Milan Kundera

anything by milan kundera always gets me thinking, particularly "the unbearable lightness of being", "immortality" and "identity". anyone else?

He has been on my mind. What is a good book to start with?

Milan Kundera was and still is amazing, but doesn´t work think like to me. I read "the unbearable lightness of being" more then once. Would start with that one any time.

if i were suggest a first Milan Kundera book, it would be "the book of laughter and forgetting". the way he puts sentences, then paragraphs, then entire scenes together is just incredible. I rarely reread books, but this one, first i reread it immediately, then again within a month, then again ...

well, you get the drift. he is a wonderful writer, be prepared for his drifting from one story to another and another throughout most of his books, but if you enjoy that type of writing, he is the very best at it.

enjoy.

You shouldn't forget Kundera's essays - such as his recent The Curtain: an essay in seven parts. Note that Kundera's earlier (and arguably greater) works were in Czech, his later works were written in French. Even in translation, I think there is a difference in the two oeuvres - anyone else see it?

>5 A_musing: - the three novels written in French lack the scope of the previous Czech novels - they are much more meditative - but I'm not sure if that is due to the change in language or to the natural ageing process (he was 64 when the first one was published).

The Art of the Novel is an excellent selection of essays on writers that Kundera sees as his artistic forerunners.

His books are so tiny and yet they are packed with outrageous amounts of wisdom!!! How does he do it?

I started reading 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' but i just couldn't get into it at all. I know it's a classic and all, but i just found it to be obvious philosophies based on made up stories.... to be fair i didn't finish it, but did anyone else think this?

I have to admit that I feel the same as vintage_vermin, and I didn't finish it as well.

Definitely start with "The Joke". I think this might be his most important work.

I love The Unbearable Lightness of Being - I would even go so far as to say that it is my favourite book.

I've read several of his other books but I find it hard now to distinguish in my mind which ones I have read and reading their covers doesn't seem to help. I borrowed most of them from the library so don't have them at home to check against.