Thursday, January 31, 2008

The Joke - Milan Kundera

So I went to india and like tang san zhang (or whoever that monk man is from journey to the west) I brought back a treasure trove of knowledge and wisdom. Some of the best books I've read. Here goes.

The Joke by Milan Kundera. This is a thoroughly amazing book, in so many ways. It is at once both sad and funny. I was quite stunned upon finishing the book, simply by how good it was. Milan Kundera has this ability to somehow.. I don't know, sum up maybe, Man and his failings, his idiosyncrasies, his loss.

Everyone has thoughts they are unable to put into words. It could be something very significant, an intense emotion or feeling that you have but cannot articulate, or something that doesn't really affect you all that much, something absolutely mundane. Somehow you cannot seem to find the right words to describe it.

The ability to translate these.... indescribable emotions or thoughts, into words on a page is possessed by only a rare few. It's magical, and in this author we have a magician extraordinaire.

Definitely, read this book. I guess that's the only thing I have left worth saying. Haha. Do keep in mind though that it's a translation, from I don't know Czech or French or something, so the translator too is magnifique!

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