Farewell to the waltz

Author: Milan Kundera
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: In a sense, this book can almost be called the author's most cherished novel. Like The Laughing Love, the author found it incredibly amusing to write, more fun than when working on other novels. It's a different state of mind. Great European novels are a form of entertainment, and all true novelists cherish this aspect! Yet, entertainment does not exclude gravity. In this book, the author grapples with the question: Are humans worthy of surviving on Earth? Shouldn't we "save the Earth from the claws of humanity"? Combining exceptionally heavy themes with exceptionally light forms has always been the author's ambition. This is not merely an artistic ambition. The juxtaposition of light forms and heavy themes reveals the utter meaninglessness of our human drama—everything that unfolds in our beds is just as meaningless as the performances we put on on the historical stage—and to an alarming degree.