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Laughable Loves

Published
Jan 1974
Main Genre
General Fiction General Fiction
Rating
Pages
242

About This Book

"An intellectual heavyweight and a pure literary virtuoso, Milan Kundera takes some of Freud's most cherished complexes and irreverently whirls them about in acts of legerdemain that capture our darkest, deepest human passions. . . . The tales in Laughable Loves surprise and illuminate. . . . Kundera's world is complex, full of mockeries and paradoxes. Life is often brutal and humiliating; it is often blasphemous, funny, irritating." — Cleveland Plain Dealer

Milan Kundera is a master of graceful illusion and illuminating surprise. In one of these stories a young man and his girlfriend pretend that she is a stranger he picked up on the road—only to become strangers to each other in reality as their game proceeds. In another a teacher fakes piety in order to seduce a devout girl, then jilts her and yearns for God. In yet another girls wait in bars, on beaches, and on station platforms for the same lover, a middle-aged Don Juan who has gone home to his wife. Games, fantasies, and schemes abound in all the stories while different characters react in varying ways to the sudden release of erotic impulses.

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First Edition Jan 1974 Knopf ISBN 0394474120
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Sep 1975 Penguin ISBN 0140040447
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Feb 1985 Penguin (UK) ISBN 0140069860
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Jan 1988 Penguin ISBN 0140096914
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Jan 1999 HarperPerennial ISBN 0060997036
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Aug 2000 Faber and Faber (UK) ISBN 0571206921
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Jun 2012 Faber and Faber (UK) ISBN 0571367666
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Mar 2023 Harper Perennial ISBN B0B6Y8PXG1
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May 2023 HarperCollins ISBN 0063290715
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Jun 2012 HarperAudio ISBN B008CLT2I0
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Jun 2012 HarperAudio ISBN 0062217968
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Jun 2012 HarperAudio ISBN 0062215558
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Dec 2012 Faber & Faber ISBN B00AJEVEPM
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