Milan Kundera
Paperback | Pages: 400 pages Rating: 4.14 | 28808 Users | 1599 Reviews
Be Specific About Of Books Immortality
| Title | : | Immortality |
| Author | : | Milan Kundera |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 400 pages |
| Published | : | January 3rd 1998 by Faber and Faber (first published January 12th 1990) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. European Literature. Czech Literature. Philosophy. Literature. Novels |
Description In Pursuance Of Books Immortality
To become engaged within the first few pages of a book is always a good sign. However, at the back of my mind, history kept telling me that many other novels have started out in the stratosphere only to plummet to the bottom of the ocean. Milan Kundera's 'Immortality', starts great, gets better, and ended with a lump in my throat, and a soul that was struck by a chord. No actually, forget the single chord, this was more like an Orchestra going in full swing. Kundera has worked wonders here.Witnessing a playful, sexual, yet sweet physical gesture of a woman by the swimming pool, begins. Kundera weaves a story around this starting gesture. Slowly introducing other characters that are part of her life and compares her life in the 20th century with another one a century earlier. It is an interesting perspective on what immortality is. What do people remember you for? is it what you have achieved?, or maybe just solely based on the perception that others have of you? Are you remembered only by your loved ones, or are you revered or scorned by the entire world? These are questions that will definitely get you thinking, and thinking plays an integral part in Immortality, as the words on each and every page only go so far, as Kundera puts the emphasis on the reader to sit comfy, and give his or hers full attention. (Tried reading on the metro, forget it), this is a book that pays off reading in seclusion as much as possible. In a skillful way, new characters silently crawl out of the woodwork, leaving you hanging, only to be bought up randomly somewhere else in some other context. This does keep you engrossed, it does also become a pain, but a pain worth putting with.
Empathy is slowly drawn into the picture, as characters are slowly woven in an intermittently way,
that it strangely sexual and often quite perplexing. Kundera's characters acquire psychologies and histories, but they start out and continue to function chiefly as images, provocations: a man staring at a wall, or repeating a phrase; a woman arguing, putting on her glasses, shaking her head; a girl sitting in the middle of a major road amidst rushing traffic. These images are not illustrations of pre-formed thoughts, but they are not simply pieces of novelistic behaviour either. They are meetings between persons and notions, or more precisely, written, re-created, invented records of such meetings. He is clearly a most confident writer, I mean, Goethe & Hemingway in conversation?, Genius!.
There are some beautifully written passages of writing, likened to a philosophical voyage into Paradise, and there IS a wonderfully elegant and provocative story lurking under, indicating a second read may help untangle the knots of uncertainty, as Kundera teases the reader with provocations and paradoxes that require some deep pondering. This is a book without conclusion, there really isn't a beginning, middle or end.
After the closing pages, I was left moved, awestruck, and slightly mentally exhausted.
Particularize Books Toward Immortality
| Original Title: | Nesmrtelnost |
| ISBN: | 057114456X (ISBN13: 9780571144563) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Agnes, Beatrice (diverse works), Rainer Maria Rilke, Laura Spencer, Goethe, Bettina, Bernard Bertrand, Bertrand Bertrand, Christine |
| Setting: | Paris(France) Rome(Italy) |
| Literary Awards: | Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (1991), Cena Jaroslava Seiferta (1994), Kniha roku (1993) |
Rating Of Books Immortality
Ratings: 4.14 From 28808 Users | 1599 ReviewsComment On Of Books Immortality
To be mortal is the most basic human experience, and yet man has never been able to accept it, grasp it, and behave accordingly. Man doesn't know how to be mortal. And when he dies, he doesn't even know how to be dead. I was torn between loving and hating this book but eventually I've come to like it a lot more with time. Love, because there are few writers with the gift of mixing fable and allegory, facts and fiction and metaphors into a delicious recipe called "the novel" like Kundera hasThis is a great book and I wish I had discovered it years ago, when it was translated from the Czech in 1991. I liked it much more than Unbearable Lightness of Being. A blurb says the book thoroughly explores the great themes of existence which is quite a task to pull off in 345 pages, but Kundera makes quite a dent in those themes. Where to start? There is a story: a couple has a daughter; the wife dies, and eventually the man marries his dead wifes sister. Thats pretty much the plot. But as
To become engaged within the first few pages of a book is always a good sign. However, at the back of my mind, history kept telling me that many other novels have started out in the stratosphere only to plummet to the bottom of the ocean. Milan Kundera's 'Immortality', starts great, gets better, and ended with a lump in my throat, and a soul that was struck by a chord. No actually, forget the single chord, this was more like an Orchestra going in full swing. Kundera has worked wonders here.
Wonderful, clever, with so many great quotes. My favourite: I forbid you to use the stupid word symbolthats how terrorist organizations think! Thats how politicians think, who are nowadays nothing but symbol-jugglers! I have the same contempt for people who hang national flags from their windows as for people who burn them in public squares.
I am passing through a really difficult time in my life, and just for saying a little summary of my whole situation, I dont know where I am right now. But I found myself in this book.The thing about reading is going throughout the labyrinth in your head, exploring it, until you find something new.This book, so far, is the best thing i've ever read. I don't know any other novels of this author, and is maybe because of that that I loved so much this book. His psychological style, his way in which
On one level you could reduce this novel to the sour grapes of a man whos getting old and losing his privileged place in the world. Not that this belittles its aspiration or wisdom because how the self changes with age, how the declining façade impacts the core, is a fascinating and rich subject. Kundera suggests the self doesnt significantly change from within but rather is bullied out of its natural gait by the way people see us, by the images they impose on us. Even we ourselves are
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.