Let the Old Dead Make Room for the Young Dead

by Milan Kundera

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles.

A chance encounter leads a man to spend the afternoon with an older woman, now a widow, who escaped him fifteen years earlier. Neither of them doubts that the day will end in disgust, but for one intimate moment each finds a way to overcome mortality.

Written in 1969, before Milan Kundera was known to English-speaking readers, this story renders male and female characters painful equals, and prompted Philip Roth to admire its 'detached Chekhovian tenderness'.

Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Czech Literature, Classics, Literature, France, Literary Fiction

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Milan Kundera (1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023) was a Czech and French novelist. He went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship in 2019.

Kundera wrote in Czech and French. He revises the French translations of all his books; people therefore consider these original works as not translations. He is best known for his novels, including The Joke (1967), The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979), and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), all of which exhibit his extreme though often comical skepticism.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

A 35 year old man happens across a former lover, a 50 year old woman, and the two reminisce about their affair from 15 years ago and how things were then, how things are now, time, age, and all sorts of pseudo-heady things - but where will the evening take them…?

The title - Let the Old Dead Make Room for the Young Dead - grabbed me; it’s a good ‘un. And it’s been a minute since I read The Unbearable Lightness of Being - I think I sorta enjoyed it? - and saw this was part of the Faber Stories range, which I’ve found some gems in, and decided to revisit Milan Kundera. It’s not that great a story though…

I totally appreciate Kundera’s skill. I see the layers here - how the title is both explained in the story proper (the woman’s dead husband’s grave plot has been given up because she didn’t renew the lease so the old dead has been replaced by the young dead), but also a reference to the man and woman’s old relationship and their current one.

The writing is sharp and clear and the man’s characterisation and feelings about being 35 - no longer a young man, his dashed hopes for his youth that will never be realised - is really convincing and heartfelt. The woman’s characterisation is fine but she didn’t seem as fully formed as the man.

But - and this is something I often find with Literary writers - as much as I can admire the artistry behind a piece of writing, it’s frequently the case that that doesn’t correlate to interest. Because I was pretty bored with the story for the most part! Yeah, it’s clever, but dull - I mean, that’s all it is: a couple of miserable people moaning at each other while the horny levels rise? Bleh…

I liked the upbeat ending even if the sentiment seemed kinda obvious and unremarkable - let go of the past, live for today. Let the Old Dead… isn’t terrible though it also wasn’t for me - Milan Kundera’s a talented writer but not one I would ever call entertaining.

[aayushi · Rating 4 out of 5]

of our life's poignant tapestries of pictures and stories, this book could be looked at as a portrait of the of the memories which we struggle to let go, even after they fade.

there are moments we harbour even after exhausting their every capacity to feel and make us feel. oh, how we blame them for making us feel too intensely, too desperately - when it's us who have sucked every bit of their life while they lay there motionless, dead.

this is a story of two lovers who meet years later, still grappling with their past to make it stay, to keep it intact. but in this superfluous fight they end up fracturing both their past and present.

the story ends beautifully with “Evening was still a long way off.This time the room was full of light.” The faded memories finally replaced with more vibrant, more light of the beautiful present. the old dead finally make room for the young dead.

Kundera paints feelings and weaves emotions with his words.

[Steven Godin · Rating 3 out of 5]

First time I've read Kundera, bless him, since his passing. A very early short story - that I found online - that ended up being exactly what I thought it would be: a good indicator to the absolute genius writer he would go to be. Writing is sharp, with deep heartfelt characterisation - more so the man than the woman - as the two reminisce, during an evening in a small Czech town, about an affair from many years before; reaching back to the memories of the past as a way to fill the holes of disappointment in the present. Of course, this being Kundera, the thought of sex is never far away. Clearly not as literary polished as the great work that lies ahead of him, but I'd still take an average Kundera narrative over the best from writers around today. I sure do miss him.

[Aditi Jaiswal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does aging really makes a person so vulnerable as to affect his self-esteem or literature exaggerate and over-intensify the realization?

