What a perfect review of an amazing novel. I too read the book not long after its publication and loved it. In my case I was inspired to read it after seeing the movie. There were several lines from the novel that resonated and I never forgot. A couple days ago I finished listening to the audiobook version and appreciate the novel even more with the perspective of age (now 71). The narrator of the audiobook, Richmond Hoxie, did an excellent job, BTW. I agree with the observation that Americans tend to be more into money. I lived off and on in Europe while growing up and had an Italian mother. As a teenager I was very aware that Europeans always had a much more open and appreciative view of ourselves as sexual beings in a way that was not salacious, and very sexist, as it often is in the US. One could expound endlessly on the cultural differences in that regard. Nice job on this review and now I am intrigued to watch your other reviews.
Thanks a lot for the personal and interesting comment. I am happy you enjoyed the novel. Sometimes I put on one of my favourite audiobooks in the background when I am cleaning the apartment. I will give it a try. I hope you will find some other videos that you enjoy! My tastes are fairly eclectic, so I hope you will discover something unusual that might get your interest!
I haven’t read the book or seen the movie. I must see the movie just to watch three of my favorite actors…..Daniel, the stunning Lena and fantastically talented Juliette.
This book has been on my shelf for years and I haven't yet read it...but I watched the movie and fell in love with it(Daniel Day Lewis is my favorite actor and has been seemingly my whole life...I just adore his work). I don't know why I have not yet read it and I must remedy that soon. Thanks for this phenomenal review, Grant! Edit: The part where you talked about the difference between North America vs European inclinations was super interesting. I've never been to Europe so I can't say and I wish I could. I think it's incredible that you traveled and took advantage of that when you were younger. What a gift that was to yourself!
Hello Nikki! Please give this book a read. I can understand how it might turn a lot of people off. It starts off with some abstract philosophy, and then dives into some serious political trouble from the 80's. But if you have the patience to get past that, you find one of the most incredible love stories in modern literature. Kundera is a master, and this is his best book. It's subtle, but it's so important. The best move I ever made in my life was to leave Canada and try to make a life for myself in Europe. Canada is nice but I can't love a country that doesn't have (and isn't interested in) history and culture. In Europe you feel that you are living in history, surrounded by it. In Canada it's a foreign idea, just something people study at school. There is no history here, just re-runs of old TV shows.
That gravitational pull towards money, the money drive vs the sex drive. This is the first time I've heard words that have been to describe that feeling I get when I am in America that makes me feel a particular oddity that I can never wholly explain.
It's something I feel, in society and in literature. Maybe I've read too many books, or have a backwards way of looking at society, but I've always thought that the accumulation of wealth is primarily about getting laid. Security, OK, but what is security without a sex-drive? But in North America, people have fixated on greed and the accumulation of money and forgotten about the sex side. Just money as the end goal, which seems shallow, and backwards to my mind. In Europe, this was my experience, ti was sex first and money second. It might have been my own prurient experience that shaped this opinion, but I don't think I am too wrong in this.
Now that I have watched this video, I have managed to catch up and watch everything you've uploaded so far. I'm really enjoying the content; with almost every video you manage to surprise me with yet another interesting book I've never heard of. Thanks for the content and keep it up!
You watched all of them! How do you think the videos are progressing? Anything you've noticed, things you like or don't like? I've been a bit busy recently and haven't had a great deal of time to spend making videos. Let me know if there is anything you would like to see more of in the future. I'm glad you're enjoying the channel. Reading is my life.
@@grantlovesbooks There aren't many people in my life that are into literature, but I've recommended your channel a couple of times now. You, like we all do in our own way, have a unique perspective influenced by unique life experiences, which always gets me invested in why you like or dislike a particular book. In regards to progression, I would say I feel you've grown more comfortable in front of the camera, but it is not a day and night difference as you were quite confident from the very beginning. I don't want to give you any feedback on what books you review, as it seems your lists, your personal preferences and your university classes are creating a perfect mix of books already. There are two things that come to mind that I'd like to point out: First, you've mentioned you don't like to give the ending of a book away, but have a few times made exceptions, or mentioned plot twists that I would have preferred not to be aware of before I picked up a book for the first time. A warning would have been appreciated, and a "skip to this timestamp if you don't want to hear it" would have been even better. Secondly, I have a reasonably thick skin, so wasn't really offended myself, but I felt you were quite harsh towards 'grown up men wearing Captain America shirts'. I don't think comments like this would turn a significant chunk of your viewers away or something, but there is a decent overlap between 'nerd and geek culture' and people who enjoy to read.
