At 94, ill for years and gradually losing speech and sense of reality, Milan Kundera, the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being and of The art of the novel, novelist of irony, nuance and ambiguity, is “no longer there”. Journalist at world of books, Florence Noiville was able to penetrate the intimacy of the Franco-Czech novelist and essayist thirty years ago. Both an investigation and a biographical essay, Milan Kundera. “Writing, what a funny idea! » mixes memories of his many meetings with the writer, travel stories (in Brno, Terezín or Prague), interviews with relatives and detailed reading of his work. A “literary walk in the work” and in Kundera’s intimacy, as rare as it is respectful, made possible thanks to Vera, the writer’s wife, “a real link between the author and his books” , who opened up his archives, his address book and his photo album. Even if “in the great Kunderian puzzle, there will always be pieces missing”…
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