Milan Kundera's first novel is a satirical account of the Communist regime and its totalitarianism, eventually leading to his blacklisting and his works being banned in Czechoslovakia. The central theme of the plot being jokes, and how each of the central characters find their lives transformed by life's elaborate prank. There are four central characters, each of whose first-person perspectives unfold systematically as the plot unfolds. Some of the underlying themes are blacklisting, cultural conservatism, religion and life in imprisonment.