Laughable Loves (Paperback)

by Milan Kundera (Author) "Pour me some more slivovitz," said Klara, and I wasn't against it..." (more)
Key Phrases: chief physician, woman doctor, Don Juan, Comrade Lecturer, Visual Arts (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"An intellectual heavyweight and a pure literary virtuoso, Milan Kundera takes some of Freud's most cherished complexes and irreverently whirls them about in acts of legerdemain that capture our darkest, deepest human passionsThe tales in Laughable Loves surprise and illuminateKundera's world is complex, full of mockeries and paradoxes. Life is often brutal and humiliating; it is often blasphemous, funny, irritating." -- Abe Ravitz, Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Buoyantly energetic and virtuosic." -- Walter Clemons, Newsweek

Product Description
Milan Kundera is a master of graceful illusion and illuminating surprise. In one of these stories a young man and his girlfriend pretend that she is a stranger he picked up on the road--only to become strangers to each other in reality as their game proceeds. In another a teacher fakes piety in order to seduce a devout girl, then jilts her and yearns for God. In yet another girls wait in bars, on beaches, and on station platforms for the same lover, a middle-aged Don Juan who has gone home to his wife. Games, fantasies, and schemes abound in all the stories while different characters react in varying ways to the sudden release of erotic impulses.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (August 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060997036
• ISBN-13: 978-0060997038
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #178,179 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engulfing tale of human passions, August 28, 1999

By	Elena Chavez (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

I can not stop wondering how Milan Kundera takes penetrating glimpses at love's triumphs and tragedies that we so often pass by without any acknowledgement. In the love stories of ordinary people he brings up the desperate longing for closeness and warmth of having a partner by one's side; a partner in love or friendship to find a shelter from everything else. The eroticism of the book is not just a sexual instinct of a male. It envelopes the reader in a sad and sweet embrace of the mundane events drenched with it; the events that we fail to recognize as turning points of our lives. Milan Kundera seems to be saying every time, "Look around! You do not have to watch movies to experince strong passions because they are around you every single minute."

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant insight into the male mindset in times of love, August 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Laughable Loves (Paperback)

This is a collection of short stories about love particularly from the male perspective. Each looks at contrasting different aspects of love with unnerving verisimilitude. Kundera's observation of human behaviour is startingly accurate as he deftly unravels the male psyche; the female characters are no more idly portrayed either. The prose is lucid, elegant and concise, as is the situational complicity of each plot. This book shows how men are consumed by, and can be crippled by love (in a way that many women think impossible) and how this can tenuously result in them acting as they do - often as irreverent, cold-hearted bastards. Women, read this to understand your hubby/men in general; men, read this to know that you are not alone.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a playful and ironic read, July 10, 2002

By	EJR (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

Kundera puts some of his favorite themes to work in a playful way, as suggested by the title. Throughout the seven short stories in Laughable Loves Kundera highlights the role that mutual misunderstandings play in the creation of seemingly profound, heroic, self-congratulatory experiences, especially where love is concerned. Several tales are heavily ironic: wonderful contradictions emerge when people who cannot take themselves seriously try desperately hard to do so in order to please the straightfaced world in which they find themselves stuck. Similarly, the plasticity of personality, the wispy, fleeting character of existence and the partnership between sadism and sexual desire permeate his plots. Kundera blurs the distinction between charade and authenticity creating the suspicion that human identities may be centerless webs of charades - yet this lack of depth need not be bleak or tragic: it can be liberating and beautiful.

These stories are a joy to read if you're in the mood for ambiguous endings and ironic humor. Although they lack the gravity of his full-length novels I think the short stories in Laughable Loves succeed: irony, not sublimity, is the goal. I gave it four stars because it didn't grip me the way some of Kundera's stuff has in the past while at the same time it was certainly fun (and often psychologically insightful) reading.