The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a story about four miserable souls who, at some point in their lives, have either cheated on their spouse or had an affair with a married person.

My shorter summary is, this is a story about selfishness and, maybe, love.

There are probably discussions about life or something too in the book, but they all graciously went over my head.

So, the time is 1960s. Tomas is a Czech surgeon living in Prague, and he's also a womanizer. He meets Tereza and they apparently fall in love. The two get married, but Tomas continues to sleep with other women, which Tereza pretends to ignore. He also has an affair with a painter named Sabina, whom he considers a friend -- a relationship that started before he met Tereza.

After the Russian invasion, Tomas and Tereza escape to Zurich. By this time, Sabina has also moved to Geneva. The womanizing continues, and eventually Tomas rekindles his affair with Sabina. A few years later, Tereza returns to Prague, leaving Tomas in Switzerland. Apparently, Tomas still loves Tereza, so he also returns to Prague, looking for her. Apparently — because, I'm sorry, how do you keep saying you love someone if you cannot stop cheating on that person??? Because guess what, back in Prague, Tomas still cannot not sleeping with other women!

In Geneva, Sabina also has an affair with a married uni professor named Franz. Of course. The next day after Franz tells his wife about his affair, Sabina leaves him. His wife refuses to divorce him, so they live separately, with Franz now goes to have an affair with one of his students.

Imagining this is something that Sabina would want him to do, Franz accepts an invitation to join the Grand March in Cambodia to get international doctors to enter the country, which is now occupied by Vietnam. One participant dies from a blown landmine on the path of the march, and the group fails to cross the border. Stopping in Bangkok, Franz is killed in a mugging.

In Prague, Tomas and Tereza get tangled in a political situation. Tomas once wrote an anti-communist letter to a newspaper, and he's now asked to retract his stance. Refusing to do so, Tomas leaves his medical job and becomes a window cleaner. One thing that doesn't change: he still sleeps with other women.

Tereza also sleeps with another man, once: her customer from the bar she works at. She's later convinced that the encounter was set up by the secret police to blackmail her.

Tomas is contacted by his now grown son from his first marriage. The son and an editor ask him to do something for them, also for political reasons. Tired of being threatened and pulled into other people's directions, Tomas and Tereza decide to leave the city and live a quiet life in the country. They seem, finally, to be less miserable there, so at least the story gives us that.

But probably just like this post, it's still a sad, long read.

Image: Harper & Row