There is a timeless quality to his philosophy about the importance of laughter…Kundera is still the powerful and incisive writer he always was.” — New York Times Book Review
“Compelling…That Kundera has his tongue half in his cheek is part of the charm… offers both a continuation of Kundera’s signature investigations and a reaction to the toxicity of the present day.” — Los Angeles Times
“Kundera doesn’t present himself as a priest of the novel who, having been inducted into its higher mysteries, now deigns to share his brilliance with mere mortals. He is simply one character among others in the novel, curious, perplexed, and amused by the spectacle of human nature.” — New Republic
“Kundera is a master at uniting disparate characters by tracing their intersecting journeys, and by allowing resonant words inside the head of one character to sing inside the thoughts of another.” — The Atlantic
“An entertaining divertissement, a lightly comic fiction blending Gallic theorizing and Russian-style absurdity…This is, in short, just the book for an idle afternoon spent sipping espresso and watching the passing show on the Boulevard Saint-Michel or Connecticut Avenue.” — Michael Dirda, Washington Post
“Stunningly profound…a late-career confection which, in its compact slimness, re-proves Kundera’s chops when it comes to overlapping narratives and beautifully expressing the junk and clutter of the modern world.” — NPR Books
“Slender but weighty, thoroughly cerebral…It comes as a welcome corrective to so much American-style realist fiction, which in heavy doses can blur into a kind of sameness…what is moving about this novel is its embrace of what has always driven Kundera, the delicate state of living between being and nothingness. Far from rehashing this theme, it presses it into new form: shorter, tighter, fired by aging rather than by coming of age. It would be a poor fit for Hollywood, but it’s a perfect one for Kundera, and for anyone who has looked at life in hindsight.” — Boston Globe
“This slight but wonderful novel offers its own distinct brand of pleasure… a fitting capstone on an extraordinary career.” — Benjamin Herman, Slate
“[Kundera] stands in the West as the representative Eastern European author of the second half of the 20th century-and the most celebrated Czech writer since Kafka… a wily, playful, feather-light novella…It seems fitting that he should end his career not with a bang but a giggle.” — Wall Street Journal
“This novel is a fitting bookend to Kundera’s long career intersecting the absurd and the moral.” — Publishers Weekly
“Forgotten tyrants and blatant belly buttons have equally playful roles in this deceptively slight, whimsically thoughtful tale of a few men in Paris…This strangely amusing novella has the power to inspire serious efforts to find significance in the very book in which it is so perversely denied.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Stylistically and thematically, it’s classic Kundera: polyphonic, digressive, intellectual yet anti-philosophical, deliberately strange, and aggressively light. And his descriptions are as beautiful as ever.” — Booklist
“His first novel in almost 15 years, Kundera takes us on a journey where the only thing that really matters to his four characters is the word ‘friendship’. Another beautiful work from Kundera, he casts light on serious issues while not saying anything serious at all.” — The Reading Room
“Its lightness is heavy with the weight of previous Kundera books, so a Stalin reference blooms with additional meaning — because it’s been set so strikingly against previous portrayals of communism.” — Huffington Post
“Poignant, surreal, and funny…” — The Millions
“Enjoyable…readers will be very pleased with this latest release from Kundera, which has all the wit and humour of his earlier Immortality, but adds to this a unique and careful attention to unknown characters’ lives.” — Publish ArtsHub
Compelling…That Kundera has his tongue half in his cheek is part of the charm… offers both a continuation of Kundera’s signature investigations and a reaction to the toxicity of the present day.
This slight but wonderful novel offers its own distinct brand of pleasure… a fitting capstone on an extraordinary career.
An entertaining divertissement, a lightly comic fiction blending Gallic theorizing and Russian-style absurdity…This is, in short, just the book for an idle afternoon spent sipping espresso and watching the passing show on the Boulevard Saint-Michel or Connecticut Avenue.
Kundera is a master at uniting disparate characters by tracing their intersecting journeys, and by allowing resonant words inside the head of one character to sing inside the thoughts of another.
[Kundera] stands in the West as the representative Eastern European author of the second half of the 20th century-and the most celebrated Czech writer since Kafka… a wily, playful, feather-light novella…It seems fitting that he should end his career not with a bang but a giggle.
Slender but weighty, thoroughly cerebral…It comes as a welcome corrective to so much American-style realist fiction, which in heavy doses can blur into a kind of sameness…what is moving about this novel is its embrace of what has always driven Kundera, the delicate state of living between being and nothingness. Far from rehashing this theme, it presses it into new form: shorter, tighter, fired by aging rather than by coming of age. It would be a poor fit for Hollywood, but it’s a perfect one for Kundera, and for anyone who has looked at life in hindsight.
Kundera doesn’t present himself as a priest of the novel who, having been inducted into its higher mysteries, now deigns to share his brilliance with mere mortals. He is simply one character among others in the novel, curious, perplexed, and amused by the spectacle of human nature.
There is a timeless quality to his philosophy about the importance of laughter…Kundera is still the powerful and incisive writer he always was.
New York Times Book Review
Stunningly profound…a late-career confection which, in its compact slimness, re-proves Kundera’s chops when it comes to overlapping narratives and beautifully expressing the junk and clutter of the modern world.
Stylistically and thematically, it’s classic Kundera: polyphonic, digressive, intellectual yet anti-philosophical, deliberately strange, and aggressively light. And his descriptions are as beautiful as ever.
His first novel in almost 15 years, Kundera takes us on a journey where the only thing that really matters to his four characters is the word ‘friendship’. Another beautiful work from Kundera, he casts light on serious issues while not saying anything serious at all.
Poignant, surreal, and funny…
Its lightness is heavy with the weight of previous Kundera books, so a Stalin reference blooms with additional meaning — because it’s been set so strikingly against previous portrayals of communism.
Enjoyable…readers will be very pleased with this latest release from Kundera, which has all the wit and humour of his earlier Immortality, but adds to this a unique and careful attention to unknown characters’ lives.
Stylistically and thematically, it’s classic Kundera: polyphonic, digressive, intellectual yet anti-philosophical, deliberately strange, and aggressively light. And his descriptions are as beautiful as ever.
[Kundera] stands in the West as the representative Eastern European author of the second half of the 20th century-and the most celebrated Czech writer since Kafka… a wily, playful, feather-light novella…It seems fitting that he should end his career not with a bang but a giggle.
Compelling…That Kundera has his tongue half in his cheek is part of the charm… offers both a continuation of Kundera’s signature investigations and a reaction to the toxicity of the present day.
Many listeners may be familiar with the abstract, somewhat philosophical nature of Kundera’s work. While the multiple levels of meaning in this one should come as no surprise, Richmond Hoxie’s delivery is, nonetheless, pleasantly enlightening. He provides the patience and care the story requires if its lasting meaning is to be revealed as he speaks artfully, with steady enthusiasm and a clear appreciation for the words. The irony of D’Ardelo’s inability to ask out an attractive woman because he’s using a fake cancer scare as a way to judge how important he is to his friends is blissfully performed by Hoxie. Other equally ridiculous (and poignant) moments are also made memorable by his ability to emote clearly. N.J.B. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
★ 2015-04-04
