...or perhaps more appropriately, this book speaks to my life - describes my life - reflects my life. I believe, once in a lifetime, you come across something that so clearly mirrors your view of the world, but in a strange, beautiful, and unimaginable way.

Taken as a story, it is a compelling tale of love, life and the struggles faced in Prague during the Russian uprising. But when taken on a deeper level, an "ur-level," this book speaks to one's view on oneself and their relationship to the eternal struggle of life.

This is a book I have been reading every year for the last 15 years, and every reading brings about new thoughts, new ideas and new perspectives. Trust me - you will love this book.

After a few recommendations and overheard remarks from people saying how wonderful this book was, how true, ect. The recommendations were not inspiring, but they couldn't be ignored. I flipped through the book at a local bookstore and read a little bit and cringed, put the book away and bought something else. Then, as I left I noticed a pretty girl sitting in front of the store, indian style on the sidewalk, near the end of a book and I asked her what she was reading. Immortality, she said, by Milan Kundera. It was very good, worthy of a reread. So, in the spirit of the times I decided that might be interpreted by some as a sign, I might as well read the thing.

Kundera begins the novel rather tediously, setting the tone for the next three hundred pages. He rather dryly and pedantically begins by laying a mythological foundation to the novel, to which he constantly refers and expands throughout the novel. The "myth of eternal return", he begins discussing:

"The myth of eternal return states that a life which disappears once and for all, which does not return, is like a shadow, without weight, dead in advance, and whether it was horrible, beautiful, or sublime, its horror, sublimity, and beauty mean nothing. We need take no more note of it than of a war between two African kingdoms in the fourteenth century, a war that altered nothing in the destiny of the world, even if a hundred thousand blacks perished in excrutiating torment."

Then rather oddly he begins to create, or derive the notions of lightness and being from this myth, defining rather vaguely the duality of lightness and weight, and their metaphysical opposition in the life of man. But of course this is not intended (I don't think) to be a sophmore's philosophy text on the meaning of love and the nature of life, a story then begins.

There are two main, unremarkable love stories in this novel, that of Tomas and Tereza and Franz and Sabina, Sabina being the mutual link, having an affair with both Tomas and Franz at different points in the novel. The narration of the novel is done in the first person, but by no character in the book. The story is told by a rather pedantic man, full of ideas, eager to talk about them, filtering the lives of the characters through these cobweb concepts, centering around his universals of Lightness and Heaviness, andBody and Soul and 'the duality of Sex and Love.'

There is little imagery in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Kundera is simply incapable of describing his characters. There is nearly no physical description at all and what little there is done clumsily, without depth. "She arrived the next evening, a handbag dangling from her shoulder, looking more elegant than before" is nearly the only physical description we have of Tereza. She's elegant. A novel is a universe, and the universe Kundera has created is full of "elegant", "tall" people, some that "wear glasses" and one has a "childish face." The book is done in black and white, with heavy contrast, little gray, lacking nearly any trace of color. We could be forgiven for thinking that Kundera was blind.

What's left is a heap of ideas about "reality" and what the idea of Love is to these generic characters. The novel cannot even be said to be a case study of particularly extraordinarily love affairs, or singular characters. The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a shallow story of a quartet of characters and how they stand in relation to the vaporous thoughts of a dull pedant.

Kundera's story about love and sex and the vast grey area between the two was a very interesting and well realized work. Told from the point of view of four different characters, the story unfolds in a somewhat slow paced but very rewarding way.

We have Tomas, his wife Tereza, his mistress and the mistress' other boyfriend (a married man who remains loyal to his only mistress). The story takes place on the backdrop of communism and we see Tomas give up an illustrious career first for love, then for his principles. Their lives go downhill a bit, but each one of them tries to find happiness in their own way.

The relationships between man and woman are fully explored here, and there is a lot of pontification and musing on behalf of the author, which sometimes slows the story down and is sometimes quite profound. The story unraveled a bit in the penultimate chapter, but came back around for a strong (although not quite what I expected) ending.

I found The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera to be one of the most thought-provoking books I've ever read. I chose it because my friend told me it was her favorite book. She explained the author's definitions of lightness and weight to me, which I thought were original and intriguing. Kundera's definition of lightness refers to the freedom we have in making decisions. Humans find this freedom unbearable, as the title suggests, because we want our decisions to matter and have weight- we feel helpless and lose our sense of control because our decisions are irrelevant to our fates.
The characters Tomas and Sabina personify this idea of lightness. Tomas cheats on his loving wife, Tereza, with countless other women, thus utilizing his lightness in decision-making (since he does not consider the consequences it might have on his marriage). Yet, his love for Tereza provides for an internal conflict of seismic proportions. One of Tomas's lovers, Sabina, shares this lightness with him. Her rebellious personality is reflected in her affection for her bowler hat that desecrates society's expectations of femininity. She, too, has more than one lover, and often makes impulsive decisions.
On the other hand, Tereza and Franz exemplify the weighty consequences of light decisions made by others. Tereza suffers immensely from her knowledge of Tomas's infidelity. It prevents her from loving him as fully and openly as she did at the beginning of the novel. Franz, another one of Sabina's lovers, experiences the same pain in response to Sabina's reluctance to be tied down to a single person. Franz's ultimate fate, as well, is decided by the incredibly and painfully light decision of a stranger.
Both Kundera's plot and style are simple due to the great complexity of his theories. He makes extensive use of symbols and metaphors to demonstrate his philosophies concerning lightness and weight in addition to his views on communism, sexuality, parenting, and dreams. He also discusses very Freudian ideas concerning the latter three.
The story takes place in Prague during the late 1960's, at the time of Russian oppression. The characters' attitudes about the Russian invasion serve to further illustrate their personalities. For example, the sensitive Tereza is visibly distressed when she sees the Czechoslovakian women teasing Russian soldiers, because she sees even these strangers as competition for winning Tomas's fidelity.
The book is full of philosophical musings that revolve around Kundera's interpretations of lightness and weight as well as the four main characters. I would not consider it "light reading," since I believe that in order to fully appreciate the novel, it is necessary to view it on a symbolic level. For example, the whole of part three is devoted to the differences and misunderstandings between Franz and Sabina. These can easily be viewed on a literal level, but they are intended to exhibit Sabina's defiant nature as juxtaposed to Franz's loyalty and optimism, as well as to foreshadow the ensuing misunderstandings.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being has become one of my favorite books. It is both interesting and enlightening. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in philosophy, oppressive regimes, or psychology.

"I've never thought about that" or "I've never thought about that in quite that way", is the best way that I can describe the overriding impression the Kundera's novel made on me. I won't attempt to describe the plot or the characters. Other reviewers have done a better job of that then I can, and besides, the plot and the characters are not exactly the point,as Kundera himself articulates throughout the novel. I will only say that even though The Unbearable Lightness of Being was published in 1984, it is eerily relavent in post 9/11 America. I found the author's description of kitsch, and particularly American kitsch, hauntingly appropriate given the hysterical flag flapping that followed 9/11, along with the pressure to support the political status quo and to never, never question their motivations .

The book is about love, sex, but not sex for the sake of titillation, politics, and being. Which is better, the lightness of freedom or the weight and substance of continuity and responsibility? Since we only have one life, we have no basis for comparison and so we will never know.

Most importantly this book will make you questions your assumptions, and perhaps, you too will look at lightness, weight and being in a new and different way.