François Kérel Books

In this novel - a story of irreconcilable loves and infidelities - Milan Kundera addresses himself to the nature of twentieth-century 'Being' In a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous events, a world in which everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. We feel, says the novelist, 'the unbearable lightness of being' - not only as the consequence of our private acts but also in the public sphere, and the two inevitably intertwine.Juxtaposing Prague, Geneva, Thailand and the United States, this masterly novel encompasses the extremes of comedy and tragedy, and embraces, it seems, all aspects of human existence. It offers a wide range of brilliant and amusing philosophical speculations and it descants on a variety of styles.

A young Czech whose mother has molded him into a poet becomes the people's literary hero during a Communist rally in 1948

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

Može se, bez dvoumljenja, kazati da Kundera uživa glas jednog od najprivlačnijih pisaca danas u Evropi. Osnovno obeležje Kunderinih pripovedaka može se izreći ovako: svrsishodan izraz, odmeren tempo, blaga ironija koja ne pogađa "glavnog junaka", nego se stavlja u pomalo pomerenu perspektivu, smisao za detalj i veština posmatranja, stvaranje osobene atmosfere, vešto fabuliranje, dobra poenta, čvrsto komponovanje. Iz ovih priča izbija onaj dah koji nam je znan iz najboljih dela "Češke filmske škole".

Set in the not-too-distant past, this comic and exuberantly lustful tale by the author of The Miracle Game is also a savage parody of life under foreign occupation. The conscripts of a Czech battalion prepare themselves for inevitable war with the US - using unconventional tactics.