Study Guide

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Part 5, Chapter 17

By Milan Kundera

Part 5, Chapter 17

Two years is about as long as anyone can be on holiday, and Tomas is now in his third year of window-washing.
He's also physically exhausted from having so much sex with so many different women, though his curiosity is still insatiable.
One day, he's getting off early from work, and hasn't had sex with anyone.\
He panics and tries to call a young woman about ten times, someone he's had trysts with many times in the past.
Then, while he's walking down the street, he runs into a woman who greets him.
He does not recognize her and tries to figure out who she is as quickly as he can so he can get her to go have sex with him.
Finally he realizes – she is the young woman he has been trying to call all day.
This proves to him that he is as tired mentally as he is physically, and that his two-year-long holiday has come to an end.

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