[Smriti · Rating 4 out of 5]

"She reproached them for not having advised her that she should renew the lease, and they replied there was little room in the cemetery and that the old dead must make room for the young dead...Just as she could not have prevented her husband's death, so also she was defenseless against his second death, the death of an old dead who is now forbidden to exist even as dead."
Read this almost on a fluke. It was beautiful!

[Spencer Fancutt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another cheeky Faber 90. I read Kundera in my early 20s (Unbearable Lightness, Laughter and Forgetting), so it had been quite a while when I picked this up.
So, a 30's male is trying hard to decide if he can overcome his disgust in the appearance of the woman he used to be obsessed with enough to shag her again (because he only had one crack at her, and times are hard), when he meets her in her 50's (yuk!!) and invites her back to his flat. Guess what? Our plucky protagonist manages it! Not taking 'no' for an answer, he tells her it is useless to fight him, and then she capitulates. I'm not making this up.
I'd love to see that story pitched to a literary agent today. It wouldn't stand a chance. Oh wait, Faber reprinted it in 2019, so I guess I have too much faith in progress. It was written in 1969, when it was fine (?) to shag women against their will, and so must be seen in that socio-cultural climate and not be judged by today's mores, and anyway was written by Kundera, so, Art. (Really, Faber?)
Philip Roth loved it.

[Serena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will never understand how Milan Kundera manages to write a philosophy essay mixed with delicious narrative, and hit the humour on the nose while he's at it. I think you could take away multiple points from the story, but my favourite was the idea of a monument to yourself being constructed in someone's memory without you knowing; and even the idea of it being created is enough for you to not need to preserve it. Very interesting from a 'live in the moment' vs. 'will I ruin it' vs. 'will I regret this' point of view. And, I thought it was interesting how they are characterised as 'the host' and 'the visitor' i.e. quite temporary states of a person, so the whole thing is only about these few fleeting moments. I'd have to totally agree with the Philip Roth comments in the edition I read, and find it fascinating that this is a work by Kundera before he was known to English audiences. Too much to think about from a very short piece.

[Maja · Rating 5 out of 5]

"She absolutely escaped his imagination."

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this short story written in the 70’s by czech-French authro Milan Kundera. It’s about a man and woman who were brief lovers long ago, and are reunited after many years with so much time and life events which have passed them by. Narrated from both perspectives, I was most interested in the woman’s perspective, widowed and confined by society and her son into a widows role—unsexed and withered. She refers to the memory of herself in other’s minds as a “monument”, questioning does she leave it untarnished or destroy the idea of what she once was, only by existing as her present self. And him, plagued by forgetfulness and the desire to remember what once conspired, universally reminiscent of young, brief romances. Slice of life 🤌

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

So to the first of the Faber 90s stories I decided to read and I have to say a rather intriguing one - one thing about this collection to celebrate their 90th birthday, publisher Faber and Faber have launched a series called ‘Faber Stories’. A single short story by a host of well-known writers such as Samuel Beckett, Kazuo Ishiguro, P D James, Lorrie Moore, Flannery O’Connor and Sylvia Plath.

This installment for me is all about how age and ultimately death although does not stop for anyone (as the title of the story is explained) somethings do not necessarily need to be dismissed or denied, rather accepted and embraced. I guess for all of us getting older - it (at least to me) shows there is still relevance for us all

[claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

weird and intriguing, catchy theme.

[Mery ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

[Herman · Rating 3 out of 5]

***1/2

[Stela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un cimitir vesel în care se îngroapă (și dezgroapă) mai mult sau mai puțin reverențios morți reali, metaforici, metonimici, închipuiți...

[James Rhodes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Airy solidity whisps through every page

Simple, powerful and effective, Kundera's earlier work lacks the acrimonious sex relations of his later novels. This is a tribute to human frailties told in a simple and direct manner which, somehow carries the dreamlike quality of an intimate alcohol sodden afternoon; Emotional and hopeful, this is a romance born from embracing the starkness of reality.

[Amirtha Shri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A man in his 30s encounters a former lover in her 50s who is now a widow. He takes her to his apartment and they slowly recount the past. From there on, Kundera goes on about the perils of aging and loss of beauty, the reckless drive of unfulfilled desires, the value of untainted memories, and so on... only to challenge all of them in the end.

