Rating: 
Summary: An intoxicating read!
Review: Reading a novel by Milan Kundera is a bit like taking along lunch with your favorite college philosophy professor,and discovering that he's a wonderful storyteller. This particular novel begins with a woman's beautiful but fleeting gesture, and continues by telling us more about her until both the history and the significance of her gesture are revealed in their full, heady, context. On the way, Kundera weaves in stories about Goethe, Napoleon, the origins of sound bites and photo-ops, and of course, musings on immortality. Like many good storytellers, Kundera even presents himself as a minor character in his tale of love, gestures and immortality. By the end of the novel, you will feel intoxicated, as if your long lunch has been accompanied by a number of good glasses of wine. And as you lift your hand to wave goodbye to Kundera, you will realize that your life has been changed, and that you will forever look at the world with a slightly different view for having read this amazing book.
Rating:
Summary: The Search of Immortality...
Review: What an influential and meaningful book to read, explains the desire of immortality, and the different ways people take to reach the unreachable. It all starts with a simple gesture of a woman saying good-bye leaving a swimming pool, and then Milan Kundera's style, choice of words, and the relation he introduces between two different stories (which took place in two different centuries) takes you to a more complicated but very enjoyable concept. There are many characters in the book, but Kundera was able to describe each ones mind and intentions in the best humanness way, we do learn something from each of them, and it does teach one or two things about this life we are living, and how real it is!!! A book very well written, captures all your attention because of the little twists that Kundera introduces, and it makes you wonder even more about things you already knew...
Rating:
Summary: Masterful storytelling and profundity at the same time
Review: First introduced to Milan Kundera many years ago when seeing the film "The Unberable Lightness of Being," I was struck by the author's powers of perception. Of course I wanted to know if this was something the movie director had done, or if it was the doing of a brilliant author. I found the latter. Still, wondering if this powerful perception had been just a fluke, I travelled on to Kundera's other books. None disappointed. "Immortality" is for me, one of the authors best efforts, right up there with "The Unbearable." I've only ever come across one other author that so connects with his audience the way Kundera does, and that is Jackson McCrae, particularly in his novel, The Bark of the Dogwood. Other than that, Kundera stands alone. "Immortality" is a remarkable read, full of insight and warmth, perhaps not with the same "drive" as "Unbearable Lightness" but with all the craftsmanship and heart. I highly recommend this wonderful tale.
Rating:
Summary: provocative, prosaic, and profound...
Review: This book not only touches on some of the purest philosophical issues, but is playfully written in classic Kundera style. I truly enjoyed reading it; while I usually read quickly, I took my time and absorbed not only the words but the bigger picture Kundera was trying to depict. The historical figures of Beethoven and Goethe flow seamlessly with original characters and take you inside their minds, not just outside watching their actions. The priorities of life or death vie for superiority as Kundera addresses not only the how of relationships and success, but the why. I'd definately recommend Immortality to anyone who has ever thought about where their life is going and how people will remember them once they die. (and if you haven't done that, you should!)
Rating: 
Summary: Immortality
Review: The novel explores the nature of immortality, and moves at a leisurely pace to allow the reader to understand the novel. The issues and ideas are explored along the way, as well as human love and sexuality. This develops the characters and enables the reader to come to an understanding of them. A great part in the novel deals with one of the characters imagining that a total stranger is visiting her. She is asked if she wants her husband to accompany her in another world, once she passes on. This passage was so well written that in stayed in my mind even after I had read it. The sense of someone actually having this happen to them was strong. The main character, Agnes was a marvelous character that was very well structured by Kundera. Kundera travels deep into the souls of his characters and explains the inner most thoughts of the characters. The author shows some of the complications in his novel that some of us experience in real life. The main character, Agnes is faced with a question and her options are to lie to her husband Paul, or to tell him the truth. The outcome shows her true character and may surprise some of you. This book is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys good, emotional novels.