@@TheHarpander Thank-you for the long and thoughtful comment. As well I really appreciate your recommending the channel, that's a big help to me. Sorry about those spoilers slipping out. I do try not to do it, but I suppose it is inevitable with some books, or through carelessness. Sometimes I'll record the video and find I've got 30 minutes of nonsense and the only good bit I've recorded is something that gives away a surprise twist. I'll try to be more diligent about giving warnings in the video description. As for the shabby way Canadians dress... that's a personal grievance, and I suppose I could leave it out, but it sometimes feels good to rant about my minor pet-peeves. That's just my age showing, getting worked up about how badly people dress nowadays, that's nearly a stereotype in itself. Thanks again!
Ive never lived in Europe and perhaps I don’t have the sense to intuit a lack of “sex drive” as an aggregate social temperament, but lust for money is definitely there and palpable! I grew up in LA and now live in the SF Bay Area and I’m always trying to be rid of the money lust around me and in me
right in the point!!! As you said in (5:52) “very simple, it´s very direct and it is explosive with meaning…it´s not subtle…it´s right there, word by word, i feel so much nuances when i read that…” yes! 👌 your review arouse interest without being a spoiler, perfect! And, as I had mentioned in another of your videos, it reminded me that I had not yet read his best known work, where the focal point is, for me, his wonderfull writing. the characters' choices, often surrounded by an oppressive political environment, allow us to project and reflect on the paths taken and not taken by ourselves and the consequences, ah, the consequences.... I sympathized with Sabina (the lightness)🙂Tomas and even Franz, a little of each, but i could not even empathize with Tereza (the weight), and i stop here with this personage, well described, by the way, in the last pages of the book. a novel that almost depressed me, but worth reading. As for lightness, for me, it remains fundamental, even if it´s sometimes not sustainable. It has to be intercalated😉(once again, thanks for reminding me about this book!)
Thanks a lot Cristina! I really wanted to do a good job with that video. It is always a bit of a juggling act between my opinion, and hoping to add some historic context and maybe something of the author's life. And trying to keep the video fairly short and to the point. Thanks again!
It's been a while since I've read it, but I recall that he goes to some small village and meets her, serving drinks in the one small, ugly hotel. He invites her to Prague, and she, to his dismay, does arrive soon after the invite.
As an expat Brit who's lived in California for over three decades I can easily understand (and well agree with) your comparison of Americans and their rapaciously never-ending quest for material wealth, as compared to 'Europeans' who have a much better-grounded approach to life and less obsession with ephemeral superficiality. (I do however think that Hungarians with whom you are familiar, vis-a-vis cooler less-ebullient Nordic peoples, or Southern Europeans with a warmer attitude to gregarity, are all as different as chalk and cheese. There's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all way to encompass the vast diversity of national cultures and idiosyncrasies in that relatively small landmass.) I am still disgusted by the overarching obsession with money here, and I often yearn for a society with more humanity and self-reflection. One of the first ways I encountered this difference was when I worked with Americans in England: they were constantly talking about 'making' money, as opposed to Brits who 'earn' money, a very telling dichotomy of those two cultures' approaches to life. I recently watched the magnificent and poignant film of TULOB again, one of my absolute all-time favourites, but I've not yet read the novel. I can't wait to scour my local used-books store for it now! You'll love the film; anything with Daniel Day-Lewis, Lena Olin and a very young-looking Juliette Binoche, with heart-rending music by that only-could-be-Czech composer Leos Janacek, is irresistible to me!
