Lucy's review
The Joke by Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera’s The Joke shrugs off the typical narrative arc and offers several narrators to the Communist period in Czechoslovakia. Ruined by an offhand comment, Ludivik is forced out of the Communist party and sent to a work camp for reeducation. This novel imposes Kundera’s penchant for surrealism upon a stark soviet landscape where reality is in itself surreal. While providing a glimpse into several perspectives on life under a Communist regime, I found Kundera’s novel most compelling in its ability to inspire compassion in me as a reader for each character. No matter how contemptible, bitter or pathetic, each character demanded respect for their humanity. Each character had clear conflicts imposed on them by a totalitarian system. The individuality of these characters under a system that considers a joke indicative of treachery defies censorship and pedantic, propagandist writing. Told in seven parts with four narrators, each character’s voice is distinct and engag...more
