Over the next several years he picked up money as a jazz musician (he played the piano) and day laborer. And friends sometimes arranged for him to write things under their names or pseudonyms. Inevitably, though, the authorities would learn the true identity of the brilliant nuclear physicist-astrologer, and Mr. Kundera realized with certainty there was no way to protect friends who wanted to help him. In London, the first English translation of “The Joke” had been so botched it was hard to know what to make of it. He wrote an author’s note for it that began, “If it didn’t concern me, it would certainly make me laugh: this is the fifth English-language version of ‘The Joke.’”)

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Persons: ”, ’, “, Kundera Locations: London, Prague