Product Description

A budding poet and his adoring mother are the central characters of this early novel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37688 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-04
• Original language: Czech
• Binding: Paperback
• 311 pages

Customer Reviews

Kundera's forgotten gem
Milan Kundera is an author whose style is so unique and idiosyncratic that you will either love him or hate him. I am firmly in the first category. The psychological examination which he puts his characters through dissects their personas to such a magnificent extent as to believe they are real people. In this novel, one of his lesser known early books, Kundera examines the life of a poet, from the time of his conception, to his untimely death. Against the backdrop of Czechoslovakia's struggle with Communism, the young poet searches for a way to fit into this ever changing world. But in this book it is the poet's alter-ego Xavier - a chameleonic character who emerges from one dream into another, never waking to the awful struggles of reality - who is the touch of genius, living the fantasy life that the poet can only dream of. If you love Milan Kundera then search this little gem out, you will find few better examinations of the literary psyche.

Life Is elsewhere, indeed
LIE is about a poet who is spoilt, infantile and ultimatly a failure. Set against a back-drop of communist Czechoslovakia our (anti?) hero is in a dilemma over whether to write what he wants or what the regime demands. In this respect Kundera seems to be using the story in total as a cipher for these political events.
The communist element is definalty the most interesting theme to the book and gives it a sense of place and purpose that it would otherwise lack- politics also adds to the sense of gloom and despair that permeates the story.
Unfortunatly none of the characters are likable, especially the main protagonist. Kundera, always shaky when portraying women makes an embarassng hash of the mother of the piece which is quite mysoginistic and unrealistic in turns. In fact all of his characters don't seem to inhabit the real world and none of them are remotly engaging. The story line suffers dreadfully from a lack of direction and the end is an anti-climax.
Kundera's more famous work- The Unbearable Lightness of Being- is a far more satisfying read and I would strongly suggest trying that before any of his other work. This is the kind of book to read if it finds its way onto your bookcase but not one, in my opinion, to go out and buy.
For fans of Kundera and his type only.

One of my favorite books
I read this book for the first time when I was sixteen and it was the first intelligent fiction I had come across. Since then I have re-read it many times. I still love it. The characters in the book may be one-dimensional, but its a big dimension. I like the fact the characters dont seem to change who they are, but rather just change externally according to where they are in their lives. It does seem that Milan Kundera has chosen one characteristic for each person and built on that. And its fantastic the way he does it. And I think he does that in all his novels. This is my favorite of his.