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Milan Kundera. La lenteur. Paris. Gallimard (Schoenhof, distr.). 1995. 154 pages. 87 F. ISBN 2-07-074135-4.
Milan Kundera's first French novel, La lenteur, is perhaps the aboutissement of a long-held wish. The reader only has to believe Vera, a character endowed with telepathic powers, when she says that her husband has always wanted to write "Une Grande Betise Pour Son Plaisir" where not one word could be taken seriously. But let's be careful and say "perhaps," because with phrases such as "notre epoque est obsedee par le desir d'oubli et c'est afin de combler ce desir qu'elle s'adonne au demon de la vitesse" (our epoch is obsessed by the desire to forget, and in order to fulfill this desire it gives in to the demon of speed), Kundera might just think that he has the gift to be a philosopher. What seems evident, on the other hand, is that he is eager to offend many of his...