The Unbearable Lightness of Being Reading Journal – Part One

This novel is basically about the love life of a man called Tomas. Tomas lives in Prague and the novel is set in 1968 during the cold war between communism and capitalism. This time was the beginning of the famous Prague Spring where strikes, feminist movements and riots occurred. Russia decided to send thousands of troops into Prague and obviously the Czechoslovakian people were not impressed. People begged the soldiers to leave but they wouldn’t, this caused a lot of distress and the Czechoslovakian people were angry.

I have found that the novel so far has been very historical and philosophical. It is about sexuality, relationships, dreams, fear and love. It is not a chronological novel and the story seems to jump around between chapters.

Tomas is the main character in the novel and the first section gives us a lot of information about his lifestyle. Tomas is supposedly in love with a girl called Tereza but he sleeps around with other women. This obviously upsets Tereza greatly as she seems to love him. Tomas is an odd character with odd habits, for example, he likes to have sex with women but he hates sleeping beside them and waking up next to them. Tomas also doesn’t think that his polygamous ways do not affect his “love” for Tereza. For this reason I think that he is a weird character.

The woman who Tomas sleeps with most is a woman called Sabina. Sabina writes Tomas letters asking him to sleep with her and Tomas does. Tereza is not happy with this and she finds the letter. Tomas doesn’t get angry with her for reading his letters however.

Dreams are frequently mentioned in the first section of the novel. Tereza for example has a couple of bad dreams involving Tomas, she wakes screaming and distraught and angry at Tomas.