A dazzling collection of stories - originally banned in 1968 Prague - by a 'magnificent short-story writer' (NYT) and author of classic The Unbearable Lightness of Being. 'Kundera is a self-confessed hedonist in a world beset by politics . . . Marvellous.' Salman Rushdie 'Kundera's achievement has been to bring both private life and political life into one comic framework.' Ian McEwan On holiday, a man and his girlfriend pretend she is a hitchhiking stranger - but their game soon makes them strangers to each other. One young man reconnects with his grieving former lover, only to be shocked by her ageing body. Two friends embark on an obsessive mission to seduce as many women as possible in the Eternal Chase. A teacher fakes piety to seduce a devoutly religious girl: then jilts her and yearns for God. In these celebrated stories, Kundera probes our darkest erotic impulses and most destructive sexual fantasies - while seducing us with his graceful, whimsical prose.
I usually have a backlog of bought books that are unread. What got me started on this one was that it was banned after publication. The stories are lengthy and unfold at a lazy pace. They all have an overt or covert tone of sex/love/sexuality. However, this is not erotica, not even remotely close. The characters and plot is under the constant shadow of the overarching theme of sexuality.
I must warn that these stories will almost certainly irk feminists. The women characters seem to be eithe...