How to write a summary of a book

One of the main steps to summarize a text is to read it as many times as necessary. However, we cannot strictly follow this rule when summarizing a book. The previous steps that we follow before starting to write will be essential to make the process of summarizing a book agile and fast.

¿When and where? During reading, it is important to identify where and when the story happens.

¿Who are the main characters? In addition to the protagonists there will also be less important characters. During reading, you should pay attention to details such as the age and personality of each, and how the characters are related.

¿What is the knot and outcome? In each story there will be a problem and a solution.

Make an outline with the ideas you have underlined above. This step to summarize a book and make summaries of stories will be very useful when separating the main ideas from the secondary ones and to get a better idea of the order that you have to take when you summarize.

Once we have followed these tips for summarizing books, it is time to start writing the summary of a book. If you don’t know how to summarize correctly, it is always a good idea to inform yourself well before writing.

Book

The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera

The Unbearable Lightness of Being was published in 1984 and was immensely popular and soon became the author’s most popular work, Milan Kundera. Four years later, in 1988, the novel was adapted into a film of the same name, directed by Philip Kaufman and written by Jean-Claude Carrière.

Contents

Gender

This work is considered within the genre of Philosophical Novel. This genre involves works of fiction within which a large part of the writing is dedicated to the discussion of certain topics that are approached from the point of view of discursive philosophy.

Storyteller

The author uses the framing method: there is a first-person narrator and the story that tells, where third-person narration is used. The narrator is the same writer or a fictional version of him.

Characters

Tomás: he is the protagonist of the novel, a brilliant surgeon and intellectual from Prague. He is a happy womanizer who lives for his job as a doctor. After falling in love and marrying the emotionally needy Tereza, Tomás finds himself caught between the womanizer he cannot give up and his genuine love for his new wife.
Tereza: This is Tomás’s young wife. She is a gentle but intelligent photojournalist who does her research after the Soviet occupation of Prague. She places no emphasis on bodily pleasures and endures her husband’s infidelities.
Sabina: she is Tomás’ favorite lover and his closest friend. A talented painter, Sabina successively betrays her father’s house, her art school, her lovers, and ultimately her country.
Franz: kind and compassionate teacher from Geneva, lover of Sabina. He is a liberal and romantic dreamer. He is the most idealistic character in this novel.
Simon: This is Tomás’s son from his first wife. He is a dreamer and always idealized his father, who did not want to meet him.
Karenin: is Tereza and Tomáš’s pet. It was named after a character in Anna Karenin. Like its owners, it found joy and happiness in the field. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with cancer that ultimately killed him.
Mother of Tereza: This woman was considered a beauty in her youth. Condemned to a frustrating marriage for her pregnancy with Tereza, she renounces youth and beauty for a shameless vulgarity that Tereza cannot bear.
Marie-Claude: she is the wife of Franz. A Geneva socialite who turns out to be a vulgar and pretentious woman.

Title-Content relationship

The phrase “The unbearable lightness of being” is characteristic of Kundera, but comes from an idea of Nietzsche, that of “eternal return”. It states that our universe and existence have occurred an infinite number of times and will continue to occur to infinity.

In the novel, the narrator refers to the lightness of being in two ways: the sweet and the unbearable lightness of being. Kundera argues that lightness is unbearable, but it is up to us as readers to understand the reasons behind this argument.

Synopsis and Summary

La insoportable levedad del ser es contada en siete partes. La primera, llamada “Levedad y peso”, comienza con la idea de Nietzsche del retorno eterno. El lector conoce a Tomás quién es cirujano y está enamorado de una joven llamada Tereza. A pesar de su amor por ella, se involucra en lo que él llama amistades eróticas. Tereza está devastada por esto.

Tereza y Tomás se casan y adquieren un cachorro llamado Karenin. Tomás tiene una amistad erótica con Sabina, quien es artista. Ella lo conoce muy bien e incluso se convierte en una buena amiga de Tereza.