Hello John, Thanks for the long and thoughtful comment! It is pretty amazing how different people can be. I think a lot of the America (including Canada) vs. Europe is due to the age of the countries. Europe having such a long history of art and culture, whereas North America concentrates on ideas like 'industry' and 'profitability.' I would like to watch the film version of the novel, but I have a strict kind of phobia about watching movies made of great novels. I find watching the film (The Great Gatsby, Dracula, One Flew Over...) with such iconic actors, makes it very difficult to appreciate the novel afterwards. As much as I think Daniel Day Lewis is one of the finest actors we will ever see, I'm afraid if I watch the film, I'll never be able to read the novel again without imagining him, rather than the character I see in my mind. No Country For Old Men is my least favourite McCarthy novel, not because it's bad, but just because I can't get the film out of my head. I hope you enjoy the novel, let me know if it is very different from the movie!
This is interesting. I live in North America. I read this book when I was in my early twenties. I am not in my early 50s. I am married to a Hungarian and rereading this book. European people ARE very sexy.
100 pages down to this book and I must admit, belonging to a culture very restrained in the sexual matters, the content of the book seems absurd or sometimes overly sexualised as if done by some of B-grade authors to gain more eye balls. Plus, storyline seems to go in whirls and not in straight line, which also is making reading this work bit off. However, I'll keep going and comeback here once I complete reading it.
This was not a book for me. Another generational gap thing, possibly, like catch 22 tends to be. Stuff that was absorbed into the general intellect such that the point of them are perfunctory.
What a perfect review of an amazing novel. I too read the book not long after its publication and loved it. In my case I was inspired to read it after seeing the movie. There were several lines from the novel that resonated and I never forgot. A couple days ago I finished listening to the audiobook version and appreciate the novel even more with the perspective of age (now 71). The narrator of the audiobook, Richmond Hoxie, did an excellent job, BTW. I agree with the observation that Americans tend to be more into money. I lived off and on in Europe while growing up and had an Italian mother. As a teenager I was very aware that Europeans always had a much more open and appreciative view of ourselves as sexual beings in a way that was not salacious, and very sexist, as it often is in the US. One could expound endlessly on the cultural differences in that regard. Nice job on this review and now I am intrigued to watch your other reviews.
Thanks a lot for the personal and interesting comment. I am happy you enjoyed the novel. Sometimes I put on one of my favourite audiobooks in the background when I am cleaning the apartment. I will give it a try.
I hope you will find some other videos that you enjoy! My tastes are fairly eclectic, so I hope you will discover something unusual that might get your interest!
I haven’t read the book or seen the movie. I must see the movie just to watch three of my favorite actors…..Daniel, the stunning Lena and fantastically talented Juliette.
I'm also tempted, but I have a strict rule about not watching movies of books that I love. Otherwise I can never read the book again.
This book has been on my shelf for years and I haven't yet read it...but I watched the movie and fell in love with it(Daniel Day Lewis is my favorite actor and has been seemingly my whole life...I just adore his work). I don't know why I have not yet read it and I must remedy that soon. Thanks for this phenomenal review, Grant! Edit: The part where you talked about the difference between North America vs European inclinations was super interesting. I've never been to Europe so I can't say and I wish I could. I think it's incredible that you traveled and took advantage of that when you were younger. What a gift that was to yourself!
Hello Nikki! Please give this book a read. I can understand how it might turn a lot of people off. It starts off with some abstract philosophy, and then dives into some serious political trouble from the 80's. But if you have the patience to get past that, you find one of the most incredible love stories in modern literature.
Kundera is a master, and this is his best book. It's subtle, but it's so important.
The best move I ever made in my life was to leave Canada and try to make a life for myself in Europe. Canada is nice but I can't love a country that doesn't have (and isn't interested in) history and culture.
In Europe you feel that you are living in history, surrounded by it. In Canada it's a foreign idea, just something people study at school. There is no history here, just re-runs of old TV shows.
That gravitational pull towards money, the money drive vs the sex drive. This is the first time I've heard words that have been to describe that feeling I get when I am in America that makes me feel a particular oddity that I can never wholly explain.
It's something I feel, in society and in literature. Maybe I've read too many books, or have a backwards way of looking at society, but I've always thought that the accumulation of wealth is primarily about getting laid. Security, OK, but what is security without a sex-drive?
