“The novel’s spirit is the spirit of complexity. Every novel says to the reader: ‘Things are not as simple as you think.’ That is the novel’s eternal truth, but it grows steadily hard to hear amid the din of the easy, quick answers that come faster than the questions and block it off. In the spirit of our time, it’s either Anna or Karenin who is right, and the ancient wisdom of Cervantes, telling us about the difficulty of knowing and the elusiveness of truth, seems cumbersome and useless.” (p. 18) When I read Milan Kundera’s The Art of the Novel translated from the French by Linda Asher, I learned a lot about James Joyce, Kafka, Laurence Stern, Robert Musil, Proust, and Thomas Mann. Kundera’s slim book (165 pages) is a very subjective look at the Novel. Fascinating, but I prefer a book with the same title, The Art of the Novel, written by Henry James. GRADE: B
Were those typos in the book?
Dan, my typing was affected by Diane’s Birthday Party. I shouldn’t try to post when under the influence.
Not writers I read really. Still maybe I would if I read his book.
Patti, Kundera is enthusiastic about all the writers he writes about. I was tempted to drop everything and reread James Joyce.
I liked James’s book too.
Jeff, Henry James is more to my taste than Milan Kundera. But Kundera has some unusual views of Literature and the Novel.
Turn off italics please!
Yeah–I don’t think this is a book to which I will be turning. I’ve had trouble getting into Kundera’s work in the past. It seems to me that he comes up with an intriguing title (such as THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING) and then fails to deliver, so I think I’ll give this one a pass.
By the way, along the same lines, I would strongly recommend Jane Smiley’s 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A NOVEL, which I found very interesting.
Deb, thanks for the heads up on the italics. Italics doesn’t show up in EDIT MODE (which I’m in most of the time) so I don’t know when italics or bold is running amok. I’m with you on Jane Smiley’s 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A NOVEL. It’s a terrific book.
George, I’d eventually like to read both this and Henry James’s book.
Prashant, both books will give you much to ponder.
As with others, not an author list I’d lean towards when picking something to read. I read a little of some of them in college lit classes, and that was enough.
Rick, Kundera prefers Modernist writers. I’m not as enthusiastic about them as he is.
I know a guy with an entire wall of books on writing. He doesn’t write. Too busy reading how, I suppose.
Bob, I’m always interested in what real writers have to say about their craft.