A disturbing novel set in the late 60's and early 70's of Czechoslovakia which starts with Prague Spring. Prague Spring refers to the period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia which continued until the invasion of Russia. The story revolves around four central characters, Tomas, Tereza, Sabina and Franz. Kundera plays somersault with your mind referring to impenetrable theories of philosophy with the help of Parmenides, the ancient Greek philosopher from whom lightness was positive and heaviness negative. What is lightness..? The lack of an ultimate goal in life symbolizes lightness, if your are capable of altering yourself now and then and you live for the moment, it is lightness. Tomas and Sabina symbolize Parmenides' lightness in the novel. They practice polygamy and lack a goal in life which makes them travel around and they hate to settle down in life. Whereas Franz and Tereza represent heaviness. Franz hates to travel from one woman's bed to another and thus abandons his wife to join with his mistress. Tereza's affair with the engineer is portrayed as dangerous and sinful which leaves her terribly disturbed. While the novel gives you a good pleasure of eroticism and unbearable lust, it also teaches you the essence of living. At one point in the novel you start thinking about yourself and your ultimate meaning in life. Written in hard prose and with each sentence making you to think about random subjects, I tell you, this is one novel you must read before you die. If you wanna grab the whole meaning of it, read it at least five times in a stretch.
My connection with novel is a co incidence. I was finishing my Silent house and wandering around not knowing which one to read next. Then my cousin came in with a list of novels, in which this one was the first. Now the co incidence part. Here in the novel one of the central characters is Tomas, which is nothing but my Dad's name Thomas. Later in the novel Kundera introduces Tomas' long lost son Simon, which is my grandfather's name. So in fact i was reading about two characters whose names have got a significant meaning in my life. Kundera says, " Books are a symbol of a secret brotherhood". Here in the novel when Tomas meets Tereza in Prague, she was found carrying Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. So his attraction towards Tereza was eternal. Thomas, my Dad and Rose , my Mom can never imagine a life without books, were they met the same way Tomas and Tereza met ? During the course of this novel, I had to undergo terrible mental unrest that I almost drove one of my friends crazy with random irrelevant messages( which i normally do, but this time it reached its extremes) and philosophical thoughts. End result : She stopped talking to me. But Kundera is a writer who really matters, read him and if you go crazy, consider its time to think about lightness and heaviness.
- Nisanth Thomas
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