Character Analysis
There are two things that everybody in Jan's world will remember about Victor Passer: his irrepressible spirit in the face of great physical trials and the hilarious thing that happened at his funeral.
First, that spirit. When Jan goes to visit Passer in the hospital, he can tell that his friend is not going to make it. But Passer is not equally sure. Jan does that thing that all healthy people do when visiting a terminally ill friend: he pretends that death is equally imminent for both of them.
They both know it's a lie. But here's a silver lining: it's really the first time in The Book of Laughter and Forgetting that another character attempts—though clumsily—to take the feelings of another person into account. Jan is bad at it, but it brings out a noble sentiment in him: "He said it because he loved Passer and was outraged that this man so splendidly pounding his fist on the table was dying ahead of a world so undeserving of love" (VII.10.7).
In Kundera's gray, sad world, that's a heartrendingly beautiful statement. And that's exactly the kind of response that Passer seems to elicit from everyone who knows him. He's even able to get the beautiful and self-centered actress Hanna to reach outside herself to offer him solace.
Of course, Kundera would extinguish such an admirable character. It's an important point that he wants to make in this work: it doesn't matter how noble, determined, or good you are in life. We're all just millimeters and a push away from that border—and it keeps pace with us no matter what we do to avoid it.