The Unbearable Lightness of Being is one of those books you hear about all the time and widely praised as “one of the most beautiful books of all time”. That’s about all I knew about this book when I decided to pick it up. I didn’t expect it to be such a wonderfully written and thoughtful piece of postmodern literature.
The novel is set around several main characters in the backdrop of the Soviet invasion of the Czech Republic:
- Tomas: famous surgeon.
- Tereza: A young waitress at a small town hotel and eventually marries Tomas.
- Sabina: An artist who escapes Prague for Geneva.
- Franz: A Geneva professor who falls in love with Sabina.
- Tomas and Tereza’s dog Karenin: Named after Alexei Karenin, Anna Karenina’s husband from the Tolstoy novel. The naming of the dog is definitely not a coincidence.
I don’t know why I went into the book expecting there to be an engaging plot. Yes, there is a semblance of a plot (actually, more like two storylines) but most of the book is philosophical musings. It’s done in such an elegant way that’s very postmodern but not pretentious.
Though I read a translated version of this novel, there was absolutely no awkwardness and the language felt so natural. It was a joy to read. The version I bought was the one with a dog on the cover (I assume it to be Karenin) translated by Michael Henry Heim.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being: The title itself is a philosophical concept Kundera develops throughout the novel, reflecting on the paradox between the lightness of existence and the heaviness of our consequential decisions. The title characterizes the novel’s exploration of the dichotomous nature of life. The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a thought-provoking, beautifully written novel that delves into the complexities of human existence.