SOURCE: A review of Laughable Loves, in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. XII, No. 4, Fall, 1975, pp. 419-21.

In the following positive review, Chua surveys some of the themes in Laughable Loves.

[Laughable Loves] is a decidedly provocative and worth-while volume of short stories; they challenge our imagination and exercise our intellect. These stories first appeared in their native Czechoslovakia in 1969, and American readers might have caught glimpses of them in American Poetry Review or Esquire. Here they are in a highly readable translation by Suzanne Rappaport, chaperoned by a substantial and sympathetic introduction from Philip Roth.

The title of the anthology (Smesne Lasky in Czech) is aptly descriptive. Kundera's laughs, however, are remote from Playboy's party ribaldry. Certainly his humor does stem from sexual foibles, and his stories do deal with bed manners in contemporary Czechoslovakia. However, sexuality for Kundera is as existentially important as it is for...