Friday, January 6, 2012

Day Six: "The Golden Apple of Eternal Desire" by Milan Kundera

Manhood.

This short story was a fun read first and foremost. Written in short labelled sections, the story is interesting and it keeps the reader wanting to find out if the main character will end up with a woman or remain alone. That is the center of this story, this search for what makes the character feel like a man. Does he play wingman to his philandering friend? Does he continue to lie about having a woman in his life to avoid actually getting out into the world and dating one? Does he have courage to confront his friend about his carefree lifestyle? Or will he continue to be the man who is a MAN with a capital "m", the guy who sees these women as the golden apples of eternal desire, women who are plentiful and hanging just low enough for him to pluck despite being unripe.

What Milan Kundera does in this story is make the reader laugh at what is truly a sad state of affairs. It is not love. It is not life. It is always just pretend.

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