When I first read this book, I was struck by the humaness of Agnes and how her thoughts and feelings mirrored my own. It helped me bring my own struggle for immortality into focus and re-evaluate my goals in life. Immortality forces the reader to question him/herself. What am I suffering for? What do I desire? And, in the end, will it all have been worth it?
One of Kundera's greatest skills is to show the internal landscape of his characters, the very colours of their souls, and in so economical a fashion. A puppet master showing the strings, Kundera creates his main character from a gesture, with casual sleight of hand, and the main events for his story from half heard extracts of radio programmes.
There's plenty to chew over, even after finishing the book. My mind keeps coming back to the scene where Agnes imagines a stranger visiting her and asking her (in her husband's company) whether she wants to be together with him in her next incarnation in another world. The acid test for any love. She is faced with the dilemma of telling the truth and hurting Paul, or lying to save his feelings.Hmmm ... I wonder what what would my own answer be to the same question?
There are also some wonderfully quotable lines in the book and I kept finding myself reaching for a piece of paper to write down some of the best. I loved:- "Our heads are full of dreams, but our behinds drag us down like an anchor". How true!
Kundera is very good company and I enjoyed the book, but feel that "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" is by far the stronger novel.