But in North America, people have fixated on greed and the accumulation of money and forgotten about the sex side. Just money as the end goal, which seems shallow, and backwards to my mind. In Europe, this was my experience, ti was sex first and money second.
It might have been my own prurient experience that shaped this opinion, but I don't think I am too wrong in this.
you are so right in saying that the novel gets better with every read
It sure does!
A great little review of one of my favourite novels, makes me want to reread it at some point soon. :)
Thanks a lot for the comment! It really is a great novel, and it gets better the more you read it!
Now that I have watched this video, I have managed to catch up and watch everything you've uploaded so far. I'm really enjoying the content; with almost every video you manage to surprise me with yet another interesting book I've never heard of. Thanks for the content and keep it up!
You watched all of them! How do you think the videos are progressing? Anything you've noticed, things you like or don't like? I've been a bit busy recently and haven't had a great deal of time to spend making videos.
Let me know if there is anything you would like to see more of in the future. I'm glad you're enjoying the channel. Reading is my life.
@@grantlovesbooks There aren't many people in my life that are into literature, but I've recommended your channel a couple of times now. You, like we all do in our own way, have a unique perspective influenced by unique life experiences, which always gets me invested in why you like or dislike a particular book. In regards to progression, I would say I feel you've grown more comfortable in front of the camera, but it is not a day and night difference as you were quite confident from the very beginning. I don't want to give you any feedback on what books you review, as it seems your lists, your personal preferences and your university classes are creating a perfect mix of books already. There are two things that come to mind that I'd like to point out: First, you've mentioned you don't like to give the ending of a book away, but have a few times made exceptions, or mentioned plot twists that I would have preferred not to be aware of before I picked up a book for the first time. A warning would have been appreciated, and a "skip to this timestamp if you don't want to hear it" would have been even better. Secondly, I have a reasonably thick skin, so wasn't really offended myself, but I felt you were quite harsh towards 'grown up men wearing Captain America shirts'. I don't think comments like this would turn a significant chunk of your viewers away or something, but there is a decent overlap between 'nerd and geek culture' and people who enjoy to read.
@@TheHarpander Thank-you for the long and thoughtful comment. As well I really appreciate your recommending the channel, that's a big help to me.
Sorry about those spoilers slipping out. I do try not to do it, but I suppose it is inevitable with some books, or through carelessness. Sometimes I'll record the video and find I've got 30 minutes of nonsense and the only good bit I've recorded is something that gives away a surprise twist. I'll try to be more diligent about giving warnings in the video description.
As for the shabby way Canadians dress... that's a personal grievance, and I suppose I could leave it out, but it sometimes feels good to rant about my minor pet-peeves. That's just my age showing, getting worked up about how badly people dress nowadays, that's nearly a stereotype in itself.
Thanks again!
No ! In North America there is no love, it is true ! Much more people are about money!!! Absolutely so ! You are correct !
Thanks Janinne!
Ive never lived in Europe and perhaps I don’t have the sense to intuit a lack of “sex drive” as an aggregate social temperament, but lust for money is definitely there and palpable! I grew up in LA and now live in the SF Bay Area and I’m always trying to be rid of the money lust around me and in me
right in the point!!! As you said in (5:52) “very simple, it´s very direct and it is explosive with meaning…it´s not subtle…it´s right there, word by word, i feel so much nuances when i read that…” yes! 👌
your review arouse interest without being a spoiler, perfect! And, as I had mentioned in another of your videos, it reminded me that I had not yet read his best known work, where the focal point is, for me, his wonderfull writing.
the characters' choices, often surrounded by an oppressive political environment, allow us to project and reflect on the paths taken and not taken by ourselves and the consequences, ah, the consequences....
I sympathized with Sabina (the lightness)🙂Tomas and even Franz, a little of each, but i could not even empathize with Tereza (the weight), and i stop here with this personage, well described, by the way, in the last pages of the book.
a novel that almost depressed me, but worth reading. As for lightness, for me, it remains fundamental, even if it´s sometimes not sustainable. It has to be intercalated😉(once again, thanks for reminding me about this book!)
