricades; their irruption into the world is beautiful and noisy, illuminated by flames and greeted by explosions of tear-gas grenades. How much more painful was the lot of Rimbaud, who dreamed about the barricades of the Paris Commune and never got to it from Charleville. But in 1968 thousands of Rimbauds have their own barricades, behind which they stand and refuse any compromise with
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Aug 04, 2011
Dariana
rated it:
Milan Kundera sets the destiny of a whole generation under the sign of failure.
The hero isn't a young boy from those places and times, but one that lives his painful growth in the age when the communism settled down in Czechoslovakia. He is a vulnerable adolescent, haunted by the fear of pathetic, but he has an extreme purity.
The poet Jaromil is attracted by the ideology of Marx, which promises him a revenge against a world that can not include him. Step by step, he becomes a prisoner of a sys More...
The hero isn't a young boy from those places and times, but one that lives his painful growth in the age when the communism settled down in Czechoslovakia. He is a vulnerable adolescent, haunted by the fear of pathetic, but he has an extreme purity.
The poet Jaromil is attracted by the ideology of Marx, which promises him a revenge against a world that can not include him. Step by step, he becomes a prisoner of a sys More...
Feb 02, 2012
Chris
rated it:
Just began last night and am enjoying it. My only other contact with MK is from watching the movie "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". A great movie. This is the story of a poet with the overbearing mother from hell. Kind of reminds me of the Patty-Joey mess from "Freedom". Growing up in a Communist country that abhors(officially) "decadent" modernism. Could this be some kind of commentary about Havel? Probably not. He was a good guy as far as I know.
Day two. More...
Day two. More...
Jul 21, 2010
Andra
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Aug 19, 2010
Zoë
rated it:
"With his poems the poet paints his self-portrait; but since no portrait is faithful, I can also say that with his poems he touches up his face."
Life Is Elsewhere by Milan Kundera is the surreal story of Jaromil, a poet growing up in socialist Czechoslovakia who is very close to his mother and idolizes his father who died in a concentration camp during WW2. The actual details of the story aren't what is important, but rather the general experiences that Kundera manages More...
Life Is Elsewhere by Milan Kundera is the surreal story of Jaromil, a poet growing up in socialist Czechoslovakia who is very close to his mother and idolizes his father who died in a concentration camp during WW2. The actual details of the story aren't what is important, but rather the general experiences that Kundera manages More...
May 17, 2011
Corina
rated it: 
I think from all the novels that I`ve read from him, this one I liked the least. I don`t know why. Maybe I had very high expectations from it. Because i really love Kundera and the way he writes. I really disliked the main character, the poet and his lack of humanity and his obsession with his own persona. I know that the socialist `era` had this dark power to amputate the individual and his feelings and his sensibility, but I couldn`t feel sorry for the Poet. He was to self absorbed and the nov
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Sep 06, 2009
Sady
rated it:
This was my first Kundera book that I stumbled upon because it was left behind in a room I was subletting my second summer in college. I had not actually heard of Kundera before so I have a special connection to this book since it opened the door to his writings for me. I remember the beautiful reflection of the protagonist throughout the story. That is Kundera, the way he makes you identify with the real and complicated emotions of the characters that in turn makes you delve into your own re
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Dec 02, 2010
Laala
rated it:
“The poet shouted that freedom was poetry’s duty, and that even a metaphor was worth fighting for.” — Milan Kundera, Life is Elsewhere
Almost surprisingly for a Kundera novel, I can actually summarise this one quite neatly. It’s the story of Jaromil, a boy growing up in Czechoslovakia (true fact: I had to check my history dates in order to know whether to say Czechoslovakia or the Czech Republic), his parents, especially his mother and the influence of social change, love, and family o More...
Almost surprisingly for a Kundera novel, I can actually summarise this one quite neatly. It’s the story of Jaromil, a boy growing up in Czechoslovakia (true fact: I had to check my history dates in order to know whether to say Czechoslovakia or the Czech Republic), his parents, especially his mother and the influence of social change, love, and family o More...
