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Loading... The Joke (1967)by Milan Kundera
  
No current Talk conversations about this book.  palaverofbirds | Mar 29, 2013 |  This is Kundera's first and, in my opinion, best novel. (Later he became better at aphorisms than stories.) This novel has more beauty in it than all the others combined, and the irony/tragedy is more effective than in the others because it unfolds with the story, catching both the protagonist and the reader off guard. If you're like me, this book will convince you to love Czech folk music before you've even heard it. (  )1  Muscogulus | Mar 3, 2013 | It is important to understand how The Joke is organized because to just read it without paying attention is like landing in a foreign country and driving without a map. The book is in seven parts, each part being the point of view of a different character until the 7th part. It reads like a musical quartet with Ludvik, Helena, Jaroslav and Kostka all give their perception of "the joke." The story starts with Ludvik returning to his hometown after 15 years and knowing no one. He reminiscences about a joke gone horribly wrong. But when the reader gets to part II the point of view has changed without announcement. Only by paying attention to the table of contents do we know we are now getting someone else's perception of the joke. While there are many jokes throughout the story it is important to note the original joke stems from a postcard Ludvik has written a classmate implying he is a Trotskyite. (  ) SeriousGrace | Sep 14, 2012 | a black comedy of life in stalinist eastern europe. i read it twice for school, and enjoyed it both times. but it is so so frustrating, and i wish kundera were a little more fair to his female characters. ( ) eas311 | Jul 12, 2010 | A tremendously subtle book about human relationships, politics, history, & very much more. It impressed me profoundly, the best of three Kunderas I have read so far. (  ) marek2009 | Nov 8, 2009 | no reviews | add a review Is contained in
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 006099505X, Paperback)All too often, this brilliant novel of thwarted love and revenge miscarried has been read for its political implications. Now, a quarter century after The Joke was first published and several years after the collapse of the Soviet-imposed Czechoslovak regime, it becomes easier to put such implications into perspective in favor of valuing the book (and all Kundera 's work) as what it truly is: great, stirring literature that sheds new light on the eternal themes of human existence. The present edition provides English-language readers an important further means toward revaluation of The Joke. For reasons he describes in his Author's Note, Milan Kundera devoted much time to creating (with the assistance of his American publisher-editor) a completely revised translation that reflects his original as closely as any translation possibly can: reflects it in its fidelity not only to the words and syntax but also to the characteristic dictions and tonalities of the novel's narrators. The result is nothing less than the restoration of a classic. (retrieved from Amazon Mon, 30 Sep 2013 13:53:46 -0400) Set in Stalinist Czechoslovakia during the 1950s, this tragicomedy revolves around the consequences of a single joke: a young man, is expelled from university and the Communist party and sentenced to six years hard labor for an irreverent postcard he sends to a lady friend. This leaves him cynical, bitter, and out for revenge.… (more) |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
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Why this book's rating lies below four stars befuddles me. It's an exciting and provocative tale of the dehumanization of a person by an autocratic state. Fuck 1984 and Brave New World; Kundera saw them all and raised. (