Product Description

Kundera whirls through comedy and tragedy towards his central question: how does a person, any person, live today? In constructing his answer, he writes of politics, sex, literature, modern man's alienation - and of their antidotes: laughter and forgetting.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7641 in Books
• Published on: 1996-05-20
• Original language: Czech
• Binding: Paperback
• 318 pages

Customer Reviews

you wont forget this
This book was the best accident that ever happened to me. I picked it up because it was cheap and it stopped me reading Dean Koontz which can only be a good thing! It has a fractured, post modern narrative which leaps back and forth and the author brings into question who is writing and what is being created. The language he uses is amazing at times for it's sheer simplicity. The words seem to dance around each other - quite literally at times as in the chapter where the whole world begins to dance in a ring which floats off into the sky. Kundera owes a lot to Kafka although he seems to have a more optimistic outlook on life. He also reminds me at times of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as strange things begin to happen yet none of the characters notice anything strange! He creates fantastically interesting theories and perfect sentances. Read it.

Once again Kundera at his "Unbearable" best!
Simply brilliant!

Kundera once again keeps you quite literally captivated for 312 pages and then has you just asking for more.This is most certainly one of his best and altough not probably as well known as "Immortality" or "The unbearable lightness of being" it certainly earns the right to sit up there alongside them as a Kundera classic.Once again all the usual Kundera hallmarks are there,his passion for Prague and his country,the brilliantly interwinning themes and characters and most importantly the pain that inspires his writing.This truly is a most thought-provoking read and once again just leaves you wanting more!

variations on a theme; experimental, amazing and unmissable
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is a collection of similar short stories or, as Kundera explains it, a novel written in the experimental style of several variations on the same theme, and indeed all the stories/chapters are dependent on each other, and there is only one reasonable way of reading this book: from the first page to the end. The theme in question, as the title suggests, is that of laughter and forgetting, and this novel is worth reading just for its thought-provoking discussions on this subject. But all these discussions are just one of the several ingredients which make this novel a rich, enjoyable and unforgettable novel. Kundera's story telling and character crafting are at his best. Each plot is intelligent, funny as well as dramatic, evolves unpredictably and is delivered with great confidence. The novel is written very clearly and is immensely easy to read, although it is very hard not to stop often to think about what is written. All characters, and there are dozens of them, have a life of their own, are described in immense detail, and they often surprise the reader as well as the author. Kundera is also included in the character list, and this is his most autobiographic novel I've read. This novel is a must read for those who have enjoyed some of Kundera's novels. I also suggest this novel (and The Unbearable Lightness of Being) as an introduction to Kundera's works. This book is about laughter, forgetting, love, sex, history, politics, philosophy, beauty, ugliness, youth, old age and yourself, and is written by one of the most talented authors of our times.