List Based On Books Immortality
| Title | : | Immortality |
| Author | : | Milan Kundera |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe 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 |
Milan Kundera
Paperback | Pages: 400 pages Rating: 4.14 | 28808 Users | 1599 Reviews
Interpretation As 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.Mention 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 Based On Books Immortality
Ratings: 4.14 From 28808 Users | 1599 ReviewsPiece Based On Books Immortality
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 areWhen I first began this book, I thought of it as "enchantingly odd." It's not a light read by any means. But I quickly grew mesmerized by the book, in part because Kundera weaves together a brilliant plot while also offering his philosophies on the characters' actions and behaviors. So instead of merely describing what people do (which would be interesting enough), he beautifully describes the enduring meaning and themes of these behaviors. For example, in one part, a character decides he no
This 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.
I have to say I was won over by the book. At first, it annoyed me -- I thought Kundera was trying to be clever. But then as I continued reading I realised the overall structure of the novel, and I realised he wasn't trying to be clever: he was sincerely trying to understand desire and love. Kundera is very intelligent and it shows -- there is a lot one could think about with regards to love and desire -- a lot of interesting ideas in the novel which he tries to understand. He is not really the
Read in two halves, two months apart. In February I was quite intensely irritated, and marked the book two stars... You know those reviews of Nausea and L'Étranger, in which people say the likes of "I used to think this way when I was younger, but it's a bit shit"? (c.f. Hanif Kureishi: "The cruellest thing you can do to Kerouac is re-read him at 38.") I still appreciate those books, but this one looked like my equivalent. I wasn't a teenage existentialist but I was a teenage narcissist, and
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.
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