The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts

In The Curtain, which in fact is a series of separate pieces, each of which are further divided into component pieces, Kundera presents the novel and novelists in a tableau of history, politics, and culture. His manner is discursive. Among his shaggy dog elements: the novel as psychological exploration of character or as existential analysis; phenomenological observations on the workings of memory; Rabelais, Cervantes, and Hermann Broch (The Sleepwalkers) as stand-alone contributors to the nonlinear history of the novel, along with Sterne, Flaubert, Kafka, Carlos Fuentes, and more; the influence of national culture on art (the difference between French "vulgarity" and Central European "kitsch"); the innards of a novel's process, and the workings of prosai-comi-epic imagination ... It occurred to me, as I began to scribble notes on this or that observation, put so succinctly and well, that I hadn't felt the need to do that in a while, since reading E.M. Cioran's observations on life, in fact, and before that the aesthetic takes on visual art of Andre Malraux in Anti-Memoirs) and the comments on writing by Sartre in Why I Write. You can reread such books, as I expect I'll reread this one as well.I Think, Therefore Who Am I?

Milan Kundera's essay draws the curtain back to reveal the treasures of "die Weltliteratur" as he traces the threads of continuity in novels by Rabelais, Cervantes, Fielding, Dostoevsky, Kafka and many more. He eschews the cultural "isms" that weigh down our understanding of literature. Although a work of non-fiction, The Curtain is a beautiful exposition on aesthetics as it is applied not only to literature, but to music as well. Kundera tells us to read and re-read with new eyes, unfettered by pre-imposed cultural and socio-economic distinctions. As Kundera outlines the "fragility of human certainties" found is so much of the world's great literature and implores us to understand the true worth of the novel so that we can embrace both its history and its essence. This is a poetic work of literary criticism that will be a worthwhile read for anyone interested in literary art.

Reading THE CURTAIN is akin to what I would imagine it would be like to hear Kundera lecture to a small group about literature. The tone is really quite intimate. His prose incredibly lucid (as always) and his ideas are so clear.

This is billed as an essay in seven parts. I don't know how true that is because an essay should have a unifying thesis. This book is more like a meditation. The subject of the meditation? Art, history, politics...but mostly the novel. The title of the book reflects the way the world comes at us pre-interpreted. It is the job of the novel to tear through this curtain and see the world in a new way (he is obviously a fan of phenomenology). Kundera has many points to make about the novel, so it would be a disservice to try to sum them up. He asserts that tracing literature through individual countries is wrong - novelists know no nationalities. As in his own novels, Kundera is obsessed with the idea of kitsch. For him, Kitsch is the ultimate enemy of Art. I think he uses "kitsch" to mean mawkishness. I don't know if I ultimately agree with him - I appreciate some good kitsch now and again - but it is a useful concept to keep in mind when reading Kundera's novels; he is fond of humor because it is the enemy of kitsch. He goes on in some detail about the importance of humor. Yet, I wouldn't call this a tremendously uplifting read. He is convinced that Art and the Novel are dying. In our "consumer society" we are satisfied at having the world pre-digested for us. We can only hope that he is wrong.

Kundera is a 'thinking novelist' one who constantly reflects on his art, and whose reflections often enter into the very body of his fiction. In this seven- part analysis he tries to draw back the curtain and provide us a look at the essence of the novel. The novel which Lawrence called 'the bright book of life' is the form which had its first great manifestation in the Western World in Cervantes 'Quixote'. Kundera provides a brief historical survey of the novel. He argues for its being a foundation element of world- literature. He too argues that our well- worn habit of speaking of American fiction, English fiction, Russian fiction does a disservice to the form which is aimed to speak at our essential humanity, across all boundaries. Kundera tells us how the Novel first began to give everyday life its full place in our consciousness. He speaks of the way the nineteenth century novel of psychological character analysis moved into the twentieth century 'novel of situation', He provides us insight into those who are in his perception the greats of the genre Cervantes, Tolstoy , Dostoevsky, Proust, Laclos, Stendhal, Broch , Musil, Kafka. He argues against fiction which is meant to be a trivial entertaintment and in effect claims that what the Novel really is is the most essential way of telling and understanding Life. He argues for an Art which is essential and enduring, clearly having his own personal aspirations for his own work in mind. All who love Fiction will be instructed by this master's insightful and often surprising essay on the most significant literary form of our time.