I first read The Unbearable Lightness of Being when it came out in 1984. I was seventeen, so much of it must have gone over my head, but I have always remembered the remarkable writing and style of Milan Kundera.
How to describe a novel as complex as this? On the surface, it's the story of Tomas - a Czech surgeon who has previously left his wife and son - meets the waif-like Tereza, a photographer who drifts into his life as if in a bulrush basket sent down the stream for Tomas to fetch at the riverbank of his bed. They begin an intense relationship, although Tereza is constantly demeaned when Tomas continues to see his lover Sabina, a liberal spirit and painter, on the side. In fact, his womanizing increases once he loses his position at the hospital and becomes a window washer with many female clients. He has an insatiable need to take possession of something inside them. Sabina has another lover, Franz, who has also left his wife and daughter. Franz is so enraptured by Sabina that many years after their relationship, he still finds pleasure performing his duties for her unseen eyes. "We all need someone to look at us, whether it is an infinite number of anonymous eyes; the eyes of many; the need to be before the eyes of those we love; or for people such as Franz, to live in the gaze of imaginary eyes of those who are no longer present." (I paraphrase)
Set against the backdrop of the Communist uprising in late 1960 and early 1970's, the characters move between Geneva, Zurich and Prague, as Russian forces take control. When Tomas makes the mistake of commenting publicly on a small matter, he becomes the subject of Communist Party scrutiny - the buffoonery of political strictness is comical but also very powerful. When it causes him his job, Tomas and Tereza travel into the country. "Is it right to raise ones voice when others are being silenced? Yes."
It's not possible to describe fully the breadth of this novel. The structure moves back and forth between characters and time, and includes a myriad of subjects Kundera ably ties together like a great conversation. Politics, philosophy, relationships, the nature of living and being, dreams, adultery, the hierarchy of man over animals and God over man, betrayal, Communism, language, conscience, Nietzsche's theory of eternal recurrence, music, light and darkness, art, sex and sexuality, moral superiority, degradation, and poetic memory - the place in our brain which records everything that charms or touches us - deftly handled in a most unusual style.
It was made into a 1988 film starring Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin, which Kundera thought had very little to do with the spirit or the characters of the novel, causing him to no longer allow adaptations of his novels. Too bad.
This is an outstanding novel. On top of all the thoughts and feelings this novel contains, Kundera often breaks 'the fourth wall' to talk about the characters as the author who created them, as if they are real people - indeed, friends he knows - then easily flows back into the narrative stream.
It's written with amazing flair and is simply, one of the classics novels.
Highly recommended.
1984 / Tradeback / 314 pages
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