Format: 8th trade paperback printing

Condition: Near fine, light edge and corner wear, price sticker on rear cover.

Product dimensions: n/a

Publishing Info: Penguin, New York

Language: English

ISBN - 13: 9780140064704

 

Kundera initially intended to call this novel The Lyrical Age. The lyrical age, according to Kundera, is youth, and this novel, above all, is an epic of adolescence; an ironic epic that tenderly erodes sacrosanct values: childhood, motherhood, revolution, and even poetry. Jaromil is in fact a poet. His mother made him a poet and accompanies him (figuratively) to his love bed, and (literally) to his deathbed. A ridiculous and touching character, horrifying and totally innocent ("innocence with its bloody smile"!), Jaromil is at the same time a true poet. He's no creep, he's Rimbaud. Rimbaud entrapped by the communist revolution, entrapped in a sombre farce. 

 

The Guardian feature on Kundera

 

NY Times interview

 

The Paris Review interview excerpt

 

More from Kundera on shopbooks