In the opening pages, we meet the ‘heroes’ of Milan Kundera’s novel. One of them, Ramon, wanders Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, above, observing statues of poets and painters. Photo Ken Wiedemann
In the opening pages, we meet the ‘heroes’ of Milan Kundera’s novel. One of them, Ramon, wanders Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, above, observing statues of poets and painters. Photo Ken Wiedemann

Book review: Milan Kundera’s The Festival of Insignifiance is a strange sort of a return



The Festival of Insignificance, Milan Kundera's first novel in 14 years, is a curious kind of comeback. At just over 100 pages it resembles more a novella than a novel, and as such feels like a very distant cousin to his capacious and inventive masterpieces The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1978) and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984).

With the author now in his mid-80s, should we take the book to be a late creative flowering or a career-end sign-off? It may be hard to categorise, and it may seem like a scaled-down version of a past glory, but what remains clear throughout is that it is the singular work of Milan Kundera.

In the first pages we meet the book’s all-male “heroes”’ (Kundera’s word). Alain walks down a Paris street and is captivated by the sight of young girls’ exposed navels. Ramon wanders through the Luxembourg Gardens observing statues of poets and painters. D’Ardelo visits his doctor and learns he doesn’t have cancer after all.

In typical Kundera fashion, his characters, now introduced, are allowed to interact. D’Ardelo encounters Ramon, announces that he is having a birthday party – and then, inexplicably, tells him he has terminal cancer. The party goes ahead and becomes “a celebration for birth and death at once”.

The guests arrive in foul moods and agree that the party is dreary, but all endure it, and their lives, by indulging in enlightening and provocative banter and immersive and transformative daydreaming.

Kundera opens his customary box of tricks. Over seven fleeting chapters we meet womanisers and philosophers who hold forth on the art of seduction, Kant and Hegel, the practicalities of lying and apologising, plus such portentous matters as the illusion of individuality, the uselessness of brilliance and the value of insignificance.

As ever, there are snippets of history (including a speaking role for Stalin, “the Lucifer of the century”), symbols with meaning (smashed bottles, falling angels, floating feathers), a series of ruminations in lieu of a plot, a jagged non-linear narrative, and an intruding first-person voice which may or may not belong to Kundera.

Like his last three novels, this one was written not in Czech but French and is ably translated by Linda Asher. What is different this time around, apart from the novel’s brevity, is its tone. Even with the darkest of subject matter, Kundera has always been a comical writer. Here his characters talk about resisting the world by not taking it seriously.

The problem is they feel their jokes have lost their potency. “It really was the start of a new era. The twilight of joking! The post-joke age!”

If this novel is Kundera's swan song – and like Shakespeare's late play The Tempest, there is a character called Caliban – then we would appear to have ended up at the opposite extreme from his satirical 1967 debut, The Joke.

As is the case with many an ageing author's last works, The Festival of Insignificance is preoccupied with dying. A woman attempting suicide kills the man who tries to save her. D'Ardelo feels marked by "the pathos of death" even after the doctor has given him the all-clear.

There are moments when we wonder if it isn’t only Alain who is guilty of navel-gazing but his creator too. Some rambling meditations need cropping. Elsewhere it occasionally feels as if Kundera’s working space is too cramped for his ideas to develop or his fantastic threads to unspool.

This short, sleek book isn’t classic Kundera by any means. However, there are more than enough flares of the old magic that allow us to see reality in a refreshingly new way.

Malcolm Forbes is a freelance essayist and reviewer.

European arms

Known EU weapons transfers to Ukraine since the war began: Germany 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Luxembourg 100 NLAW anti-tank weapons, jeeps and 15 military tents as well as air transport capacity. Belgium 2,000 machine guns, 3,800 tons of fuel. Netherlands 200 Stinger missiles. Poland 100 mortars, 8 drones, Javelin anti-tank weapons, Grot assault rifles, munitions. Slovakia 12,000 pieces of artillery ammunition, 10 million litres of fuel, 2.4 million litres of aviation fuel and 2 Bozena de-mining systems. Estonia Javelin anti-tank weapons.  Latvia Stinger surface to air missiles. Czech Republic machine guns, assault rifles, other light weapons and ammunition worth $8.57 million.

Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill

Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.

Brolliology: A History of the Umbrella in Life and Literature
By Marion Rankine
Melville House

German intelligence warnings
  • 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
  • 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
  • 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250 

Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution

Honeymoonish
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Director: Laxman Utekar

Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna

Rating: 1/5

The Saga Continues

Wu-Tang Clan

(36 Chambers / Entertainment One)

Profile of Bitex UAE

Date of launch: November 2018

Founder: Monark Modi

Based: Business Bay, Dubai

Sector: Financial services

Size: Eight employees

Investors: Self-funded to date with $1m of personal savings

Cryopreservation: A timeline
  1. Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
  2. Ovarian tissue surgically removed
  3. Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
  4. Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
  5. Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
ABU%20DHABI'S%20KEY%20TOURISM%20GOALS%3A%20BY%20THE%20NUMBERS
%3Cp%3EBy%202030%2C%20Abu%20Dhabi%20aims%20to%20achieve%3A%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%2039.3%20million%20visitors%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20nearly%2064%25%20up%20from%202023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%20Dh90%20billion%20contribution%20to%20GDP%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20about%2084%25%20more%20than%20Dh49%20billion%20in%202023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%20178%2C000%20new%20jobs%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20bringing%20the%20total%20to%20about%20366%2C000%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%2052%2C000%20hotel%20rooms%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20up%2053%25%20from%2034%2C000%20in%202023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%207.2%20million%20international%20visitors%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20almost%2090%25%20higher%20compared%20to%202023's%203.8%20million%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%203.9%20international%20overnight%20hotel%20stays%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2022%25%20more%20from%203.2%20nights%20in%202023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A