I don’t know why people say this is Kundera’s best book. I mean, it’s good, but it’s not any better than his slimmer books. Anyway yeah I love the way his narrator sounds in all of his novels–he doesn’t mind getting off-task for a moment or thinking out loud about his own musings.

Tomas sucks (he’s a hoe and didn’t raise his kid from a previous relationship), but his wife, Tereza, is cool. The best part of the book is her relationship to animals. She has this great connection with her dog, with a dying pigeon, etc. The best line of the book is Tomas telling his estranged, adult son (who has no idea his wife once tried to save a pigeon that kids were torturing): “‘it is much more important to dig a half-buried crow out of the ground… than to send the petitions to a president'” (219-20).

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P.S. I have a book out that’s about dating as a single mother. It’s available here and here and in person if you’re located near me in New Jersey.