Rating:
Summary: Masterful storytelling and profundity at the same time
Review: First introduced to Milan Kundera many years ago when seeing the film "The Unberable Lightness of Being," I was struck by the author's powers of perception. Of course I wanted to know if this was something the movie director had done, or if it was the doing of a brilliant author. I found the latter. Still, wondering if this powerful perception had been just a fluke, I travelled on to Kundera's other books. None disappointed. "Immortality" is for me, one of the authors best efforts, right up there with "The Unbearable." I've only ever come across one other author that so connects with his audience the way Kundera does, and that is Jackson McCrae, particularly in his novel, The Bark of the Dogwood. Other than that, Kundera stands alone. "Immortality" is a remarkable read, full of insight and warmth, perhaps not with the same "drive" as "Unbearable Lightness" but with all the craftsmanship and heart. I highly recommend this wonderful tale.
Rating:
Summary: just plain good.
Review: im sixteen yrs old, and though i know many adults who read this book and disliked it greatly, I found it very interesting. Most people would consider me a person who isn't fond of reading many books, but this one I particularly liked. It touches many ideas that gets you thinking. It most definetley gives you different perspectives at things. Probably my favorite book!
Rating:
Summary: insightful, revealing and entertaining
Review: Like other Milan Kundera novels, Immortality is no straightforward reading... Filled with insights and thought-provoking ideas, kundera yet again uses the vehicle of the novel to reveal the musings of a sad, erudite philosopher...
I never knew i could learn that much about myself from reading a novel... GQ's Nicholas Lezard says that "it will make you cleverer, maybe even a better lover", very true... Sometimes however, it can be overly scholarly, and assumes the reader is classics-savvy... Still, immortality taught me that i'm an "homosentimentalis" with a "hypertrophied" soul... to my surprise, these two hardly understandable words taught me a lot about myself and about why i have such a troubled and restless soul..not all novels do that to me
Rating:
Summary: Classic Metafiction
Review: The chief pleasure of reading Kundera comes from the music of his writing (in this case, translated by Peter Kussi). His sentences are like melodies and, like Nabokov, it is easy to simply get carried along by their flow. He does not write "novels" in the classic sense - he writes "pieces" which have just as much to do with philosophy as creative writing. The journey is all about little insights, philosophical ideas, and musings on history. I must warn the newcomer, however - this is NOT a straightforward novel. This is a classic example of "metafiction" - that is, writing about writing. The book begins with Kundera seeing a woman's wave which inspires him to write a story. Immortality is that story, PLUS Kundera's writing that story, PLUS random digressions about Goethe and Rubens. I have to impress upon the reader that THERE IS NO PLOT in this book. That is Kundera's point, and yet the absence of a plot does not encourage the reader to keep going back to it (as it is not headed anywhere). If you are looking for a book that is out of the ordinary, with very poetic philosophical digressions, than this is the novel for you.
Rating:
Summary: I'd give it 4.5 if I could
Review: Okay, So I'm about halfway through this book and though it is very, very good, I don't think it is as good as Unbearable Lightness, so I can't give it five stars. The writing style is, of course, uniquely Kundera. It is high brow, yet matter of fact, and full of sardonic wit. This seems to be a philosophical dissertation, in which he identifies beliefs and philosophies while relating his story. The story itself deals with Agnes, an elderly woman that is in fact a product of Kundera's (who is also a character) mind. She is born of a gesture that Kundera observed at a health club. She is actually the embodiment of immortality in this respect. In an imagined conversation between Goethe and Hemingway, Kundera hammers out immortality in the physical sense, or the legacy that we leave behind when we pass on. In creating Agnes as a character, she is an immortal legacy of a gesture. Since there are so many faces and so few gestures, one that can make a gesture that is commonplace seem original is desrving of immortality. At least this is the impression that I have at this point in the novel. I'd suggest this for people already familiar with Kundera. I don't really think that its a good novel if you're just getting familiar with him. Otherwise, I've enjoyed it immensely.
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