Nov 05, 2008
Pierce
rated it: 
Listen, I know that I am reading Kundera in too quick succession. After the density of Faulker I was looking for something that was, if not light thematically, at least clean and lyrically simple. Easy-reading with substance, if you will.
But then I really did read it too quickly, the bulk of it was consumed during a five hour wait in Madrid airport last week. But right now it's pretty fresh, so here goes:
Jaromil, the central character, is repugnant. A young and opportun More...
But then I really did read it too quickly, the bulk of it was consumed during a five hour wait in Madrid airport last week. But right now it's pretty fresh, so here goes:
Jaromil, the central character, is repugnant. A young and opportun More...
Aug 30, 2007
Tyler
rated it:
The beginning of this promises for it to be a more traditionally formed novel than Kundera's well-known, more free-form books, like The Unbearable Lightness Of Being or The Book Of Laughter And Forgetting. The book deals with the main character's adolescence, although the first section lingers on all the "David Copperfield shit," as an infamous fictional teenager put it. However, the introduction of a seemingly tangentially related dream subplot slowly reminds the reader of Kundera's
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Mar 30, 2007
علی
rated it:
کوندرا را به این دلیل بسیار دوست دارم که مرا در چهارچوب بسته ی یک روایت زندانی نمی کند. خواندن کونرا مثل این است که دوستی را پس از سال ها در یک کافه ملاقات کنید و در حالی که به قصه ی روزگار رفته ی او گوش می دهید، قهوه تان را می نوشید، به موسیقی که از بلندگوی کافه پخش می شود، گوش می کنید، گهگاه متوجه ی صحبت ها و خنده هایی از میزهای کناری می شوید، صدای عبور و مرور خیابان در پس پشت این همه جاری ست، دوره گردی چیزی می فروشد، عبور تراموای، و همه چیز، درست مثل خود زندگی، ...
I like Kundra because More...
I like Kundra because More...
Nov 22, 2010
miaaa
rated it:
First encounter with Milan Kundera, quite mesmerized and craving for more.
Meet Jaromil, Maman beloved one, and Xavier, Jaromil's archenemy. This book is about life, If we cannot change the world, let's at least change our lives and live them freely. If every life is unique, let's live uniquely.(p.46); about dreams, terrible are the wounds / of a murdered dreams. (p. 165); and about death, for the body is temporal and thought is eternal and the shimmering essence of flame is an image More...
Meet Jaromil, Maman beloved one, and Xavier, Jaromil's archenemy. This book is about life, If we cannot change the world, let's at least change our lives and live them freely. If every life is unique, let's live uniquely.(p.46); about dreams, terrible are the wounds / of a murdered dreams. (p. 165); and about death, for the body is temporal and thought is eternal and the shimmering essence of flame is an image More...
Mar 10, 2011
April
rated it:
This book came recommended to me by a colleague who insisted it was her favourite book. I'm not entirely sure why. I finished it, but only because I don't give up easily. Jaromil was quite possibly the most annoying, self-obsessed character I have ever read and I hated his with a passion I did not know I was capable of. To me, there were very few redeeming factors for this book. If any.
Apr 17, 2009
Stringbean
rated it:
This book is worth reading, if not for any other reason (though there are many), for the scene where Xavier abandons Jaromil. So many interesting ideas are explored in the novel, but most are not realised fully--and this adds to the charm. It is still fertile for consideration while not taking the main theme of life in the unreasonable heaviness which we see so often. I particularly enjoyed the exploration of lyric poetry, and of lyric poets.
Jun 07, 2008
Nicole
rated it:
Another favorite of all the Kundera books. A bit of an Oedipus story. Again, I'm not sure that I fall in love with his style of writing--with Kundera it is all about digging around in the psychological world and how it drives us though life. Constant mirrors, acting, reacting, tempting fate, pushing one's self to the absolute emotional extreme. The stuff of real life, the real interiors of people, but yet these lives always seem more erotically rash than the reality that most of us live in.
