num_pages: 237
description: Rich in its stories, characters, and imaginative range, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is the novel that brought Milan Kundera his first big international success in the late 1970s. Like all his work, it is valuable for far more than its historical implications. In seven wonderfully integrated parts, different aspects of human existence are magnified and reduced, reordered and emphasized, newly examined, analyzed, and experienced."The Book of Laughter and Forgetting calls itself a novel, although it is part fairy tale, part literary criticism, part political tract, part musicology, and part autobiography. It can call itself whatever it wants to, because the whole is genius…I ought to invoke Günter Grass and Garcia Marquez, because Mr. Kundera belongs in their demonic company." -- John Leonard, The New York Times
language: English
title: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
titlecomplete: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (Writers from the Other Europe)
characters: Mirek, Tamina, Znedna
genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Philosophy, Literature, Czech Literature, Classics, Novels, Contemporary, 20th Century, Literary Fiction
ratings_count: 47913
places: Prague (Praha)
awards: awardedAt: 441792000000
name: Los Angeles Times Book Prize
category: Fiction
publisher: Penguin Books