A prolific attempt to identify what makes us need companionship in life so badly. Kundera explores psychology of his characters to an amazing depth, trying to understand the relationships between the conflicting desires that we human possess and act upon. What makes a man leave the woman that he loves and is perfectly happy with and seek something intangible in arms of a mistress? Why does the same man sacrifice everything he has - freedom, social status, and his life's work - only to go back to the same woman he absolutely had to leave before? Is any kind of a permanent responsibility bound to eventually become a horrible "weight" - a burden pulling us to the ground? Is the absence of any responsibilities and ties in life really "light"? Could this absolute lightness turn into absolute emptiness and thus become unbearable at some point? Kundera brilliantly examines all these questions, and often comes up with mesmerizing insights of what being human is all about. Unbearable Lightness Of Being is fabulously humane and kind, showing how vulnerable we are, and how miserable we can be made by our contradictory desires and aspirations. I am convinced that anyone who reads deep enough into this novel will be shocked many a times, and will incredulously mutter: "Oh, my God! Kundera is talking about me!"
