{"product_id":"book-af6z","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":"HarperCollins","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49345654718768,"sku":"BDaf6z","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/af6z-Square-cover.jpg?v=1776872257","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-af6z","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}