On 'Identity' by Milan Kundera.

just came accross this one skimming aimelessly the shelves of this iconic place of worship of all english speakers in paris - the WHSmith. for me, this is the place of escape from the world of the ordinary...where depending on my mood, I get to select between an accessible (from the language point of view) french book or a substantial english one. this time I decidedly opted for the second, for the fear that my brain might otherwise just wither away. As always with Milan Kundera, I am not dissappointed.

I mentioned the book to a friend yesterday, she asked me what the it was about and I just didn't know where to begin. What is it about? Is it about a woman in the search of unconditional acceptance? is it about superficiality/critique of female desire to be n0ticed? is it about the meaning of friendship? i would be lying if i could propose an explanation on what is the main tenet of this short but fascinating piece, if he meant to have just one to exist at all.

for me, 'identity' was about the need and indeed the role of friendship - what function does it really serve? Kundera's clear suggestion, although surely unacceptable to many for obvious reasons, cannot be dismissed. in fact, i think he is pointedly correct in his interpretation and this is perhaps they part i would take away from the book. "friendship is indispensable to a man for the proper function of his memory. remembering our past, carrying it with us always, may be the necessary requirement for maintaining, as they say, the wholeness of self. to ensure that the self does not shrink, to see that it holds on to its volume, memories have to be watered like potted flowers, and the watering calls for regular contact with the witnesses of the past, with friends. they are our mirror, our memory, we ask nothing of them but that they polish the mirror from time to time so we can look at ourselves in it." is he right when he suggests that the value of pure, altruistic friendship has deteriorated because of a lack of 'great perils' and their replacement with the everyday greyness, minor annoyances with bucreacracy, money and our family? can it be true that the primary function of frienship on our times is to remember, to hold on to episodes, to be able to re- constitute a whole out of disconnected episodes?