{"product_id":"life-is-elsewhere","title":"Life Is Elsewhere","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"I will say no more about this lacerating book except to urge it upon all who care about literature in our difficult era.\" -- \u003cem\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"A sly and merciless lampoon of revolutionary romanticism. . . Kundera commits some of the funniest literary savaging since Evelyn Waugh polished off Dickens in \u003cem\u003eA Handful of Dust\u003c\/em\u003e.\"-- Time\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMilan Kundera initially intended to call this novel \u003cem\u003eThe Lyrical Age\u003c\/em\u003e. The lyrical age, according to him, is youth, and this novel, above all, is an epic of adolescence; an ironic epic that tenderly erodes sacrosanct values: childhood, motherhood, revolution, and even poetry. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJaromil is in fact a poet. His mother made him a poet and accompanies him (figuratively) to his love bed and (literally) to his deathbed. A ridiculous and touching character, horrifying and totally innocent (\"innocence with its bloody smile\"!), Jaromil is at the same time a true poet. He's no creep, he's Rimbaud. Rimbaud entrapped by the communist revolution, entrapped in a somber farce.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51947323588839,"sku":"9780060997021","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0449\/4075\/5096\/files\/imageloader_283e35cd-13af-4cf1-8107-2e88259bd859.jpg?v=1775486890","url":"https:\/\/arvidabookco.com\/products\/life-is-elsewhere","provider":"Arvida Book Co.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}