A dazzling collection of stories - originally banned in 1968 Prague - by a 'magnificent short-story writer' (NYT) and author of classic The Unbearable Lightness of Being. 'Kundera is a self-confessed hedonist in a world beset by politics . . . Marvellous.' Salman Rushdie 'Kundera's achievement has been to bring both private life and political life into one comic framework.' Ian McEwan On holiday, a man and his girlfriend pretend she is a hitchhiking stranger - but their game soon makes them strangers to each other. One ...
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A dazzling collection of stories - originally banned in 1968 Prague - by a 'magnificent short-story writer' (NYT) and author of classic The Unbearable Lightness of Being. 'Kundera is a self-confessed hedonist in a world beset by politics . . . Marvellous.' Salman Rushdie 'Kundera's achievement has been to bring both private life and political life into one comic framework.' Ian McEwan On holiday, a man and his girlfriend pretend she is a hitchhiking stranger - but their game soon makes them strangers to each other. One young man reconnects with his grieving former lover, only to be shocked by her ageing body. Two friends embark on an obsessive mission to seduce as many women as possible in the Eternal Chase. A teacher fakes piety to seduce a devoutly religious girl: then jilts her and yearns for God. In these celebrated stories, Kundera probes our darkest erotic impulses and most destructive sexual fantasies - while seducing us with his graceful, whimsical prose.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Good condition. A copy that has been read but remains intact. May contain markings such as bookplates, stamps, limited notes and highlighting, or a few light stains.
It being Kundera, it is worth a read, so I recommend it albeit somewhat guardedly. This series of shorts ranges from nearly sublime to nearly petty. That's the bad news. The good news is that, although the author seems interested in writing about relationships and the varieties of interconnectedness between lovers, what he really writes about is life under communism and people's attempts to eradicate themselves from the oppressive dullness and lack of sensual pleasure under that rule. Perhaps as a political book (and now merely an historical document), it is more profound for discussing this problem indirectly. (As a meditation on love, it is not especially valuable.)