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Sep 02, 2008
Jean
rated it:
"Hmmmm." That's basically my reaction to this book. There is certainly a lot involved, and a lot of it is pretty strange. Some weird goings on between mother and son, and son and girlfriend, plus a lot of talk about poetry, life and communism. A lot of the material really makes you think, though some of it just made me think, "uh....what?" Another thing, it kind of bothers me how the author talks to the reader. Personally I just like to read the story and pretend it exi
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Apr 09, 2008
Miranda
rated it:
Killer. Another triumph from the Unbearable Lightness of Being author. It's the life of a poet, interwoven with the lives of several other poets, that takes place in socialist Czechoslovakia. So eventually the poet comes of age (and out from under his mother's very intimate and involved parenting style) and writes propaganda. Kundera steps away to comment on the narrative a great deal, asking questions about the significance of lyrical poetry, politics, dreaming, not dreaming, over-involved
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Sep 18, 2011
Jonfaith
rated it:
My late 20s illustrated a certain cooling of conviction. It was a grassy hill in early spring, I believe I had bought this new and found my own views on poetry and revolution echoed, Hell, anticipated by Kundera. This is a novel of resignation.
Dec 04, 2010
Dayna
rated it:
I love love love kundera's style, and the beauty of that is what got me through the book. I didn't dislike it, but I had trouble identifying with any of the characters....or even liking them, which makes it hard for me to get completely absorbed. But, I liked the whimsical features of the book, and the narrators voice.
Apr 19, 2009
Lizz
rated it:
I really liked this book. It was very...Czech. I could see a little bit of similarity with Kafka's work, for example. The writing was excellent and I could not guess what was going to happen before Kundera let on.
Lending to Amber M.
Lending to Amber M.
Jan 24, 2011
Jen
rated it:
A really good book about a boy and his overbearing, needy mother in communist-era czech republic. The plot has a couple of really good twists. It was a little slow to start but definitely got me hooked.
Aug 24, 2010
Sheena
rated it:
Classic Kundera, but not my favorite. Almost Dorian Gray-ish at points, with an increasingly evil undertone as the main character literally disintegrates into his own psyche/nothing. Excellent questioning of the meaning of art, poetry, and love during revolution, especially a communist one. Definitely worth the read: but only after "Laughable Loves" or especially "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting."
Jan 04, 2012
Irina
rated it:
Life is elsewhere, and so was the poet. This great narrative is nothing less than other kundera works, and it is definitely a book that confronts you to your deepest fears and wishes. A must.
Feb 11, 2008
Robby
rated it:
i was immediately intriuged with the title alone...this book was my first exposure to Kundera, and i had procrastinated on reading him for a long time, which i now regret. this book is amazing, it goes quick and the story moves at a nice pace, following a boy from his birth to his manhood. eloquent and intense, milans vividly captures the coming of age insanity that books like a seperate peace and catcher in the rye do but more maturely and more carnal. my favorite character is the mother and he
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Oct 16, 2007
Lisa
rated it:
The classic Portrait of the Czech Artist as a Young Man. Almost sentimental in its attention to the nasty gritty detail of revolution, history, dreams, youth, art, love, life, everything else. Above all, the falling short of every lofty thing.
Kundera's got this amazing knack for focusing and then panning out to some God perspective and then tunneling back into the brain. Bloody show off. He's good and he knows it.
Also, unless you are well-grounded and beaming sunshine fr More...
Kundera's got this amazing knack for focusing and then panning out to some God perspective and then tunneling back into the brain. Bloody show off. He's good and he knows it.
Also, unless you are well-grounded and beaming sunshine fr More...
May 26, 2009
Jennifer
rated it:
"Others always came on time according to a well-arranged schedule, so they lived their whole lives without surprise."
"(every event was welcome in his monotonous desert)"
"(every event was welcome in his monotonous desert)"