[Suad Shamma · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully written short story. It's simple, but conveys a compelling message. The writing pulls you in from beginning to end. It has a sadness to it, but also a reality check. I really enjoyed it.

[Alexander Baxter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book genuinely challenging to comprehend. Given to me a long time ago by someone whose mind I valued greatly, it flattered to deceive.

The story revolves around an encounter between two former lovers, now older and distanced from their youthful passion. They meet after many years and reminisce about their past, but their reflections reveal the inevitable changes time has wrought on their feelings and identities. The title metaphorically suggests how the old, represented by fading emotions and memories, must make space for the new — a natural and melancholic process.

We are left with the appreciation that time waits for no man or woman and that there are forces in the world beyond us. This appreciation seems built within it, yet it is entirely upended.

The reader assumes that they will rest assured in what was rather than what could have been because the present can never live up to what has gone before. This fundamental point is intermingled with a rather unsatisfactory depiction of femininity and all the beauty it could have entailed. I say could, as in reality, we are left with a rather surface-level understanding of womanhood and why it so captured the younger man.

Yet that is not what happens in the end. Rather, the heroine seemingly gives in to the man and gives him her once again despite her not feeling uncomfortable with it. Thus, there is no meaning at the end. We are just left with a sense of disgruntlement. The old dead do not make room for the young dead; humans are simply unaccomplished in appreciating what is important to them. In that sense, it is sad. In another, it is simply disappointing.

[Khadija · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kundera's writing is relatively challenging for me. He approaches cheating from an immoral point ground. In his writings, I find His characters' perception of adultry fixed and inevitable thus they don't experience or feel any negative outcomes for their transgressions. It's one of the aspects that irked me about the short story. However, I admired its feminist undertone. Female sexuality and gender role expectations are depicted thoroughly through the mother-son relatioship dyamics. As for Ageism, it holds a focal interest. You can't love the same person twice. The male character's desire to reicarnate his past lover is futile and disappointing. His initial stuborness displays his inability to come to terms with the past and its toll on our physical appearance. It wasn't till he reconciled the idea and let the old dead make room for the young dead that he found pleasure in facing his aging fears.
Overall, I appreciate the short story, but Milan Kudera is definitely not my cup of tea.

[alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25/5 stars! 🌟

This very short read was about a couple who, 15 years ago, spent a night together and never saw each other since. They bump into each other again one day and begin the journey of attempting to process the physical aging of the other after so many years. The concept that the young version of you still is the current version of you, just further on in life. Very insightful read and is only 44 pages!

[Sunny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a simple woman. I cannot go past anything in the Faber Stories collection. If I see one, I'm eating it up immediately. This was no different.

A nice little read about how people let their own self-image define them. nom nom nom

Quotes

"He knew all this, but only intellectually, and the intellect meant nothing in the face of this desire"

"I am today, if a bit of my youth lives on in this man's memory, I haven't lived in vain. This immediately struck her as a new corroboration of her conviction that the worth of a human being lies in the ability to extend oneself, to go outside one-self, to exist in and for other people."

"if he then became disgusted with her and destroyed her monument in his thoughts, it made no difference because her monument was outside her, just as his thoughts and memory were outside her, and everything that was outside her made no difference"

[Deepta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lowkey I’m cheating because this is only 50 pages long…but I’ll add it anyway because I can 😋

It was boring and didn’t interest me but the writing was nice I will try something else by him just to be sure though

[Malak Souama · Rating 4 out of 5]

"the worth of a human being lies in the ability to extend oneself, to go outside oneself, to exist in and for other people."

[Samantha Lindenbusch · Rating 5 out of 5]

These 2 were really out here letting it linger…

“You’ve erected a monument to me within your memory. We cannot allow it to be destroyed… No, don’t let it happen!”

“If he then became disgusted with her and destroyed her monument in his thoughts, it made no difference because her monument was outside her, just as his thoughts and memory were outside her, and everything that was outside her made no difference.”

What would happen if you actually saw them again? Would you seize the opportunity to find the answers to the all the questions that their absence left unanswered after all those years? Or only recognize the ways they’re now different from how they were before? Is the monument more important to the person in front of you?

