Kundera draws parallels between the evolution of music and the
novel in Western culture and how it shaped Western thought. While
his bias shows in many places, this is still a great exploration
of artistic forces in Western culture for the past 500 years.
Part 1 sets up the European novel as the defining art
form of the modernism and at the source of Western ideology. By
promoting ambiguity and letting characters define their own moral
compass, they enabled the development of an individualistic
thought in the Western philosophy and directly leading to our
putting a value on the person as an individual.
Part 2 shows how Kafka's legacy has been tainted by the opinion
of his biggest fan and how said fan used his position to twist and
manipulate Kafka's art to support his own esthetic views.
Part 3 draws a parallel between the evolution of the European
novel and that of European music in since the XIVth
Century. Both were moving away from the exhalted and highly
stylized forms of the past and reaching for a deeper connection
with the real world by studying what others might consider
mundane.