The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (Perennial Classics) - Softcover

Kundera, Milan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060932147 ISBN 13: 9780060932145

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 1999

Synopsis

Commissioned and closely monitored by Milan Kundera himself, this new translation brings a clarity and unmatched fidelity to the author's original text. Widely held as a work of genius, "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" is the novel that first brought him to the forefront of the international literary scene. Rich in stories, characters and imaginative range, it was written while Kundera was still forbidden to publish in his home country of Czechoslovakia, which was then behind the Iron Curtain. In seven wonderfully integrated parts, different aspects of modern existence -- from the posthumous erasure of "enemies" of communism from the historical record, to the subtle agony of the fading memory of a lost love, to the bizarre sexlessnes of modern promiscuity -- are explored with boldness, subversive humor and the magical power of fiction.

About this title

Review:

""The Book of Laughter and Forgetting calls itself a novel, although it is part fairy tale, part literary criticism, part political tract, part musicology, and part autobiography. It can call itself whatever it wants to, because the whole is genius.""-- New York Times""This book, as it bluntly calls itself, is brilliant and original, written with the purity and wit that invite us directly in."-- John Updike, "New York Times Book Review"

Book Description:

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera is the most secret of the acclaimed Czech writer's novels. This new translation is the first to be fully authorized by Milan Kundera.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0060932147
• ISBN 13: 9780060932145
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320