Laughable Loves is a collection of seven short stories written by Milan Kundera

Milan Kundera

Milan Kundera , born 1 April 1929, is a writer of Czech origin who has lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke. Kundera has written in...

 in which he presents his characteristic savage humour by mixing the extremes of tragedy

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

 with comic

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 situations in (mostly romantic) relationships.

Stories

The titles of the short stories are:

"Nobody Will Laugh"

"The Golden Apple of Eternal Desire"

"The Hitchhiking Game"

"Symposium"

"Let the Old Dead Make Room for the Young Dead"

"Dr. Havel After Twenty Years"

"Eduard and God"

• One story revolved around a young professor who loves to play mind-games with people he deems inferior. After putting off reviewing the work of an aspiring (and hopeless) scholar, he loses the young woman he was involved with, directly after realizing he loved her.

• There is also the story of a couple who play a role-playing game which initially excites them but then later scares one and repulses the other.

• 'Let the Old Dead make way for The Young Dead' is about a woman who visits her husband's grave in a cemetery only to find out that it has been removed in the favor of another grave that of a man who had died 'more recently.' This impacts upon her life as a person and is a major factor when she goes to visit a former lover.

• Two stories include the character Dr. Havel. The first of which is set in the hospital with several other doctors and a nurse. Dr. Havel is known for his multitudes of sexual exploits, and the nurse is interested in him, but he rejects her. The second story takes place ten years later, when Dr. Havel feels less powerful and attractive, yet is reminded of his attractiveness by his young, beautiful wife.

• There is the story of two middle-age men who flirt with many girls and proposition them. One of the men is married to a woman he loves, and the other would rather read a book.

• The final story is "Eduard and God", where a young man called Eduard has a religious girlfriend but he personally has to stay away from religion
  Religion
  Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
  
   because of his job in a school. It makes for difficult times for him when he is seen with his girlfriend at a church.