Neither its characters nor most of its leitmotifs are echoed anywhere else in the book. But Part 6 also sags. It is merely an episode. As such it serves mainly to create the impression that in writing it Mr. Kundera has been defiantly avant-garde. Still, it seems only fair to let him make one other point.
Episodes are like land mines.
The majority of them never explode, but the most unremarkable of them may someday turn into a story that will prove fateful to you. But for now it remains the relatively weak part of an otherwise strong and mesmerizing novel.