En 1968, los rusos ocupan Checoslovaquia, lo que hace que Sabina se vaya a Suiza. Un médico suizo llama repetidamente a Tomás y le pide que venga también a Suiza. Él y Tereza se mudan a Zúrich, donde florecen durante seis meses. Cuando Tereza descubre que Tomás sigue viendo a Sabina, ella se va a Praga, y Tomás la sigue.

La segunda parte de la novela, “Alma y cuerpo”, vuelve a contar la historia ahora desde el punto de vista de Tereza. El lector aprende mucho sobre su familia. Su padre murió en la cárcel como preso político, y su madre fue abusiva. Se comparten también sus sueños, que son preocupantes y generalmente incluyen a Tomas. Al final de la segunda parte, Sabina y Tereza se hacen amigas.

La tercera parte, “Palabras mal entendidas”. Abre con Franz, que es un profesor que vive y enseña en Ginebra quien tiene una aventura con Sabina. Franz no ama a su esposa, Marie-Claude y él y Sabina con frecuencia se malinterpretan el uno al otro. Esa incapacidad para conectarse lleva a Sabina a abandonar Franz y Suiza. Ella va a París y, en última instancia, a los Estados Unidos.

Mientras está en París, Sabina recibe una carta del hijo de Tomás, quien le dice que tanto Tomás como Tereza murieron en un accidente automovilístico. Mientras tanto, Franz comienza una relación romántica con un estudiante y toma un papel activo en la política.

En la cuarta parte, “Cuerpo y alma”, Franz le cuenta a Marie-Claude sobre su aventura. Tomás está trabajando como limpiador de ventanas y Tereza está trabajando en un bar. Casi nunca se ven porque tienen horarios diferentes. Tereza se da cuenta de que Tomás está viendo a otra mujer. Conoce a un ingeniero en el bar y se involucra en un encuentro sexual con él. Ella se da cuenta de que él es un espía del estado.

“Levedad y peso”, la quinta parte, explica cómo Tomás perdió su trabajo en el hospital. Había escrito una carta al editor de una revista y se negó a retractarse, su negativa significa que debía renunciar a su trabajo. Todos piensan que está protestando contra el régimen totalitario. Simon, el editor de la revista, le pide que firme una carta exigiendo la liberación de los presos políticos checos; Tomás se niega a firmar así que se lleva a Tereza a una granja para escapar.

La sexta parte, o “La Gran Marcha”, involucra el kitsch comunista, la ausencia de belleza como una forma de conformidad forzada. Esta parte de la historia sigue a Franz, quien viaja con un grupo de intelectuales a Tailandia. Su misión es protestar por las violaciones de los derechos humanos en Camboya. Después de ser asaltado, Franz es transportado de regreso a Suiza donde muere en un hospital.

En la última parte, “La sonrisa de Karenin”, se muestra la vida de Tomás y Tereza en el campo. Karenin, su perro, ahora es viejo y está muriendo de cáncer. Tanto Tomás como Tereza están profundamente heridos por la muerte de Karenin. Tomás ha renunciado a sus amantes, y Tereza busca el perdón por hacerlo infeliz, aunque él le dice que lo es. Sus últimas horas de vida pasan así, en felicidad, juntos.

Analysis

Lightness and weight are linked with a philosophy. The ancient Greek Paremenides, mentioned in the opening pages of the novel, is a philosopher of lightness for whom weight is negative. Practically, accepting the lightness of being means accepting a certain lack of ultimate meaning in life and living for a momentary beauty.

Kundera associates weight with Nietzsche and the philosophy of the eternal return. Kundera does not believe that there is an eternal return, and argues that man only has the opportunity to try a path, and therefore has no point of comparison or meaning.

Phrases / Quotes

Man can never know what he should want, because he lives only one life and has no way of comparing it with his previous lives or amending it in his later lives. ”
“The majority of people flee from their sorrows into the future. They imagine, in the course of time, a line beyond which their current sorrows will cease to exist. ”
“We all need someone to watch us. It would be possible to divide ourselves into four categories, depending on the type of gaze under which we want to live. ”

Books summaries by categories

A Study in Scarlet – Arthur Conan Doyle

A World Without End – Ken Follett

Books summaries by author