When The Unbearable Lightness of Being appeared in 1984, it immediately became an international bestseller, garnering awards throughout the world, including a Los Angeles Times Book Award. Contemporary reviews of the novel were largely positive. Paul Gray, in a Time review, calls The Unbearable Lightness of Being "a triumph of wisdom over bitterness, hope over despair." Maureen Howard in the Yale Review writes, "The Unbearable Lightness of Being is the most rewarding new novel I've read in years." Thomas DePietro in Commonweal hones in on the heart of the book. He observes that The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a book of "burning compassion, extraordinary intelligence, and dazzling artistry." DePietro also notes the book "leaves us with many questions, questions about love and death, about love and transcendence. These are our burdens, the existential questions that never change but need to be asked anew."

Not all reviewers...