"A man possessed by peace never stops smiling."

Magic realism, an artistic genre, most popular among modern Latin-American fiction fuses magical elements or illogical events with a realistic setting. This style of storytelling has been enthusiastically embraced by a few English writers, especially women who have strong views of gender. It was imported into British fiction from the "outside" rather than appearing spontaneously due to the country's relatively "untraumatic" modern history. In The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1976) the author Milan Kundera remarked that he had seen "a circle of dancers rise into the air and float away." However, we know this to be an impossible event. The ring of dancers rise from the ground and float into the sky. We delay our common sense or disbelief because the event sounds so powerful. The expressed emotions we feel have been built up over the previous pages. Milan Kundera was one of the many Czechs who celebrated the move of the Communist Party into mainstream society in 1948. Many were hopeful it would create a brave new world of freedom and justice. Milan was soon expelled from the party, and these emotions are often explored in his writing. In The Book of Laughter and Forgetting he writes about the public ironies and private tragedies of post-war Czech, and moves spontaneously between reality and fantasy. His image of the rising dancers epitomizes the absurd self-deception of the members of the Communist Party; their apprehension to declare their own purity and innocence. As well as their determination to ignore all the issues of the political system in which they belong. It is often said that this fantasy image expresses the envy and loneliness of the author who was banished from ever being able to participate in their euphoria and safety of their dance. One of Kundera's most likable characteristics is that he never takes the martyr position, and he never underestimates the human cost of being a nonconformist.

Unreliable Narrator

Unreliable narrators are commonly known as “omniscient” narrators, and only invented for the purpose of being a part of the story they are telling. The point of using an unreliable narrator in a piece of work is to expose in a more attention-grabbing way the gap between what seems to be, and the actual reality, which is a very human characteristic. It reveals how humans distort the truth. The narrator in kazoo Ishiguro’s novel, The Remains of the Day is an elderly butler from England who works at a wealthy estate that now belongs to a rich American. Encouraged by his new employer to take a short holiday in the West Country; Stevens intends to make contact with Miss Keaton, a housekeeper in order to persuade her out of retirement to solve an employment crisis at Darlington Hall. In the style of a typical butler, Stevens writes, and speaks without enthusiasm or originality. On his journey to find Miss Keaton, Stevens reminisce about past events such as his old employer Lord Darlington who was an amateur diplomat that gave support to fascism and anti-Semitism. He has kept this a secret from anyone for years, and takes pride in is flawless service. This same air of secrecy has made him unable to recognize his love for Miss Keaton, who desperately needs his affection after a loved one, has died suddenly. Later on we see his sensitive soul when he is concerned about intruding on Miss Keaton after he realizes that he didn’t offer his condolences. He believed that just on the other side of the door Miss Keaton might be crying. It isn’t until many pages later that we are introduced to the real reason why Miss Keaton was so upset. She was mortified after begin so callously rejected by Steven’s shy love.