I have a lot to say about this book, but have had trouble putting it all together in an entry. Here's a try.
Kundera uses a number of techniques in this book, which he claims are "precisely what can only be expressed in a novel, so that every adaptation contains nothing but the non-essential" and is written "in such a way that [it] cannot be retold." He does this by interweaving multiple stories, putting the writer in the story, bringing a character in to serve a single purpose and telling the story out of sequence, among other things.
While some of this may be difficult in film, I've seen movies that do many of these things: Pulp Fiction and Memento tell stories out of sequence; Stranger than Fiction and Adaptation involve the writers in their stories; Crash and Pulp Fiction (again) interweave multiple story lines and there are numerous films where characters are introduced merely to play a single line ro scene. It may be a different experience than reading a book, but it can be done and it can be done well.
One particular scent in the book that i enjoyed was the interaction between Brigitte and her German tutor:
"It isn't logical, I know, but through the centuries this became the common usage," he said as if begging the young Frenchwoman to take pity on a language cursed by history.
"I'm glad that you admit it. It isn't logical. But a language
must be logical," Brigitte said.The young German agreed. "Unfortunately, we lack a Decartes. That's an unforgivable gap in our history. German lacks a tradition of reason and clarity, it's full of metaphysical mist and Wagnerian music, and we all know who was the greatest admirer of Wagner: Hitler!"
Of course, as soon as I read that, I laughed out loud, as I was instantly reminded of the similar internet meme. I am not sure is this is the source material (after a quick search via Google, I can't find any earlier references), or if it was rederived or if Kundera took it from somewhere else.
The introduction of this tutor is interesting for another reason, as aside from Göethe, he was the only German in the book (Agnes was Swiss). The tutor and his embarrassment of his own language stands in sharp contrast to Göethe, who, as a poet, knew the virtues of German and how to make it do what he wanted. The tutor, instead, was embarrassed by Hitler on behalf of his entire country, expecting little from a language used by such a universally understood evil man.
This brings me to the last scene---or set of scenes---that I want to address here: Göethe and Hemingway in heaven. I always enjoy when these sorts of thought experiments are done well, as it is here. When you enable cross-time-line people to interact, you allow not only a judgment backwards, but also one forwards. It is easy for a modern musician to give his opinion of Mozart, but it is far more interesting to ask what Mozart would think of Yo-yo Ma.
While Kundera didn't show us this initial interaction, he implies that it went well as Hemingway and Göethe end up being good friends. As Kundera mentions, it is silly to assume that in heaven, with all of time to choose from, one would only be friends with one's contemporaries. But, I am left to wonder if Göethe remained friendless up to that point when Hemingway arrived.
I really enjoyed this book. I had some trouble with the bits about Göethe since I had little-to-no knowledge about him. I liked how the story lines lapped over the other and intertwined in the head of the author. A great read.
8/10
