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The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Franz often spoke about his mother to Sabina, perhaps even with a certain unconscious ulterior motive he assumed that Sabina would be charmed by his ability to be faithful, that it would win her over.

What he did not know was that Sabina was charmed more by betrayal than by fidelity. The word "fidelity" reminded her of her father, a small-town puritan, who spent his Sundays painting away at canvases of woodland sunsets and roses in vases. Thanks to him, she started drawing as a child. When she was fourteen, she fell in love with a boy her age. Her father was so frightened that he would not let her out of the house by herself for a year. One day,. he showed her some Picasso reproductions and made fun of them. If she couldn't love her fourteen-year-old schoolboy, she could at least love cubism. After completing school, she want off to Prague with the euphoric feeling that now at last she could betray her home.

Betrayal. From tender youth we are told by father and teacher that betrayal is the most heinous offense imaginable. But what is betrayal? Betrayal means breaking ranks. Betrayal means breaking ranks and going off into the unknown. Sabina knew of nothing more magnificent than going off into the unknown.

When I was in high school we had to do a group project on the author of our choice. A group of three girls chose Milan Kundera. At the time, a movie of one of his books was playing in theaters in Turkey and you had to be eighteen or older to get in. Not that it means anything there since most such rules are not enforced. I always had a negative impression of this author as his two passions, sex and politics, don't fall within my area of interest (at least in reading). But as they presented The Joke, another book by him, it sounded really interesting, so I walked up to my classmate after class and asked to borrow her English book. At the time, it was harder to find English books. She told me that I really should read The Unbearable Lightness of Being if I wanted to read Kundera. I whined but decided to take her suggestion anyhow. I must say that, to date, this is one of the most thought-provoking books I've ever read. Since then I've become a huge Kundera fan and would recommend him with enthusiasm.

It's really hard to pick an excerpt from The Unbearable Lightness of Being since there are so many amazing parts and also because I've read the book such a long time ago. But here's one and I hope you enjoy it.