All Things Yummy

Author: Milans Kundera
Started: January 14, 2003
Finished: January 23, 2003

Another interesting narrative. Throughout the book, Kundera puts the story aside to express his views on the world (including even things like, well, shit) and how he came to the story and the characters. He throws around his insights into love and life throughout the story of Tereza and Tomas (The copy I read had spelled Tomas as “Thomas” in one of the pages! ). As in Love in the Time of Cholera, one of the recurring idea is the concept of different types of love. Tereza is devoted to Tomas, while Tomas feels that physical love is not the same as romantic love. While Tereza’s one extra-marital affair is depicted almost as a violation and shakes her, Tomas has many lovers. Through these differences, the idea of heaviness/lightness is discussed. Being burdened by heaviness - responsibility, morality, etc - is not necessarily a bad thing, and throughout the book, we how the characters change as their burden changes and they make their decisions.

The main storyline - Tomas and Tereza’s life in Czechoslovakia and abroad around (and after) the Prague Spring - is the cornerstone on which many different ideas, insights, and analysis are thrown in. Kundera seems to be able to make the character come alive and make the readers feel completely empathetic with them, even though he describes (in the voice of the author) how these characters sprang into life when he wrote the book. One of Tomas’ lovers, Sabina, also plays a significant role in a sometimes intersecting secondary storyline along with her own lover Franz and even with Tereza.