The book of ridiculous love

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The book of ridiculous love (original Czech title: Směšné lásky ) is a collection of stories by the Czech author Milan Kundera .

The stories are mostly about tragic love stories and are kept in a humorous style. They appeared for the first time as three individually edited collections Směšné lásky (1963), Druhý sešit směšných lásek (1965) and Třetí sešit směšných lásek (1968). In 1970 Kundera selected seven of the ten stories and published them under the name Směšné Lásky .

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Nobody will laugh

The first-person narrator, a lecturer in art theory in socialist Czechoslovakia, has published a politically uncomfortable study. While things are getting uncomfortable for him at the university, he receives a letter from a certain Mr. Zaturecky asking him to review his scientific work. The lecturer refuses to do this. But from now on he is pursued by Zaturecky and tries unsuccessfully to go into hiding. One day, the first-person narrator's partner comes to visit Zaturecky. At the meeting, he was seized by her beauty. When the narrator visits Zaturecky's wife, he explains that Zaturecky's work has no scientific value and that he can also accuse him of having sexually molested his partner. From then on, Zaturecky gave up on him.

The golden apple of eternal longing

Martin, a friend of the first-person narrator, actually leads a happy married life. Nevertheless, he tries to get to know as many strange women as possible with sporting ambition. Some women have conversations, for others he only finds their names and addresses. When they meet a girl of good faith who goes to the bath with them, Martin later impersonates himself as a director. The narrator views Martin's behavior sometimes with ironic distance, sometimes with sympathy. In the end, Martin loses his interest in the other women for a student who doesn't even exist.

Faked hitchhiking

A young man goes on vacation with his girlfriend in a sports car. He enjoys it when he runs out of gas and his girlfriend uses her feminine charms to be taken by other drivers to the nearest gas station. He just as much enjoys it when she ashamedly asks for a pee break in the great outdoors. On the way, they do an RPG in which the young woman talks to her boyfriend as if she were still a hitchhiker. When they finally get drunk in an arrival restaurant, the woman suddenly loses her modesty by saying she's going to piss .

The symposium

A senior physician, Dr. Havel, Fleischmann and their sister Lisbeth. The senior doctor has an extramarital relationship with the doctor, Lisbeth also wants to have sexual intercourse with the senior doctor, but is refused by him. The other doctors also initially reject her because they also want the doctor. When Lisbeth is found naked in the kitchen with the gas tap turned on, the doctors believe it was a suicide attempt, but the doctor assumes an accident. The doctor and Havel have a conversation, Havel's negative attitude towards sex with the doctor arouses the doctor, which ultimately leads to it. After Lisbeth is feeling better, she and Fleischmann get closer to each other. In the end, the doctor lost her sexual interest in the senior doctor.

The old dead must give way to the young dead

A widow from Prague, whose husband is buried in a small town, visits his grave. This was leveled some time ago because the deadline for the extension has already expired. In the small town she meets a younger man with whom she had a sexual experience several years ago. He is terrified of the physical aging process, while the widow even seems to have gotten younger.

Dr. Havel twenty years later

Dr. Havel from the story Das Symposium is now married to a younger actress. When he took a cure, she was jealous at home. At the spa he is interviewed by an intellectually inferior editor of a local newspaper and enjoys the presence of his therapist.

Eduard and God

The atheist Eduard falls in love with the devout Christian Alice. Although he does not believe in God because of the theodicy , he still tries to become a believer for Alice's sake. For Alice, her faith means above all chastity. Since openly demonstrated religiosity is undesirable in socialist Czechoslovakia, he gets into professional difficulties when he is seen publicly crossing himself. His headmistress wants to re-educate him and tries to seduce him. Eduard forces the director to pray the Lord's Prayer. Having overcome Alice's chastity with theological arguments, sexual intercourse occurs between the two. A short time later Eduard breaks off the relationship with Alice and returns to atheism.

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