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Life Is Elsewhere Audiobook
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(3.00) - 5,320 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
""I will say no more about this lacerating book except to urge it upon all who care about literature in our difficult era."" — Boston Globe
""A sly and merciless lampoon of revolutionary romanticism. . . Kundera commits some of the funniest literary savaging since Evelyn Waugh polished off Dickens in A Handful of Dust.""— Time
Milan Kundera initially intended to call this novel The Lyrical Age. The lyrical age, according to him, is youth, and this novel, above all, is an epic of adolescence; an ironic epic that tenderly erodes sacrosanct values: childhood, motherhood, revolution, and even poetry.
Jaromil is in fact a poet. His mother made him a poet and accompanies him (figuratively) to his love bed and (literally) to his deathbed. A ridiculous and touching character, horrifying and totally innocent (""innocence with its bloody smile""!), Jaromil is at the same time a true poet. He's no creep, he's Rimbaud. Rimbaud entrapped by the communist revolution, entrapped in a somber farce.
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"A really good book about a boy and his overbearing, needy mother in communist-era czech republic. The plot has a couple of really good twists. It was a little slow to start but definitely got me hooked."
— Jen (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“A sly and merciless lampoon of revolutionary romanticism…Kundera commits some of the funniest literary savaging since Evelyn Waugh polished off Dickens in A Handful of Dust.”
— Time -
“I will say no more about this lacerating book except to urge it upon all who care about literature in our difficult era.”
— Boston Globe -
“Tender and unsparing…Life Is Elsewhere is a remarkable portrait of an artist as a young man.”
— Newsweek -
“A remarkable book.”
— Daily Telegraph (London) -
“Kundera’s intellectual panache, his endless ability to generate original ideas from the most archetypal human situations, ensures he is never less than stimulating.”
— Literary Review (London)
Life Is Elsewhere Listener Reviews
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" I read it a long time ago. I loved it when i read it. "
— Peggy, 2/19/2014 -
" my favorite Kundera. all the tenderness of Unbearable Lightness, but a slightly more human story. "
— Leah, 2/14/2014 -
" I group this novel with 'This Side of Paradise' and 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' in a trilogy of the modernist Bildungsroman. "
— Jack, 1/27/2014 -
" The most lucid and cynical book about poetry you will read in your life! A true masterpiece. My favorite novel by Kundera and I have read all! "
— Angèle, 1/24/2014 -
" My young adolescent mind reveled in this book. It has everything: communists, a poet, sex and an alter-ego. The cover on this book is very indicative of its content. "
— Daya, 1/22/2014 -
" I love Milan Kundera. I love his whole soul. "
— Feather, 1/16/2014 -
" This is the story of a poet from birth and into adulthood, though it isn't really about a poet at all. The story is more about poetry itself, and art, and the people who make art. Kundera ponders the big things- human nature, love, the creative impulse- with his characteristic beauty. "
— Emily, 12/9/2013 -
" kundera is so european. love that writing style! "
— Dijana, 12/8/2013 -
" Maybe not my best introduction to Kundera's works. I found it rather tiresome. "
— Oceana2602, 11/22/2013 -
" I've been trying to finish this book for four years. I'm giving up on it. Sorry! "
— Elizabeth, 10/19/2013 -
" an underrated kundera novel that I personally think is his best "
— Michael, 6/11/2013 -
" Recalling Joyce's Portrait of the Artist, Kundera fills in his so-called life withhumour and bravado. A real treat. "
— David, 6/2/2013 -
" probably not a four-star book, probably one of Kundera's weaker works, but reading it in Prague and finding buildings he describes is an aphrodisiac of words in practice. "
— c.vance, 3/2/2013 -
" This book is pretty good if you can get past the fact that Kundera is pretty sexist. "
— Amani, 1/20/2013 -
" I'm reading the French version... and ... I love it! "
— Rita, 1/12/2013 -
" Loved the flow of the story. "
— Julie, 12/22/2012 -
" Yeah, I don't know... I kinda liked it but still it didn't hit me as strongly as some other books have.. Maybe the story was wrong for me - I'm still about to read something else from this writer. "
— Satu, 12/17/2012
About the Authors
Milan Kundera (1929–2023) was the author of several novels and a short-story collection originally written in Czech, and works of nonfiction originally written in French. His is best know for the novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which was adapted for an Oscar-nominated film.
Richmond Hoxie has performed on Broadway in I’m Not Rappaport and off-Broadway in The Dining Room, Vienna: Lusthaus (Revisited), To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, and Landscape with Waitress. On television, he appears frequently in all of the incarnations of Law and Order. His film work includes JFK, Still of the Night, Without a Trace, and For Love or Money.
About Richmond Hoxie
Richmond Hoxie has performed on Broadway in I’m Not Rappaport and off-Broadway in The Dining Room, Vienna: Lusthaus (Revisited), To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, and Landscape with Waitress. On television, he appears frequently in all of the incarnations of Law and Order. His film work includes JFK, Still of the Night, Without a Trace, and For Love or Money.