The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Resources

Websites

Hungry for More?

Check out our guide to Milan Kundera's smash hit The Unbearable Lightness of Being. You're gonna need some help with that book, anyway.

The 411

This well-designed site offers biographical info, photos, and book cover art.

Movie or TV Productions

Filmography

While The Book of Laughter and Forgetting has never made it to the silver screen, Kundera has a whole slew of works that have—most famously The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Articles and Interviews

Arts and Crafts

For this Paris Review interview with Milan Kundera, the interviewer brought a typewriter and some office supplies, and together with Kundera pieced together the text for the article.

Relevant? Or Rubbish?

A chunky article on whether or not Kundera's written works have held up since the '80s—and whether or not all that violence against women in his books is really a problem.

Are We Still Talking About This?

When Kundera's latest book, called The Festival of Insignificance, was released in 2015, it made smart people wonder just how relevant this author's work is for readers today. This article will bring you up to speed on the chatter about Kundera's books and what those in the know really think about the importance of his works.

Shady Kundera

Researcher Adam Hradilek attempts to shed some light on what's quite possibly Kundera's least finest hour: the denunciation of a Czech spy to the Communist Party. Kundera's reclusive behavior and unwillingness to speak of the incident seem to confirm his bad behavior—but will we ever know the truth?

Redeemed Kundera?

After Adam Hradilek published his piece on the possibility that Kundera denounced a fellow Czech to the Communists back in the 1950s, Kundera broke his silence on the subject.

What Is Home?

Kundera speaks to Jane Kramer of The New York Times on various bits of his life, but perhaps the most riveting part of this interview happens when he gets to talking about the word "home" and what it means to him now.

From One Ridiculously Famous Author to Another

Renowned author John Updike gives The Book of Laughter and Forgetting a thorough review.

Video

Mod Man

Okay, real talk: this interview with Kundera in 1968 is in French with English subtitles. But we think that watching a young Kundera balance on a see-through inflatable chair is probably worth the slog.

A Mad Dance

Here you will find a short clip of Jaromil Jires' adaptation of Kundera's novel The Joke. In this snippet, Jires brings to life the manic dancing in occupied Czechoslovakia that Kundera mentions in The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.

Audio

How and What to Read, Kundera Edition

As part of a review of Kundera's The Festival of Insignificance, BBC personalities discuss their favorites of Kundera's earlier works.

Heroism, a Generation Later

Kundera mentions the execution of Milada Horakova in The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Radio Prague conducts an interview with Horakova's daughter, Jana, who was only 15 when her mother lost her life for speaking out against Communism.

Images

A Sense of Place

Click through this site to get a glimpse of Prague's landmarks (some mentioned in The Book of Laughter and Forgetting), including the awesome Prague Castle complex, Charles Bridge, and the famous astronomical clock.

Photoshopping, Back in the Day

If you scroll down the page a bit, you'll see the photos of Gottwald and Clementis (before and after Clementis' fall from grace) that Kundera obsesses over in his book.