THE CURTAIN: AN ESSAY IN SEVEN PARTS, by Milan Kundera, translated from French by Linda Asher, HarperCollins, 168 pages, $22.95
Milan Kundera, a Franco-Czech writer, is best known for the novels "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting." Although born in Czechoslovakia (now The Czech Republic), Kundera has lived for many years in France.
His first several novels were originally written in Czech and his most recent in French. His total now reaches 11, plus one play and three books of essays.
In his compact volume "The Curtain," Kundera closely examines the art form for which he has become famous, the novel. In the process, he analyzes Rabelais, Cervantes, Fielding, Sterne and other early novelists, and then shifts gears to Kafka, Joyce, Flaubert and Hugo.
To Kundera, the "curtain" is a metaphor suggesting that each novelist — whether he focuses on humor, action, aesthetics or drama — must "tear" through that curtain to invent his work. The product is bound to be unique even as the novelist expands the boundaries of the novel.
Part One is "The Consciousness of Continuity," the extent to which history (real life) forms a foundation for the fictional mode implied by the novel. According to Kundera, the creator of a novel must have the ability to be a storyteller, an account with a plot surrounded by diverse characters.
He argues that rather than just telling a good story, novels gradually became more purposeful, developing a theory ("raison d'etre") of human nature, for instance. And each novelist must write with different styles and themes — just as a contemporary composer could not write a sonata after the manner of Beethoven and expect it to be accepted.
Another element of the novel, suggests Kundera, is "Getting into the Soul of Things." He says critics often say a certain book has not "enough goodness" in it, then he uses an example of a woman who became "a benefactress" who "taught reading and moral development in children." To show such a character in a novel is to make it "uplifting, consoling — and more complete."
Further, a novelist, says Kundera, cannot be mediocre, as can a plumber. A mediocre plumber can be appreciated, but a mediocre novelist "is contemptible." To write without "the grotesquely megalomaniac ambition to survive one's death" is allegedly not worth doing. There must be "real passion" evident in each novel.
Unfortunately, for the novelist, there are some people who do not understand a joke. Humor used on such people is a waste. Kundera knows some people he admires but around whom he feels "ill at ease" because "a frivolous word" will wound them. "They do not live at peace with the comical."
He does not "detest" such people, but he "affords them a wide berth."
Obviously, an interesting novel must contain humor — and there are people who, because it does contain humor, will not appreciate it. The novel is designed for a selective audience.
These brilliant essays provide a strong challenge to the reader, as does any novel to which he may be exposed. For anyone who has not been able to appreciate novels, this book is valuable — and for those who have always enjoyed novels, Kundera has stimulating explanations.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com