Milan Kundera, página 2 de 13

A novel of irreconcilable loves and infidelities, which embraces all aspects of human existence, and addresses the nature of twentieth-century ''Being''.

Una novela ya clásica en torno al olvido, el erotismo y el humor.Mientras Tamina, una joven viuda en el exilio, quiere recuperar sus diarios íntimos para reconstruir con ellos sus cada vez más vagos recuerdos de su vida matrimonial, Mirek, en Bohemia, trata, en cambio, de recobrar unas antiguas cartas de amor para borrar parte de su pasado. Como dice el propio autor, "es una novela sobre Tamina y, en el momento en el que Tamina desaparece de la escena, es una novela para Tamina. Ella es el personaje principal y el principal espectador y todas las demas historias son variaciones de su historia y se reunen en su vida como en un espejo".

Una desenfadada visión del mundo que recoge la esencia de toda la narrativa de Kundera.Proyectar una luz sobre los problemas más serios y a la vez no pronunciar una sola frase seria, estar fascinado por la realidad del mundo contemporaneo y a la vez evitar todo realismo, asi es La fiesta de la insignificancia. Quien conozca los libros anteriores de Kundera sabe que no son en absoluto inesperadas en el las ganas de incorporar en una novela algo no serio. En La inmortalidad, Goethe y Hemingway pasean juntos durante muchos capitulos, charlan y se lo pasan bien. Y en La lentitud, Vera, la esposa del autor, dice a su marido: Tu me has dicho muchas veces que un dia escribirias una novela en la que no habria ninguna palabra seria Te lo advierto: ve con cuidado: tus enemigos acechan. Pero, en lugar de ir con cuidado, Kundera realiza por fin plenamente en esta novela su viejo sueño estetico, que asi puede verse como un sorprendente resumen de toda su obra. Menudo resumen. Menudo epilogo. Menuda risa inspirada en nuestra epoca, que es comica porque ha perdido todo su sentido del humor. ¿Que puede aun decirse? Nada. ¡Lean!

Jeter une lumière sur les problèmes les plus sérieux et en même temps ne pas prononcer une seule phrase sérieuse, être fasciné par la réalité du monde contemporain et en même temps éviter tout réalis

Ludvik Jahn, joven estudiante universitario y activo miembro del Partido Comunista checo, envía a una compañera de clase una postal en la que se burla del optimismo ideológico imperante. La broma no les hace la menor gracia a los dirigentes universitarios y, tras un juicio sumario, expulsan a Ludvik de la universidad y del Partido. Pero, paradojicamente, al caer en desgracia, se abre para Ludvik un mundo aun desconocido. Atrapado entre dos amores, el de Lucie, tierno y desesperado, y el de Helena, apasionado y cinico, Ludvik va, sin embargo, de tropiezo en tropiezo, transformando su vida en un cumulo de situaciones a cual mas grotesca y risible. De hecho, con el paso del tiempo, la vida de Ludvik se convertira en una enorme broma pesada: ya no podra culpar al destino, porque ya no puede sino culparse a si mismo.

Plus que les autres romans de Kundera, celui-ci est un roman d'amour. Tereza est jalouse. Sa jalousie, domptée le jour, se réveille la nuit, déguisée en rêves qui sont en fait des poèmes sur la mort. Sur son long chemin, la jeune femme est accompagnée de son mari, Tomas, mi-don Juan, mi-Tristan, déchiré entre son amour pour elle et ses tentations libertines insurmontables. Le destin de Sabina, une des maîtresses de Tomas, étend le tissu du roman au monde entier. Intelligente, asentimentale, elle quitte Franz, son grand amour genevois, et court après sa liberté, d'Europe en Amérique, pour ne trouver à la fin que « l'insoutenable légèreté de l'être ». En effet, quelle qualité - de la gravité ou de la légèreté - correspond le mieux à la condition humaine ? Et où s'arrête le sérieux pour céder la place au frivole, et réciproquement ? Avec son art du paradoxe, Kundera pose ces questions à travers un texte composé à partir de quelques données simples mais qui s'enrichissent constamment de nouvelles nuances, dans un jeu de variations où s'unissent récit, rêve et réflexion, prose et poésie, histoire récente et ancienne. Jamais, peut-être, chez Kundera, la gravité et la désinvolture n'ont été unies comme dans ce texte. La mort elle- même a ici un visage double : celui d'une douce tristesse onirique et celui d'une cruelle farce noire. Car ce roman est aussi une méditation sur la mort : celle des individus mais, en outre, celle, possible, de notre vieille Europe.

