The Literature Book

the country. Through its protagonist,

a white, male, mild-mannered

teacher, author André Brink (1935–

2015)—himself a white South

African—explores racial intolerance

and the price for taking a principled

stand against an unjust system.

SO LONG A LETTER

(1979), MARIAMA BÂ

Written in French by Senegalese

writer Mariama Bâ (1929–81), So

Long a Letter captures the feelings

of a recently widowed Muslim

teacher. After spending the last

four years of her marriage

emotionally abandoned, she now

has to share grieving for her late

husband with his second, younger

wife. The form of the novel is a letter

written by the widow to her friend,

an émigré to the US. Personal and

social oppression are seen as two

sides of the experience of many

women in Senegalese society.

THE HOUSE OF THE

SPIRITS

(1982), ISABEL ALLENDE

The House of The Spirits was the

first—and most successful—novel

of Chilean-American writer Isabel

Allende (1942–), the granddaughter

of former socialist president of Chile

Salvador Allende, who was deposed

in a coup that features in the novel.

The book began life as a letter to

her 100-year-old grandfather and

turned into a complex, epic saga

tracing three generations of family

life, against a background of social

and political turbulence in an

unnamed country (recognizably

Chile). The book has elements

of magical realism: one of the two

sisters, Clara, possesses powers of

telekinesis and clairvoyance, which

she consciously develops—spirits

visit her house in abundance.

Allende depicts love, betrayal,

vengeance, and ambition in a

country torn apart, but offering

possible salvation in the prospects

of the female bloodline.

THE UNBEARABLE

LIGHTNESS OF BEING

(1984), MILAN KUNDERA

Set around the Prague Spring

of 1968, a brief period of political

reform in Soviet Czechoslovakia,

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

is Kundera’s most famous work.

The title refers to a philosophical

dilemma: Friedrich Nietzsche’s

idea of eternal return, or heaviness,

as opposed to the ancient Greek

philosopher Parmenides’ notion of

life as light. It tells of a surgeon who

pursues his belief in “lightness”

through a promiscuous love life,

which also serves as a distraction

from his country’s fragile and

unstable politics. He falls in love

with a waitress and marries her,

but cannot give up his mistresses.

Kundera asks whether life can have

weight, or meaning, since return

to the past is impossible.

NEUROMANCER

(1984), WILLIAM GIBSON

One of the earliest and most

influential works of “cyberpunk”—

a science-fiction subgenre usually

featuring an antihero in a dystopian

high-tech future—Neuromancer by

American-Canadian author Gibson

(1948–) tells of a damaged, suicidal

computer hacker. Having been

injected with a Russian toxin that

prevents him from accessing

cyberspace, he is commissioned

by an enigmatic employer to do a

334 FURTHER READING

Milan Kundera

Born in Brno, Czechoslovakia,

in 1929, Kundera studied music

as a child and much of his

work bears a musical signature.

He studied literature and then

film in Prague, becoming

a lecturer after graduating.

Initially a member of the Czech

Communist Party, he was

barred following the Soviet

takeover of 1968, losing his

teaching positions. Kundera

emigrated to France in 1975

and has lived there ever since,

taking citizenship in 1981. He

labels himself as a novelist,

although his works skillfully

blend the philosophical, ironic,

political, comedic, and erotic.

Key works

1967 The Joke

1979 The Book of Laughter

and Forgetting

1984 The Unbearable

Lightness of Being (see right)

... I wait for better times to

come, while I carry this child

in my womb, the daughter of

so many rapes or perhaps

of Miguel, but above all,

my own daughter ...

The House of the Spirits

Isabel Allende

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