Ignorance

Author: Milan Kundera
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: The theme of Ignorance evokes Kundera's own life of exile, making one feel that it is a work as deeply personal as The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The autobiographical elements in this novel are particularly striking. "What makes Ignorance truly remarkable is Kundera's restraint in handling the theme, despite its being deeply moving for the author." Kundera's French publisher, Gallimard, highly praised him, stating, "Kundera's creation is unique in this century, like a new form of 'picaresque novel'—living while simultaneously explaining life. Ignorance is an affecting novel, close to his previous two works. We believe it can form a trilogy with Slow and Identity, with the themes of separation, displacement, and characters rediscovering themselves through memory." Kundera's books typically sell over 150,000 copies. In one year, Ignorance alone has sold 200,000 copies in France, and to date, it has been published in 37 countries and regions worldwide in different translations. The theme of Ignorance is homesickness, another story of Ulysses. Elena and Josef return to their homeland of the Czech Republic after 20 years apart. They meet by chance at the Prague airport—they once had a brief encounter but never developed it into love. In their homeland, painful realities confront them as their interrupted stories cannot be, and their hope for "return" remains unfulfilled, leaving them unable to reconcile with the part of themselves left behind in Prague. Like Ulysses returning home 20 years later, though the people of his homeland still remember him, there is no nostalgia for him. Ulysses, however, is consumed by nostalgia, a suffering born not from mutual ignorance or inability to understand each other.