“You shouldn’t always return to the past. It’s enough that we have to devote so much time to it against our will.” ….I’ve never wanted to text my ex more, I’m sorry

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let the Old Dead Make Room for the Young Dead was published as part of the Faber 90 series. This short story chronicles a chance reunion between a man and a woman almost twenty years his senior who had a brief relationship (if one could call it such) fifteen years ago. The intertwining of the flashbacks to the present day was done very cleverly -- almost seamlessly. The morals of the characters are pretty questionable, especially on the part of the unnamed woman, which I would have liked to have explored more had the story been a little longer, but I found both the characters compelling. I'm also a fan of unnamed characters, particularly in short stories with a small cast as this one has. It makes the story seem more intimate, rather than less: how often do you use the names of people you're close to when you interact with them?

The alternating POV between the male and female characters offered an insight into both of their minds, which definitely added another dimension to the story that I enjoyed. The woman's story in particular was what I was intrigued by the most, as she was definitely more fleshed out than the man, with a much clearer history of her own, while all we learn about the man's life is in relation to this woman.

Overall, great characters and a really interesting dynamic between the two characters that isn't one often explored. My main gripe with this story is that I wanted more! But then, maybe that's the goal of the short story...

[sheena d! · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was an appropriate subway read, but would have been better with tea. for yearners everywhere.

[Ploofmoof · Rating 4 out of 5]

My introduction to Milan Kundera :)
I decided that if I liked this story I would start reading The Unbearable Lightness Of Being.
It’s decided.

[Thomas Goddard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think this has any spoilers, but it might be a little obvious what I'm talking about, so I've marked it so.

Kundera took a wonderful premise and a cool and beautiful pair of characters and did some sort of literary origami. But too few folds. It didn't end with me thinking he had uncovered something about humanity, but instead with the feeling that he'd played out some weird wishful thinking.

Perhaps he knew someone like this. But saying that, don't make the mistake of thinking he knew them, not how they thought or felt, just that someone in his life had escaped him in the same way as in the story. And he still desired them upon writing this.

I'm left thinking that his little stage play here undermined and desecrated the woman involved. If there wasn't a woman involved in real life, it desecrated the character at any rate. Which is a shame. She needed fleshing out. She needed to be more than a strange gelatinous mass shaped by the men around her. Read it and you'll understand. Choosing what she did was not reclaiming herself. Not her powerful younger self. It was capitulation to a man who never matured.

Maybe I'm meant to feel this way. But I hazard to guess, I wasn't. It is still capable of expressing its ideas about the old moving to make room for the new. About the hope that exists in never giving in to life's ebb. And that what is lost can be reclaimed, if it is desired. But it comes down to the method of retrieval. It comes down to your victory over something not costing someone else their autonomy.

I recommend this story is read. It is worth reading. It's a fantastic story that ends so wrongly that it might act as a good lesson for writers. It's a stillbirth. And I'm a little devastated. It got me thinking though and that's worth the stars. Even its failings can't outweigh its positives.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Tell me, why did you avoid me then?'

'I beg you,' she said in the gentlest of voices. 'It was so long ago that I don't know.' And when he pressed her further she protested: 'You shouldn't always returnt to the past. It's enough that we have to devote so much time to it against our will.' She said this only to ward off his insistence (and perhaps the last sentece, spoken with a light sigh, referred to her morning visit to the cemetery). but he perceived her statement differently; as an intense and purposeful clarification for him of the fact (this obvious thing) that there were not two women (from the past and from the present), but only one and the same woman, and that she, who had escaped him fifteen years earlier, was here now, was withing reach of his hand.

'You're right, the present is more important,' he said in a meaningful tone, and he looked intently at her face. She was smiling with her mouth half open, and he glimpsed a row of white teeth.

[nina okechukwu · Rating 4 out of 5]

“for he was convinced that he had experienced something very special with her, which she didn’t suspect and which he himself with difficulty would now try to put into precise words.”

a short but worthwhile read, kundera explores the themes of ageing, identity, beauty, and love in this beautiful story of a couple who meet years after a brief tryst. a man after my own heart, kundera delivers such an emotionally complex story in 40 pages.