The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Paperback – April 7, 1999

Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is a masterful blend of political satire, philosophical insight, and emotional depth. Through interconnected stories, Kundera explores the fragility of memory, the absurdity of political regimes, and the human need for connection in a world of shifting realities. His prose is both sharp and poetic, creating a deeply engaging and thought-provoking narrative that lingers long after the final page. It's a profoundly moving meditation on exile, love, and the tension between personal freedom and collective history—a true masterpiece.

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is an appropriate and well-fitting title for this exceptional novel.Milan Kundera, while now deceased, lives on in grand prose, in this, his first novel released internationally in the 1970s. He explores our human existence with loads of his unique brand of dry and sexually tinged humor, but a serious examination also pervades.The novel is set in Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring of 1968. Teachers, writers and historians were on the verge of tasting freedom from communism, but their optimism was obliterated in August of 1968 when the Russians invaded. Tens of thousands emigrated to other countries but hundreds of thousands who stayed lost their livelihoods and many went to jail.Kundera introduces us to several characters and stories in this novel of seven parts. He touches on sex, politics, music, fairy tales and even gives us an autobiographical look at what moved him during that important time in history. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is an appropriate and well-fitting title for this exceptional novel.The characters are rich and entertaining and there were many instances during my reading where I burst out laughing. I was also interested in his political views and the challenges that faced him during those difficult times, reminding me of similar circumstances that are occurring in the world today. Some of the passages that moved me and brought on the giggles:He shouted "Children, never look back!" and this meant that we must never allow the future to be weighed down by memory. For children have no past, and that is the whole secret of the magical innocence of their smiles.All of us are prisoners of a rigid conception of what is important and what is not, and so we fasten our anxious gaze on the important, while from a hiding place behind our backs the unimportant wages its guerilla war, which will end in surreptitiously changing the world and pouncing on us by surprise.When he was naked, Barbara held up the alarm clock: "Look at the second hand. If you don't get a hard-on within a minute, you'll have to leave!" "They stared at my crotch, and while the seconds ticked away, they started laughing! And then they threw me out!"The Book of Laughter and Forgetting: I loved it!

The only 'negative' I have about this purchase is that the cover of the book is actually flat white with the title and illustration drawn by Kundera himself, similar to the cover of Immortality done in the same style. This did not bother me at all, and I was actually kind of happy to have it the way Kundera wanted it to be presented but is worth noting if you are aesthetically invested in the book as pictured.This book predates 'Unbearable Lightness of Being' and it's spiritual sequel 'Immortality' and you can see many of the themes from those emerging here. There is almost no narrative path connecting the entire book unlike the other two mentioned but as fans of Kundera might expect the whole work feels cohesive in a hard to explain way. The story shifts effortlessly between musings on the thematic intentions of classical composers to brutally objective descriptions of sexual debauchery. Even more than other books by this author this book almost requires repeat readings or extensive margin notes. Although the story never drags, it is often hard to get your bearings when you pick it up midway. The story is dense enough and Kundera's dry almost morbid humor is entertaining enough that reading in small chunks is not a waste but you will definitely reach the end wondering if you missed something important.The amount of 'taboo' subjects and crazy situations contained the book will make you cringe while trying to recommend it to your friends. It almost feels too personal to give any specific opinions about the book knowing that another person will have that in mind as they reached parts the evoke mixed and confusing emotional responses. All in all an excellent book but I wouldn't recommend it to my mom.

Milan Kundera is one of the more innovative writers of the 20th century. He treats the writing of a novel as artfully as sculptor or a painter. He dances his way across a wide array of concepts to bring in focus upon the main title themes of laughter and forgetting.The narratives in this book are separate and unrelated, except by theme.An expert at creating a scene aimed to raise a specific emotion in the reader, Kundera assembles characters to interact in ways which best illustrate the central themes. He is a master of tension. Although this is not a continuous, linear sequence of events, it is a linear sequence of ideas. The novel acts as a sort of medium of exploration through these topics - from treason to dancing, pure joy to discontent, and he even proposes a study on an emotion that he has found to be unnamed in any language besides Czech. It is clear he places great value on emotions and the inner-conflict, as well as the reconciliation of such, usually through unexpected means.It is beautifully written (even in translation). I can't imagine someone reading this novel and coming away with bad feelings about it, even though it is surely not what most readers expect it to be.If you like it, be sure to follow this book with The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Wasnt my kind of reading, not for everybody