Ignorance - Milan Kundera

The real review is under the picture, what I'm going to say here is just some extra stuff you don't really need to know (unless you really want to :D). I have read this book few months ago, when I had much less work/study commitment than I do now. I was satisfied overall, although the plot did not feel that elaborate in my opinion. For a quick reading, a summer reading, I recommend this book, it's "Light", if you don't enjoy it, you definitely won't regret reading it. Moreover, something in this story makes you want to finish it and know everything that is going to happen. Only way to find out what I am talking about, I guess it's to read it :) 

 

I read the book in French, for it was originally written in this language. I've known Kundera from "The unbearable lightness of being" (not the book unfortunately, but the movie with Daniel Day Lewis and Juliette Binoche in her very controversial role at the time), I had therefore high hopes for this book, but let's just say the book turned out to be ok. It's not "The unbearable lightness of being" for sure, but hey, who can write a book that good twice?! Let's be real :)

(Again my problem with cover images! seriously, can someone explain to me how does it relate to immigrants, nostalgia, ignorance?!!! How do you choose a cover pic for a book? This one really feels to me like it was chosen randomly which is a shame. Does anyone have an explanation? Please, do tell for it is very troubling for me when I see such covers and not understand the link with the story)

 

Kundera is a Czech author, married to a French translator (if I'm not mistaken). I felt the influence of his wife on his writing in the first pages of this book. I have no proof of that, I am just telling you how it felt when I was reading his explanation of the word "ignorance" and its link to "nostalgia" and the roots (spanish, greek, whatever) and meaning ("the suffering caused by an appeased yearning to return") and translation of this word etc. Honestly, this wasn't very amusing, it felt to me like I was reading the dictionary, I hated it! It was too long, and boring. Kundera had to convey to us the idea of suffering and yearning to homeland because the story deals with two immigrants returning home after the end of the communist regime. Everything he described about these characters with regards to how an expatriate feels, see things and thinks upon returning home felt very true and natural. I personally related to both characters having lived abroad (in France like Irina), and I can assure you that I felt exactly the same as them at the beginning of my coming back to Lebanon. Things changed with time, but I felt this book was telepathically written by me upon my return. To better explain myself: For writing this book, I felt like Kundera hopped onto a time machine, came to Lebanon soon after I have returned to it, telepathically read my mind, then went back and wrote his book. Clear enough? :D This is just to say how accurate his description of the thoughts and feelings of his main characters felt with regards to returning home (a home that is barely recognizable). But let's be real here, I guess the main reason behind Kundera nailing that part of the story was because he himself is an expatriate, who had left the country after the communist regime came to power. He now considers himself "French" (he became one) and feels like a stranger whenever he visits his homeland.

One of the major things that bothered me in this book was that a lot of his description of Frenchies attitudes (thoughts, reactions) was unfair (not to say rude, very rude). It felt very wrong to me when Kundera spoke about Frenchies because 1- he was generalizing and 2- I believe one should never drink from a well and then throw stones in it.

The historical background in this book, in addition to the sort of self inspired facts or events as well as the charm of  Prague or "La Bohème" constitute the strength of this book. Many ideas were also worth reflecting on, ones that deal with how people sharing a common memory remember it differently (that was excellently written). I was also surprised that the author spoke about male virginity knowing that I have only come up across books that deal with female virginity. I wasn't convinced however by the transformation of the evil virgin boy to a nice man, but I take into consideration that I can never understand what goes in boys/men' s minds the same way a man can never understand us ladies. This latter statement was very obvious in this book, where Kundera messed up big time (to say the least) in his representation of Irina. I mean I don't want to go into the details of the story but Irina is represented as a STUPID woman, one that has met a boy once (many many years ago more than what 20 years) and that has kept thinking about him carrying with her in her purse all the time an ash tray the only souvenir from that encounter. Moreover, she expects that guy, Josef whom she meets again in the book story to remember her and to start off together from that point. Later on, she is devastated when he doesn't even remember her name. Mr Kundera, I have one question for you: are you out of your mind? How do you want us to believe that? Do you really conceive us women as such? It feels like we stick to men and can never get them out of our minds. This is a bit psychotic if you would ask me. Besides why is the guy not represented as such? Finally, an ash tray?!!!!!!!!!!! not a napkin? not a pen? You've got to be kidding me!

Finally, one of the interesting characters in this book was teenager Josef's girlfriend. Briefly, Josef was a mean virgin boy who didn't love his girlfriend. On the opposite, that girl was head over heels for him. He manipulated her. He planned to hurt her in every possible way feigning the opposite. Anyone would have believed him, he was pretending he cared, he was pretending he loved her. I would have believed him. She did, and it almost killed her. She loved him so much she tried to commit suicide and fake it as an accident so that no one (especially him) would suffer for her. The girl was so good (innocent) that it makes you want to cry. Just try to imagine with me for a second that she dies for someone that wouldn't even remember her. It's just horrible. What is awful about it too is that the boy was so mean but felt so real. Boys that are evil are the best in planning stuff. No girl could ever see through them. So for all girls out there, keep always in mind that you might be sacrificing yourself for someone planning to hurt you, feigning that he loves you. Forget and move on, that's my advice to you and with it I conclude my review.