Laughable Loves by Milan Kundera [Book Review]
There aren’t enough words in a short story to reveal the true nature of the characters in it’s full-depth. It’s still amazing to see Milan Kundera pack a glimpse into their psyche. The men in the stories resemble those from Murakami or Bukowski, and women are written from a male-gaze.
My favourite story, Nobody will laugh, is a comical hyperbole on the pain of not saying the truth at the right time. Compared to other stories, this one has a lot of movement but not enough colour. (the monologue by Professor on lying is cut short). Perhaps I expected more depth from this because I read it as a lesson rather than leisure. I kept thinking about was how any person’s history can be interpreted to either worship or castigate them.
The other stories were thought provoking too. Havel’s rejection of Elisabet as a rebellion against determinism was a refreshing take on free-will within a book that is mostly concerned with love and eroticism. (which he later confesses was a lie)
Not agree with the author on
- Flajsman’s stance of not being concerned about involuntary effects is a good way of living life. After all, it would become tiresome to be responsible for your ignorance. Ignorance is sometimes not your fault.
- The story, The Golden Apple of Eternal Desire, portrays absolute pursuit as a sad state of affair. But being in a pursuit detached from the reward is a good thing in my opinion.
Highlight Quote - “We pass through the present with our eyes blindfolded. We are permitted merely to sense and guess at what we are actually experiencing. Only later when the cloth is untied can we glance at the past and find out what we have experienced and what meaning it has”
Reality is complex, but much simpler than the emotions people feel. It’s unbelieveable to think how two interpretation of the same reality can be so strikingly different that there is no commonality anymore -- the need for facts is absolved.
To quote the line from the book, Milan is able to turn wine from water