Thanks a lot Cristina! I really wanted to do a good job with that video. It is always a bit of a juggling act between my opinion, and hoping to add some historic context and maybe something of the author's life. And trying to keep the video fairly short and to the point.
Thanks again!
It was pleasure to listen to you :)
It was my pleasure, thank-you very much!
I iove it also, wonderful preview! Thank you.
Thanks Anis! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Wait, I thought Tereza was from Prague, not the countryside.
It's been a while since I've read it, but I recall that he goes to some small village and meets her, serving drinks in the one small, ugly hotel.
He invites her to Prague, and she, to his dismay, does arrive soon after the invite.
As an expat Brit who's lived in California for over three decades I can easily understand (and well agree with) your comparison of Americans and their rapaciously never-ending quest for material wealth, as compared to 'Europeans' who have a much better-grounded approach to life and less obsession with ephemeral superficiality. (I do however think that Hungarians with whom you are familiar, vis-a-vis cooler less-ebullient Nordic peoples, or Southern Europeans with a warmer attitude to gregarity, are all as different as chalk and cheese. There's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all way to encompass the vast diversity of national cultures and idiosyncrasies in that relatively small landmass.) I am still disgusted by the overarching obsession with money here, and I often yearn for a society with more humanity and self-reflection. One of the first ways I encountered this difference was when I worked with Americans in England: they were constantly talking about 'making' money, as opposed to Brits who 'earn' money, a very telling dichotomy of those two cultures' approaches to life.
I recently watched the magnificent and poignant film of TULOB again, one of my absolute all-time favourites, but I've not yet read the novel. I can't wait to scour my local used-books store for it now! You'll love the film; anything with Daniel Day-Lewis, Lena Olin and a very young-looking Juliette Binoche, with heart-rending music by that only-could-be-Czech composer Leos Janacek, is irresistible to me!
Hello John, Thanks for the long and thoughtful comment! It is pretty amazing how different people can be. I think a lot of the America (including Canada) vs. Europe is due to the age of the countries. Europe having such a long history of art and culture, whereas North America concentrates on ideas like 'industry' and 'profitability.'
I would like to watch the film version of the novel, but I have a strict kind of phobia about watching movies made of great novels. I find watching the film (The Great Gatsby, Dracula, One Flew Over...) with such iconic actors, makes it very difficult to appreciate the novel afterwards. As much as I think Daniel Day Lewis is one of the finest actors we will ever see, I'm afraid if I watch the film, I'll never be able to read the novel again without imagining him, rather than the character I see in my mind. No Country For Old Men is my least favourite McCarthy novel, not because it's bad, but just because I can't get the film out of my head.
I hope you enjoy the novel, let me know if it is very different from the movie!
@@grantlovesbooks I bought the book yesterday, so it will be my next book to read! I can't wait to see how the film compares to it.
This is interesting. I live in North America. I read this book when I was in my early twenties. I am not in my early 50s. I am married to a Hungarian and rereading this book. European people ARE very sexy.
I think that is why all the artists would go to Europe, it wasn't only for the culture and the cheap wine.
100 pages down to this book and I must admit, belonging to a culture very restrained in the sexual matters, the content of the book seems absurd or sometimes overly sexualised as if done by some of B-grade authors to gain more eye balls.
Plus, storyline seems to go in whirls and not in straight line, which also is making reading this work bit off.
However, I'll keep going and comeback here once I complete reading it.
Good luck, and keep trying! Some books are worth the effort, and this is certainly one of them!
I love this book.
You are not alone!
Was Sabina a dreamer?
I don't think so. She seems to be the most practical one in the whole novel.
Oh wow! Thanks for commenting on Hungarian women being beautiful, ha ha!
Hungarian women are very beautiful. I lived in Budapest for a long time, and it is something I very sadly miss.
This was not a book for me. Another generational gap thing, possibly, like catch 22 tends to be. Stuff that was absorbed into the general intellect such that the point of them are perfunctory.
I had a feeling you weren't going to like this one.
No, you're wrong