"An elegant, personalized integration of anecdote, analysis, scholarship, memory and speculation. . . . Not since Henry James, perhaps, has a fiction writer examined the process of writing with such insight, authority and range of reference and allusion. . . Kundera's opinions, reflections, memories and desires are well worth listening to." – New York Times Book Review
"A work of sophisticated literary cartography. . . agreeably studded with insights." – Wall Street Journal
"Essential reading in a long history of debates about the genre. . . . Wise, deep, and witty." – New York Review of Books
"Kundera...argues brilliantly...Discarding chronology, [he] lets us witness the inner workings of his....wonderful reader's mind." – Cecile Alduy, San Francisco Chronicle
"As the French expression goes, Kundera always gives you furiously to think...[He] writes...with passion." – Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World
"Lovely, meandering observations on the genre to which he has consecrated his life. . . . Like good love stories, it pulls you in." – Philadelphia Inquirer
"Kundera offers witty and edifying improvisations on...favorite themes...Anyone interested in the novel will delight in this book." – Alec Solomita, New York Sun
"Well-worth reading. . . witty and brisk and very smart, like all of [Kundera's] writing." – William Deresiewicz, The Nation
"A swiftly told, beautifully crafted, pleasurable. . . scrutiny of the novel. . . . To Mr. Kundera, the novel is a liberating force." – The Economist
"Bursting at the seams with ideas. . . Kundera dashes irrepressibly around his own studio. . . to consistently fascinating effect. A rare pleasure." – Steven Poole, New Statesman
"Kundera is assuredly one of the great living writers. . . . This is a remarkable book. . . . Absorbing and sometimes sublime." – Buffalo News
"Brilliant, vehement, learned and wise...Stimulating and provocative...THE CURTAIN raises essential questions." – Salon.com
"Kundera's essay so perfectly distilles an approach to art that it realigns the way an art form is understood." – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Evocative...Kundera marvelously conducts us on a journey through the history of the novel." – Library Journal