Milan Kundera, Writer of ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being,’ Dies at 94

Milan Kundera, the Czech novelist who combined sexual and real-life politics in his writings and rose to global fame with The Unbearable Lightness of Being, died Tuesday in Paris. He was 94.

His death, following a prolonged illness, was announced by French publisher Gallimard on Wednesday.

Kundera’s literary career and personal life were closely tied to the Prague Spring, the brief flowering of political liberalization and cultural expression in Czechoslovakia that promised “socialism with a human face” in 1968 but was brutally crushed by Soviet-led troops. His breakout novel, The Joke, was published to acclaim during that period but quickly banned after the crackdown.

He went into exile in France in 1975, where he remained until his death. Over the years, he regularly sparred with authorities of his homeland, was expelled multiple times from the Communist party for his “reformist views” and had his Czechoslovak citizenship revoked in 1979. He was only re-granted Czech citizenship in 2019.

Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, first published in 1984, was an instant global hit and reprinted in dozens of languages. The story follows Tomas, a Czech surgeon and serial philanderer who is caught between his wife, who wants a monogamous relationship, and a seductive painter he regularly meets for sex. After the Soviet invasion, the politically outspoken Tomas is banned from working as a doctor and becomes a window washer.

The 1988 film version, for the screen by Philip Kaufman and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin, was a crossover hit and nominated for two Oscars, for adapted screenplay (Kaufman) and cinematography (Sven Nykvist). Kaufman won a BAFTA for his screenplay.

Several other of his works were adapted as films or TV projects in the Czech Republic, including Jaromil Jires’ The Joke (1969), which Kundera helped adapt. He also contributed scripts for such features as Nobody Will Laugh (1965) from director Hynek Bocan and 1969’s Antonín Kachlík’s Já, truchlivý buh (I, Distressing God).

Kundera’s depiction of personal, amoral behavior and sexual politics as a metaphor for the inherent absurdities of life in Czechoslovakia under communism drew widespread praise but also criticism, particularly from feminists who detected an inherent misogyny in his work. Most of Kundera’s male protagonists behave abominably toward women, and most of his female figures end up victimized. His supporters thought showing men behaving badly was part of his social critique.

Kundera himself rarely gave interviews, and none of his books after Unbearable Lightness achieved similar international success or acclaim. His final novel, perhaps fittingly titled The Festival of Insignificance, was published in 2015.