The unbearable lightness of being novel5/23/2023 ![]() ![]() By 1984 Orwell’s dystopian vision of a world ruled by totalitarian ideologies was seen to have been frighteningly prescient, particularly from the perspective of the eastern bloc countries. Here was an avowedly “postmodern” novel in which the author withheld so many of the things we expect from a work of fiction, such as rounded characters - “It would be senseless for the author to try to convince the reader that his characters once actually lived” - a tangible milieu, a well-paced plot, and in which there are extended passages of straightforward philosophical and political speculation, yet it became a worldwide bestseller, loved by the critics and the public alike.Īs in the case of all immediate and great artistic successes, Kundera’s book must have spoken directly to the contemporary ear. ![]() Why had so little remained for me? Is it the result of failing memory, or is there indeed an essential weightlessness to the book? The Unbearable Lightness of Being had a remarkable success when it was published in English in 1984 (this autumn will see an anniversary edition from Faber). ![]()
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