Immediate Reflections – The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Light vs. Heavy and the meaning of Kitsch are two strong themes in Kundera’s modern masterpiece. I must admit that although I was thoroughly enjoying his writing style it wasn’t until I was about ¾ into the novel that it finally occurred to me that this was indeed a masterpiece. I am now very to track down a copy of another one of his titles The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.

The way that he weaves his commentary about his characters as well as adding “forgotten” elements of their stories did not shake me as a reader as much at it made me feel even more voyeuristic. I felt like the characters were subjected to an almost hostile examination by not only us, but by their creator. In fact, I might suggest that Kundera did not necessarily create these people as much as he stumbled across them, recognized their yearning and successfully described their inner monologues. The relationships resonated with me in a thick and often disturbing way. I found that I could relate quite easily with both females and one of the males, but Tomas, the principal male, was hard for me to identify with. As the novel unfolds I find myself able to relate to his experience as well as the others. It is fortunate for me that by the last few pages of the book I was able to indentify with each character, including the Karenin.

Perhaps the single most disconcerting element of the whole reading experience was that I made inevitable parallels to my personal life. I could not help but trying to see my partner in certain characters and myself in others. For the most part this was simply a healthy transference, but I found it a little disheartening when there were certain moments in the novel involving certain characters that I could readily identify with. These were not moments of strength, but moments of frailty and insecurity.

I am now attacking the second half of One Hundred Years of Solitude. I love this book as well and have found myself missing a certain number of those characters and have become increasingly curious as to the resolution of the story.