The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera

I read this book because it came highly recommended to me by a colleague (and also because it reminds me of the scene from Friends when they play Pictionary!) It was written in 1984 and set in 1968 Prague primarily, with the context of the current Czechoslovak politics as a backdrop. The book was originally published in Czech, and despite my occasional reservations about how well translations can truly reflect the author’s original text, this one was particularly brilliant.

Dubbed ‘philosophical fiction’, Kundera’s style is unlike anything I’ve experienced: this was simultaneously a novel, a story; whilst also a discussion with Kundera, who addressed the reader directly and commented on events of the novel as he described them. It was most unusual, but I really enjoyed the quirky narrative perspective, which was much like a conversation at times. The novel questions the way we think about mortality and challenges Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of eternal recurrence - rather, Kundera explores the theory that we each have only one life to live, therefore explaining the ‘lightness’ of being.

The central characters of Tomáš and Tereza are caught up in an engulfing, claustrophobic, fearful love - they at once can’t live without each other whilst being unable to truly bridge the space between themselves. Tomáš is a serial womaniser and, much to Tereza’s knowledge, has sexual encounters with hundreds of women whilst they are married.

It seems that Kundera’s goal was to force the reader to think about the paths we choose in life and how they ultimately determine where we’ll end up, no matter how trivial or small they might seem at the time - hence our ‘lightness’. If you like dreamlike, lucid writing which is also deeply challenging and thought-provoking, I’d recommend this one!