Betrayal

Invasion of the communist dictatorship of the USSR in the Czech Republic Changing countries Changing careers Thoughts that will make you think "oh my God, THAT'S IT"

All this is consolidated in the book "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", by Milan Kundera

The book has few characters. The main ones are two: Tomas (doctor) and Tereza (photographer). Tomas has several "erotic friends", who are women with whom he has sex (one night stands), but there is one who is his recurring lover.

Sabine, an artist.

Despite cheating on Tereza horribly, Tomas likes her and wants to live with her for real. Tereza watches this sad dog, suffers a lot, has dreams where she sees Tomas with several women, but can't leave him.

All this in a difficult political context

It's the late 1960s and the USSR invades the Czech Republic. Tereza, who had little motivation to work, begins photographing the Soviet invasion of the Czech Republic and starts selling her photos to newspapers/magazines everywhere, portraying the suffering of her people.

And also portraying the advance of USSR soldiers on her country. Difficult moment, right? But Tereza was finally happy to be targeted by the international press in this way.

But this happiness lasts for a week. Tomas decides to move to Zurich. And Teresa, of course, goes with him.

In this context, we get to know Sabine better. She doesn't want to have a serious relationship, she has no interest in Tomás leaving Tereza to be with her, quite the opposite: she likes the role of a lover. The ease of not having the responsibility of a marriage.

A fourth character appears in this story: Franz, the emotional one. A married guy who begins a relationship with Sabine. But I won't tell you that part.

The book is from the 1980s and was heavily criticized by the left around the world, because the author does not mince words when criticizing the dictatorship of the Soviet Union and the persecution that was carried out.

One passage in particular really struck me:

"the fact that a conversation between two friends over a drink is broadcast on the radio can only mean one thing: that the world has been transformed into a concentration camp. (...)

The concentration camp is the total liquidation of private life."

It's incredible how this book manages to approach politics and relationships in this way.

And it's obvious to me now: relationships are always political. Every relationship is about negotiation. About freedom and privacy in the right measure.

I highly recommend it! 10/10

"From the moment our actions have a witness, whether we like it or not, we adapt ourselves to the eyes that observe us; and from then on, nothing we do is true. (...)

"Whoever loses their intimacy, loses everything," thinks Sabina.

The question: Should communists be excused for thinking they had discovered "the only possible way to paradise"?

Did they really not know what was going on? Or did they pretend they didn't know?

Can an imbecile sitting on a throne be excused from everything just because he is an imbecile?