Can a Reader Be Jealous of a fictitious character

I've been struggling each night of this week with Milan Kundra's The Unbearable Lightness of Being . I understand the philosophical underpinnings, it's cleverness, the relevance of 1968 and the velvet revolution, but it's just a bit shit. I wonder if that critique would work on Late Night Review.

“Yes” contemplative stroke of my chin, light quiver of my goatee beard “Kundra's worldwide smash hit may have been in print for forty years and translated into over forty languages” camera zooms in on interviewer Kirsty Wark who nods earnestly “and yet Kirsty It's a bit shit isn't it.”

Clearly it's not “just a bit shit” but three quarters of the way through I give up the ghost and guiltily slide the thing back onto my bookshelf and step away as if nothing has happened.


2 thoughts on “Can a Reader Be Jealous of a fictitious character

  1. i preferred the film! i am struggling with White Teeth but can't put it back in the bookshelf without finishing it, something a bit OCD about me and books!

  2. Hola, Lemn. I do not remember a lot from The Unbearable… re: tricks of style; but I do recall that, towards the end, things get quite emotional about a dog, and they do so in a well-rounded kind of way.
    Abrazos,
    Esther (Gómez-Sierra)

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