The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Around the World

Dec 30, 2014 Jibran rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A good story is the one that resists paraphrase. This is one such story. In its barest form it's a simple story of intense love, infidelity, and political intrigue, but it has such a vast scope that the more one says about it the less it seems. The Prague Spring of 1968 and consequent Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia form the background.

It takes us through the lives of two couples who are trying to find meaning in their lives, who want to cast off the burdens of life to find 'lightness'. Tomas ...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Shriya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: tome-travelling, books-i-own

Ah, finally! It took me forever to finish this book and I have to admit that though neither exceptionally long, nor tedious, this book is quite a lot to chew and digest. The storyline is vague and I did find it a little bit stretched but the redeeming factor is the beautiful philosophy Milan Kundera comes up with.

There are parts of the book that seem to have been written exclusively for you and then there are some that seem like things you grow up thinking, imagining and believing in but never ...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Rusalka rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: original-52-books-around-the-world, translation, own, around-the-world, europe, ylto-rainbow, ylto-topplers, central-eastern-europe

Now I am over my panicked state of last night. Who knew reading for time was so stressful! But fun as well. Ooo we may have created a monster.

So this book was another one for the Olympic themed challenge. And I really enjoyed it. To begin with it seemed like a brag fest about philosophers the author had read. Then a list of sexual conquests. But as the story went on it be much more engrossing than I expected. And not because I was interested in the characters as such, but I was interested in the Now I am over my panicked state of last night. Who knew reading for time was so stressful! But fun as well. Ooo we may have created a monster.

So this book was another one for the Olympic themed challenge. And I really enjoyed it. To begin with it seemed like a brag fest about philosophers the author had read. Then a list of sexual conquests. But as the story went on it be much more engrossing than I expected. And not because I was interested in the characters as such, but I was interested in the place and the society.

Part of me does wonder as well if the parts of the book I didn't enjoy was possibly my own lack of understanding of what was being discussed.

Again this book, like Between Shades of Gray, highlighted aspects of the ex-communist states that I had never thought about before. The idea of students having to got to work camps on their university holidays to work in steelworks or some such place. The thought of constantly playing happy music throughout the entire work camp during waking hours, and there not being a place you could go to escape it. To present a façade on how wonderful and perfect the system was... it's brainwashing at it's best! And I sympathised with Sabina who told this story, like I never thought I could with someone who was telling you they hated music. How could you hate music I always thought. How naive I was.

The complacency of the West was highlighted to me in the stories of Switzerland. Especially as I had been musing on them below earlier in the day. The story of Tereza taking her photos to a newspaper in Switzerland of the Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia and them not being interested in them any more as it was old news. Her exclamations that it was still occurring falling on deaf ears as the editors looked at photos of a nudist beach. Her being called a prude as she wasn't interested in the pictures as she has a sense of perspective. And then it being suggested that maybe she should be a fashion photographer... urge... to ... strangle... rising...

Otherwise, besides the usual "I DON'T SPEAK GERMAN DAMMIT!" issues (which to be fair finally did get translated into English around page 220. Would have been useful 200 pages earlier), and the fact that this damn book spoilt the end of Anna Karenina for me (ARGH), it was a really absorbing, incredibly well written read. 4 surprising stars.

For more reviews visit http://rusalkii.blogspot.com.au/ ...more

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