Remembering Milan Kundera
The first time I heard about Milan Kundera was while catching the S2 train to Au-Waedenswil. The invitation came as an ominous warning: 'Come or you will miss something.' There were only few tickets left for a seat at a theater adaptation of Kundera's work. They promised to treat me to dinner in Niederdorf. Huh! Two classmates asking me out on a date? I was taken aback when one of them quipped, 'So you can take a break from your Hemingway or Akutagawa. Both ceremoniously ended their lives in a meaningless mess.' I retorted, 'People might think I'm your male Asian servant!' One of them replied, 'Aren't you?' The next evening, my two lady companions began recounting stories of Prague. 'It also rains in Prague, you know, especially in July,' one of them told me. The other turned to me and said, 'You were funny when you shared the story of how you discovered Kafka in the professor's area at your university... with an exhibition ...