The Curtain An Essay in Seven Parts

"A swiftly told, beautifully crafted, pleasurable. . . scrutiny of the novel. . . . To Mr. Kundera, the novel is a liberating force." - The Economist

"Bursting at the seams with ideas. . . Kundera dashes irrepressibly around his own studio. . . to consistently fascinating effect. A rare pleasure." - Steven Poole, New Statesman

"As the French expression goes, Kundera always gives you furiously to think...[He] writes...with passion." - Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World

"Kundera offers witty and edifying improvisations on...favorite themes...Anyone interested in the novel will delight in this book." - Alec Solomita, New York Sun

"Well-worth reading. . . witty and brisk and very smart, like all of [Kundera's] writing." - William Deresiewicz, The Nation

"Lovely, meandering observations on the genre to which he has consecrated his life. . . . Like good love stories, it pulls you in." - Philadelphia Inquirer

"Kundera's essay so perfectly distilles an approach to art that it realigns the way an art form is understood." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Essential reading in a long history of debates about the genre. . . . Wise, deep, and witty." - New York Review of Books

"A work of sophisticated literary cartography. . . agreeably studded with insights." - Wall Street Journal

"An elegant, personalized integration of anecdote, analysis, scholarship, memory and speculation. . . . Not since Henry James, perhaps, has a fiction writer examined the process of writing with such insight, authority and range of reference and allusion. . . Kundera's opinions, reflections, memories and desires are well worth listening to." - New York Times Book Review

"Kundera...argues brilliantly...Discarding chronology, [he] lets us witness the inner workings of his....wonderful reader's mind." - Cecile Alduy, San Francisco Chronicle

"Evocative...Kundera marvelously conducts us on a journey through the history of the novel." - Library Journal

"Kundera is assuredly one of the great living writers. . . . This is a remarkable book. . . . Absorbing and sometimes sublime." - Buffalo News