Tal vez por haber sido escritas en el periodo (entre 1959, y 1968) más feliz de la vida de Milan Kundera, según sus propias palabras, estas narraciones son las más alegres, las más seriamente desvergonzadas y las mas reflexivamente divertidas de su obra. La farandula de personajes hedonistas que desfila aqui ante nosotros en busca de los juegos multiples y contradictorios de la amistad, el amor y el sexo no puede sino incitar a la risa, atrapados como estan en el mundo loco de severidad, hermetismo e inquisicion que les rodea. Una risa autentica, traviesa ; un humor sabio, sagaz y gozador, al que ya nos tiene acostumbrados el autor de La insoportable levedad del ser.

En 1972, el joven director de teatro frances Georges Werler fue a ver a Milan Kundera a Praga y a su regreso consiguió, pese a los controles de la frontera, introducir en Francia el manuscrito de su obra de teatro Jacques y su amo. Kundera la habia escrito despues de la invasion sovietica, cuando toda su obra, pasada y futura, habia quedado borrada de las letras checoslovacas. aa Jacques y su amo relata tres historias de amor que se entrecruzan durante el viaje que emprenden Jacques y su amo: la del amo, la de Jacques y la de Madame de la Pommeraye; tres historias que se entremezclan polifonicamente, donde cada una es, a su vez, variacion de la otra, y juntas conforman una comedia sobre los problemas existenciales de la pasion amorosa.

Milan KunderaA young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing; one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover -- these are the two couples whose story is told in this masterful novel. 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. Hence, we feel "the unbearable lightness of being" not only as the consequence of our pristine actions but also in the public sphere, and the two inevitably intertwine.

Una novela sobre las trampas de la maternidad, el destino, las vidas equivocadas y las vidas no vividas.La madre de Jaromil es una mujer posesiva que mima a su hijo en exceso y que desprecia a su marido, un discreto ingeniero en cuyo interior se esconde un verdadero heroe. Alentado por la madre, que le rie todas las gracias, Jaromil entra en la adolescencia creyendose un poeta. Mientras su madre tiene con el profesor de dibujo de Jaromil una aventura que la llenara de remordimientos, su hijo conocera las dificultades de trabar amistad con sus compañeros de colegio y trata de ocultar en sus poemas sus primeras experiencias eroticas. Poco despues creara en su imaginacion a un personaje llamado Xavier, que vive lo que a el se le niega. Cuando acceda a la universidad y en 1948 se implante en el pais el comunismo con toda su dureza, Jaromil, convertido en un poeta del regimen, todavia ignora que su vida no es sino una eterna huida y, lo que es peor, que toda decision acarrea consecuencias mucho mas graves de lo que uno imagina.

The New York Times bestseller by the author of legendary cult classic The Unbearable Lightness of Being.Like all great writers, Kundera leaves indelible marks on his readers imaginations. Salman Rushdie From a playful gesture between an old woman in a swimming pool and a youthful lifeguard springs the heroine of a novel: Agnes. In the course of her daily life - Saturday chores, saunas, lunch in the hectic Paris streets - memories arise of her dead father, an unexpected widower. Their conversations flood back, and Agnesrealises that her secret inheritance was his way of granting her freedom. As she mentally revisits her childhood, from formative loves to her intense relationship with her sister, her past casts light on her present: her marriage, daughter, and eventual death.Exploring identity and existence, eroticism and modernity - with cameos from Goethe, Dali, Hemingway, and beyond - Immortality illuminates the nature of selfhood with inimitable wit, grace and intellectual nimbleness. A serial feast, a banquet for the brain.ObserverA joy to read. Wise, rueful, whimsically philosophical, Kundera teases the reader with provocations and paradoxes.Evening Standard

A masterpiece (Salman Rushdie) by the author of modern classic The Unbearable Lightness of Being.It took the temperature of the age as no other book did. It was the great novel of the end of European Communism: a novel of ideas and eroticism, the surreal and the naturalistic.Howard JacobsonOne is torn between profound pleasure in the novels execution and wonder at the pain that inspired it.Ian McEwan One freezing day in 1948, Klement Gottwald addresses Prague, wearing his comrade Clementis fur cap - and Communist Czechoslovakia is born. But after being hanged for treason, Clementis is airbrushed out of propaganda photographs. All that remains is a bare wall, and his cap. So begins an unforgettable voyage through seven narratives, interspersed with luminous meditations on politics, philosophy, music and history.A dissident seeks his first lover - now a Party loyalist - to persuade her to return his romantic letters. A married couple manages their menage-a-trois as Mother moves in. A clandestine horoscope writer is questioned. An emigre widow struggles to reconstruct memories of her late husband, before finding herself on an island of children. A butchers wife embarks on an affair with a poetic student. And one man prepares to cross the border . . .What readers are saying:Kundera embrace politics, sex, philosophy and history, with a seen-it-all cynicism that nevertheless manages to be fascinating and even uplifting ... It was addictive and fun, sexy and cool, easy to read, and made me feel brighter, switched on, and more alive.You must read this novel. Cant tell you about it, you just have to do it yourself. Its bonkers-brilliant! Phantasmagoric originality like this comes very seldom in a readers so-sweet life.Kunderas unique writing style comes as a revelation ... This holds a special place in my reading history as the one book that I instantly began re-reading as soon as I finished it.Absolutely enchanted me. Its such an unique novel. It speaks of so many things, from communism and regimes to love and art. For me personally, it is a perfect book.I am not going to spoil the story here, but while the story is not supernatural in any way, it takes on a fantastical flavor, full of mysteries and strange emotions ... It is obvious that Kundera has thought a lot about life, about the meaning of life, and lets the reader in on his secrets.Such a unique writer, Kundera! What a way he has to shine the brightest light on the deepest corners of human psyche.

