“For Kundera, national identity is invested in the vibrancy of expression, i.e., the arts.

About the West, he says, ‘I think I know only that culture has bowed out.’ Without culture comes the Soviet model: ‘the smallest variety within the greatest space.’

Kundera's novels are famous for their musical forms, for the way they play with contrapuntal themes without quite resolving them. "In the realm of totalitarian kitsch," he wrote in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, "all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions. It follows, then, that the true opponent of totalitarian kitsch is the person who asks questions."

~Steven G. Kellman #reading #bookreview A KIDNAPPED WEST

The Tragedy of Central Europe by Milan Kundera (Translated by Linda Asher and Edmund White)