A Favorite of 8,
Read by 64,
Owned by 47,
Reviewed by 1,
Quotes 7
A young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover--these are the two couples whose story is told in this masterful novel. In...(more) a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous events, a world in which everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence, we feel "the unbearable lightness of being" not only as the consequence of our private actions, but also in the public sphere, and the two inevitably intertwine.(less)
synopsis: four lovers, during the time of the russian communist revolution, find, through their lives, that the difference between negative/postive or weight/lightness is not that much and what is commonly perceived as good is not necessarily good.
furthermore, this book discusses the idea of “einmal is keinmal” basically, life is meaningless because it is so transient. one life is insufficient to experience; more importantly, one life is insufficient to judge whether actions are correct or not. history is the same way.
writing style: though intelligent, easy to read. in a “life is meaningless” type of way, stories are interwoven. while the path is more or less chronological, sometimes endings of the stories are revealed in the middle of another story with no further explanation. it takes away the shock value, the kitsch.
rereadability: yes
key points: tomas writes a thesis about how “i didn't know” is not an acceptable excuse. example being, oedipus, who poked his yees out after he realized that his wife was his mother; how people realize they are in love; franz realizing that his actions are really meaningless, but under the situation: is it better to playact or to do nothing?
quotes:
“The weighty resolution is at one with the voice of Fate; necessity, weight and value are three concepts inextricably bound: only necessity is heavy, and only what is heavy has value” (33).
“Any schoolboy can do experiments in the physics laboratory to test various scientific hypotheses. But man, because he has only one life to live, cannot conduct experiments to test whether to follow his passion (compassion) or not” (34).
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synopsis: four lovers, during the time of the russian communist revolution, find, through their lives, that the difference between negative/postive or weight/lightness is not that much and what is commonly perceived as good is not necessarily good.
furthermore, this book discusses the idea of “einmal is keinmal” basically, life is meaningless because it is so transient. one life is insufficient to experience; more importantly, one life is insufficient to judge whether actions are correct or not. history is the same way.
writing style: though intelligent, easy to read. in a “life is meaningless” type of way, stories are interwoven. while the path is more or less chronological, sometimes endings of the stories are revealed in the middle of another story with no further explanation. it takes away the shock value, the kitsch.
rereadability: yes
key points: tomas writes a thesis about how “i didn't know” is not an acceptable excuse. example being, oedipus, who poked his yees out after he realized that his wife was his mother; how people realize they are in love; franz realizing that his actions are really meaningless, but under the situation: is it better to playact or to do nothing?
quotes:
“The weighty resolution is at one with the voice of Fate; necessity, weight and value are three concepts inextricably bound: only necessity is heavy, and only what is heavy has value” (33).
“Any schoolboy can do experiments in the physics laboratory to test various scientific hypotheses. But man, because he has only one life to live, cannot conduct experiments to test whether to follow his passion (compassion) or not” (34).