michelle's review
The Joke (Definitive Version) by Milan Kundera
I have not read Milan Kundera since The Unbearable Lightness of Being almost 8 years ago. The Joke is very different and much better and is about how our smallest actions, including jokes, can have life changing consequences...but if everthing is supposed to happen, then it is not really a mistake; it is just our life.
I also really liked this because Kundera devoted attention to folk art and the use of folk art for political purposes. I have been learning about folk art this summer at my fellowship and it was very interesting for me to read about folk art from the point of view of how it is used (versus the act of its creation) and the historical contexts in which it is simulatenously loved and exploited.
that is all, not much of a review, but wanted to get something down here.
I also really liked this because Kundera devoted attention to folk art and the use of folk art for political purposes. I have been learning about folk art this summer at my fellowship and it was very interesting for me to read about folk art from the point of view of how it is used (versus the act of its creation) and the historical contexts in which it is simulatenously loved and exploited.
that is all, not much of a review, but wanted to get something down here.
I read this one fairly recently, too, and was really taken with it... The last four pages left me in awe. It's really interesting to me that, after he wrote this book, Kundera got annoyed because folks thought it was at least in part about politics. Though there are obviously greater themes at play, I wonder if it can really escape the political, given the backdrop. I don't know.
