“About Milan going from one step to another... well, I guess this is how living works. Life is not linear, although it may seem - it is not unidimensional. Future is happenning right now, and your dreams are being formed while you're awake. It's just a matter of getting used to his style.”
“I know I am going to be completely lambasted for this but I couldn't get through this book. Could it be that it doesn't interest me because I need to have a better understanding of certain philosophical perspectives? I don't know, I usually can handle some fairly deep reads - this... I couldn't. Not only did it bore me, I absolutely hated the main male character - well not sure if he remained the main character but he was around for as long as I read it, I haven't finished it. But egotistical, rather pathetic in all his conflict, I don't know. I understand Kundera's a bit of a genius and I can get that from some of his descriptions - I just couldn't get on board with this. I'll proably give it another shot in a few weeks. ”
“this was unbearably light to carry but lightly unbearable to read-this being open to comment”
“I somehow feel guilty because alot or my friends love him espacially this novel but i couldn't understand Milan - his books he goes from one step to another why? i don't know what he means in no mixture between his topics.”
“One general criticism on Kundera's novels is that he uses unnecessary and unappetizing sexual imagery. This was true in this novel and bothered me too. As for the main characters, Tomas and Tereza defines love in fundamentally different ways, and neither is able to explain his/her point of view to the other. "A Short Dictionary of Misunderstood Words" was a particularly apt chapter. I haven't watched to the movie (maybe that was a good thing), but this is quite possible the most fabulous book I've read in a long long time.”
“I always feel a little guilty if I didn't like something that so many people seem to value, but since variety is the spice of life -- certainly the lead character in this novel would agree -- I will post my brief, negative response to this book. I liked the Kundera's use of language, which really ran an energy of lightness and liveliness and emptiness over serious human suffering. I was interested in the philosophical question the narrator poses regarding how much meaning does life have if it is repeated only once versus if one is doomed to repeat the same things over and over again. However, I lost interest and stopped reading after his main mistress hid his sock. I just didn't care about the characters. The man's emotional immaturity combined with his sexual appetite and the suffering of his jealous beloved, even with his empathy (to a degree) with her suffering, was not compelling to me. Perhaps if I had not seen the movie and also disliked that years ago and did not know the basic plot and ending, I might have been intrigued enough to finish the book. But who can say?”
“I read this book a long time ago and liked it very much. I now recall mostly his perfect phrases, one in particular, how time and history keep revising and being revised; he compared it to the effervescence of shifting colors of light over chiffon -- it was so apt and beautiful it stayed all this time. ”
“Well written but it was too depressing... you almost want to go speak to the characters... the women were what made me mad... they were doormats!”
“When the philosophy overlaps with literature there must be Milan Kundera; it's the magic mixture that steals you to open your mind's on strange real world full of toil, happiness and dreams.”
“One of the books that significantly affected me.. and the film is a total failure compared to the book..”