Casting light on the most serious of problems and at the same time saying not one serious sentence; being fascinated by the reality of the contemporary world and at the same time completely avoiding realism-that's The Festival of Insignificance. Readers who know Kundera's earlier books know that the wish to incorporate an element of the "unserious" in a novel is not at all unexpected of him. In Immortality, Goethe and Hemingway stroll through several chapters together talking and laughing. And in Slowness, Vera, the author's wife, says to her husband: "you've often told me you meant to write a book one day that would have not a single serious word in it...I warn you: watch out. Your enemies are lying in wait." Now, far from watching out, Kundera is finally and fully realizing his old aesthetic dream in this novel that we could easily view as a summation of his whole work. A strange sort of summation. Strange sort of epilogue. Strange sort of laughter, inspired by our time, which is comical because it has lost all sense of humor. What more can we say? Nothing. Just read.

An invigorating novelistic essay, rich in literary wisdom, from the international superstar author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.A masterpiece.IndependentNothing so much as a gauntlet, thrown down by Kundera for both novelists and their readers to pick up - if we dare. ObserverStravinsky and Kafka meet with their friends Ansermet and Brod; Hemingway with his biographer; Janacek with his little nation; and Rabelais with his heirs. In Kunderas unique essay written in the form of a novel, our greatest novelists become characters who repeatedly cross paths, shedding light on the great aesthetic questions of our time along the way. Through their wise encounters, we explore the moral trials of twentieth century culture; the boundaries between past and present; the twilight of individualism; and the betrayed testaments of European art. Characteristically rich in revelatory ideas about the time in which we live, eloquently exposing how we have become who we are, this is a landmark work from a legendary writer and critic.

Una novela ya clásica en torno al olvido, el erotismo y el humor.Mientras Tamina, una joven viuda en el exilio, quiere recuperar sus diarios íntimos para reconstruir con ellos sus cada vez más vagos recuerdos de su vida matrimonial, Mirek, en Bohemia, trata, en cambio, de recobrar unas antiguas cartas de amor para borrar parte de su pasado. Como dice el propio autor, es una novela sobre Tamina y, en el momento en el que Tamina desaparece de la escena, es una novela para Tamina. Ella es el personaje principal y el principal espectador y todas las demas historias son variaciones de su historia y se reunen en su vida como en un espejo.

Befriend a budding poet and his adoring mother in this seductive early novel - winner of the Prix Médicis - by the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.An artist, clearly one of the greatest to be found anywhere.Salman RushdieKunderas achievement has been to bring both private life and political life into one comic framework.Ian McEwanYoung Jaromil knows he is special; in fact, he is a poet bestowed with literary genius, heir to Rimbaud. He knows this because his adoring mother told him so.Adult Jaromil, still revelling in these truths, draws on his talents to find romance whilst making his mark on the world through both his poetry and advancing the Communist revolution.Son, Poet, Lover. In which of these roles does Jaromils true existence lie?A blazingly satirical reflection on the lyrical age of youthful innocence, this ironic epic of adolescence showcases Kunderas savage yet tender wit at its finest.

A landmark essay about the value of the novel from the superstar author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.A magic curtain, woven of legends, hung before the world . . . Cervantes sent Don Quixote journeying and tore the curtain. The world opened before the knight errant in all the comical nakedness of its prose.For Kundera, this curtain represents our individual, ready-made, pre-interpreted perceptions of the world. The job of the novelist, he argues, is to rip through it to reveal what it hides.In this outstanding essay, one of world literatures most distinctive thinkers celebrates the history and value of fiction in Western civilisation. Too often, a novel is thought about only within the confines of the language and nation of its origin, when in fact its development has always occurred across borders: Fielding learned from Cervantes, Joyce from Flaubert, Marquez from Kafka. The real work of a novel transcends locality by revealing a previously unknown aspect of human existence, asking lifes biggest questions - and in his extraordinary prose, Kundera describes how the greatest novels do just that.Magnificent.ObserverThoughtful and thought-provoking. We owe Kundera thanks.Sunday TimesFull of insights, which show Kundera to be a wonderful critic . . . His tone is seductive, sly and, above all, personal.Financial Times