A Laugh to Think About

After reading The Kid Comes Back in December, I began reading Laughable Loves by Milan Kundera. I actually came to know this book in a laughable way. The same co-worker, who suggested I read the god-awful World War Z, propositioned that I read this; I took his testimonial with caution. Obviously that caution wore off extensively because I ended up buying the book. I hesitated for a few weeks but finally cracked it open. 

To my surprise it was indeed laughable but it was apparent to me that the writer’s experiences played a big role in his writing. Kundera a denizen of France was born in Czech a communist nation. He has written this book of short stories that reveal a lot about communism (the scary kind) and what it was/is like to live it through. While you do, and I did, laugh there was something in those laughable moments that wasn’t really funny. It almost made each snicker something like a guilty pleasure. The characters in each story begged for sympathy and a lift in morale. Even those who seemed moral in the end where not and those who seemed to have none to begin with, indeed did not.

Hitchhiking Games, was one of the stories that truly grasped me. Two young lovers headed for a long vacation on the coast, suffer an unfortunate circumstance. A game between two lovers turns into a bad dream over the course the evening. The woman-young, innocent and rare; the man- not so young, worldly, and passionate. Innocence is abandoned and trust and attraction deteriorate. True sadness is…well, I won’t spoil it for you.  I would urge to read the book; Milan Kundera has proven to be very intriguing.