The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being explores the lives and relationships of artists and intellectuals in the years before and after the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia.

Fast Facts

1. Author: Milan Kundera
2. Genre: Literary Fiction
3. Publication Date: 1984
4. Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
5. Pages: 320 (Harper trade paperback)
6. ISBN 0060932139 (Harper trade paperback)
7. Adaptations: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (film)

Plot Synopsis

The Unbearable Lightness of Being follows the interconnected lives of four Czechs. Each struggles with the "lightness" and "heaviness" of life, and each must face the consequences of their chosen approach to dealing with that dichotomy. The story orbits Tomáš, a doctor who masks his frustrations with politics (heaviness) by engaging in sexual affairs (lightness.) He is in love with one woman, Tereza, who cannot reconcile Tomáš' womanizing with the fidelity (heaviness) she needs. Tomáš best friend and mistress, Sabrina, attempts to embrace lightness through her self-defined war on kitsch, but struggles with her puritanical past. Finally, Sabrina's lover Franz wishes to escape the heaviness of his life of by participating in political protests and casting Sabrina as a tragic Russian dissident -- a role she rejects.

Critical Reception

Upon its publication in the United States, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera's book was widely praised. Vanity Fair claimed, "Kundera has raised the novel of ideas to a new level of dreamlike lyricism ..." The New York Review of Books called it "a work of the boldest mastery, originality, and richness."

Categories