The death of Milan Kundera this July 11 brings to a close a unique life story — from his growing up in a musical family in Brno, through his disowned early poetic attempts, to the publication of his great novels and essays. But perhaps paradoxically, it is as if an older narrative comes to a close here as well: the story of the socialist school of Czech literature that shaped the young Kundera and whose legacy he carried on — despite his criticisms and pariah status.

Milan Kundera lived long enough to become friends with the greatest Czech avant-garde poet Vítězslav Nezval as well as the French philosophy publisher Bernard-Henri Lévy. He himself said that friendship stands above politics. And so, he managed to take the best of Nezval — a poet who authored the purest poetist and surrealist poetry written in Czech, along with an ode to the bloody dictator Joseph Stalin — as much as from Lévy — author of Sartre: The Philosopher of the Twentieth Century, ideologue for Western military intervention and producer of highly medialized bollocks. As a teacher at the Prague Film Academy (FAMU), Kundera influenced an entire generation of filmmakers who were later to become the New Wave. But he was most respected as a novelist and essayist.