While the Czech-but-now-French author is known in much of the world for his pointed depictions of how the Communist regimes of Europe twisted the lives of regular people, he’s been viewed ambivalently or worse by many in the Czech Republic — not least because he got out of Czechoslovakia in 1975 and didn’t have to suffer through the final years of the Communist Party’s misrule. Now a new 900-page biography of Kundera has reignited criticism of and debate over the most famous modern writer the country has produced. – Global Voices