The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Because of its successful film adaption, The Unbearable Lightness of Being has become Milan Kundera’s most well-known novel. Set in the thrilling historical moment of the 1968 Prague Spring, Kundera uses a somewhat conventional love affair as the narrative hook to explore (and argue against) Nietzsche’s philosophy of eternal return. The book’s core philosophy — that we only live once, that everything is transient, but yet that this knowledge can bring about a certain freedom or “lightness” in our approach toward life — is an important one. However, Kundera’s handling of it in the story is a bit too formulaic.