Milan Kundera, Literary Giant
2023 The Year of Song and Verse
Kundera dominated my 20s and 30s. As soon as a new book came out, I would call my friends John and Nancy to discuss the novel as they got immediately and read it. His books never backed away from tyrannies, the threat of real socialistic state, nasty forms of nostalgia, permanent childishness or brutishness.
His books tell the tales of soviet erasure of history, of island of the childishness, forms of loyalty that differentiate at the line of sex and love. He never stepped away from the strength of the masculine or the allures of the feminine.
I looked through the list of his fiction I have read and reread them all. They all are important in historic and literary significance. For me he was the free voice of Europe which would not be quieted or enslaved.
My personal favorites are Ignorance, The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Festival of Insignificance.