The Unbearable Lightness of Being--For Those Who Have Finished

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner), The Founding Bookworm]

Please use this thread to talk about the book as a whole after you have finished.

Did you like or dislike the book? Did you like the ending? Favorite characters? Favorite quotes? Did you like the author's style? Were you confused by anything in the book? etc.

[Sara]

I was not sure when I got the book if I was going to enjoy it or not. It was not my type of book but since this group always has a good choice I decided to give it a chance.

I really liked the book,it was completely different from what I thought it would be.

My favorite character was Sabina. She did not let anything affect her. She stayed an artist even though she was being put down by Thomas.

[Leigh]

I've all ready read this book and I'm deep into one for school so I don't have time to reread it with you guys, but it is definitely one of my favorites. I love Kundera's work so much, very thought provoking. If you liked this book I would suggest The Book of Laughter and Forgetting as well.

[Kayla]

I just finished this book a couple of days ago, and I really enjoyed it. The philosophy in this books was thought-provoking and it turned what would normally be considered an erotic novel into an intellectual read.

I was surprised that Kundera never went any further with the car accident that Tomas and Tereza died in. With every other future event that Kundera mentioned in the book, he would go into it further later on, but the accident was just mentioned once and then forgotten. I would have liked to have known about Tomas and Tereza's life until the very last minute. I think their thoughts about one another during those last few moments would be very important.

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner), The Founding Bookworm]

Just finished it! I really enjoyed it as well. Definitely different from what I thought it would be. I thought there was a good balance of philosophy and "story". It was so thought provoking even though I didn't agree with every conclusion he came to.

I was also really surprised, Kayla, that he didn't go further with that as well.

Some of my favorite lines:

"Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost."

"We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come."

"We all need someone to look at us. we can be divided into four categories according to the kind of look we wish to live under. the first category longs for the look of an infinite number of anonymous eyes, in other words, for the look of the public. the second category is made up of people who have a vital need to be looked at by many known eyes. they are the tireless hosts of cocktail parties and dinners. they are happier than the people in the first category, who, when they lose their public, have the feeling that the lights have gone out in the room of their lives. this happens to nearly all of them sooner or later. people in the second category, on the other hand, can always come up with the eyes they need. then there is the third category, the category of people who need to be constantly before the eyes of the person they love. their situation is as dangerous as the situation of people in the first category. one day the eyes of their beloved will close, and the room will go dark. and finally there is the fourth category, the rarest, the category of people who live in the imaginary eyes of those who are not present. they are the dreamers."

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner), The Founding Bookworm]

I'd love to discuss the idea of lightness and weight with people. From what I understood, it seemed to be that lightness was more like just accepting a life without ultimate meaning and living moment by moment. The weight/heaviness seemed to be an inability to accept the lightness of being..those characters were attaching so much meaning and importance to things in life. I definitely saw that in the character of Tereza. I also thought Sabina was the epitome of the "lightness".

I feel as though I am more of a "heavy" character like Tereza (everything is disgustingly significant to me) even though I feel like I try to be alot like Sabina..not tied down or in shackles about too much in life. She really just, like you said Sara, let too much affect her. It's funny because in some ways I have that "Sabina" spirit in me and I used to be more like that..but ever since college I became more like Tereza. I don't know if it has something to do with my mother dying or what.

I feel like in the end that none of them really ever came to deal or have a solution for the "unbearable lightness of being." And did anyone notice that Sabina was the only one living by the end of the novel?

I kept getting confused sometimes by Tereza's dreams being in there. I would read and be like..what?! And then realize it was a dream.

I was also thinking about how sexuality was portrayed in the book through different characters. It seems like every character had a different idea about sex, love, fidelity, betrayal.

Ahh..another question..I just feel like I have so much to say about this book. What did you all think about the discussion of fortuity, chance, and coincidence? It seemed like both Tereza and Tomas always came back to the events that brought them together. I kept getting annoyed everytime it would talk about Tomas plucking her up from the basket or whatever. lol. We get it already!

[Matthew]

I had a girl make me read this over the summer (by far the best thing that came out of the relationship) but I absolutely loved it. One question I would like to pose to the group is which character(s) do you see yourself most as.

I for one would consider myself to be an amalgamation of Tomas and Sabina.

[Tahleen]

I just finished this today, and though I didn't love it, I didn't think it was that bad either. It was thought provoking, but nothing life changing for me. I identified the most with Tereza, though I think I admired Sabina the most. And Jamie, that happened to me with Tereza's dreams too!