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Farewell Waltz

A Novel

By Milan Kundera

(22)

| Paperback | 9780060997007

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Book Description

"It is hard to imagine anything more chilling and profound than Kundera's apparent lightheartedness."'Elizabeth PochodaIN this dark farce of a novel, set in an old-fashioned Central Euroepean spa town, eight characters are swept up in an accelerating dance: a pretty nurse and her repairman bContinue

"It is hard to imagine anything more chilling and profound than Kundera's apparent lightheartedness."'Elizabeth PochodaIN this dark farce of a novel, set in an old-fashioned Central Euroepean spa town, eight characters are swept up in an accelerating dance: a pretty nurse and her repairman boyfriend; an oddball gynecologist; a rich Amrican (at once saint and Don Juan); a popular trumpeter and his beautiful, obsessively jealous wife; an unillusioned former political prisoner about to leave his country and his young woman ward.Perhaps the most brilliantly plotted and sheerly entertaining of Milan Kundera's novels, Farewell Waltz poses the most serious questions with a blasphemous lightness that makes us see that the modern world has deprived us even of the right to tragedy.Written in Bohemia in 1969-70, this book was first published (in 1976) in France under the title La valse aux adieux (Farewell Waltz), and later in thirty-four other countries. This beautiful new translation, made from the French text prepared by the novelist himself, fully reflects his own tone and intentions. As such it offers an opportunity for both the discovery and the rediscovery of one of the very best of a great writer's works."Kundera remains faithful to this subtle, wily, devious talent for a fiction of `erotic possibilities.' "'New York Times Book Review"Farewell Waltz shocks. Black humor. Farcical ferocity. Admirably tender portraits of women." 'Le Point (Paris)"After Farewell Waltz there cannot be any doubt. Kundera is a master of contemporary literature. This novel is both an example of virtuosity and a descent into the human soul."'L'Unit, (Paris)

3 Reviews

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  • In this story spanning 5 days, our great writer Milan Kundera cleverly played the role of God. This is a very lovely book on coincidence that how people intervene each other without their knowing.

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    fruit said on May 16, 2009 | 2 feedbacks

  • The dancers tread on each other's toes

    A long time ago I was a big Milan Kundera fan - and his profferings were part of a raft of cultural goods that seemed to proclaim the utter enlightenment, chic and profundity of Eastern European intellectualism, along with such as the director of the 'Three Colours' films, Krzysztof Kieslowski, and ... (continue)

    A long time ago I was a big Milan Kundera fan - and his profferings were part of a raft of cultural goods that seemed to proclaim the utter enlightenment, chic and profundity of Eastern European intellectualism, along with such as the director of the 'Three Colours' films, Krzysztof Kieslowski, and the maker of Kolya, Jan Sverák

    This is an awkward, wooden tale, not I think served well by its translator (my edition is an earlier one than this): a disappointing read - the ironies are laboured, the action overly stage-managed (you can feel Kundera's own film training seeping through), and the conclusions banal.

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    OwnedLibrarian said on Jun 9, 2008 | Add your feedback

  • The characters are great though I didn't like Ruzena very much. Touching on topics like infidelity, betrayal and politics, Kundera once again shows he's a literary genius. The twist in the plot was also really surprising and interesting.

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    shazzpezzazz said on Jan 3, 2007 | Add your feedback

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