The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a little gem of a book – easily the best I have read so far this year.
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson is not easy to review, because the book itself refuses to adhere to conventions. In fact, it is only by having read and reflecting on this book that you are reminded how conventional much of today’s literature has become.
To say that it is a series of anecdotes about a grandmother and a granddaughter on a remote island in the Gulf of Finland is factually accurate, but does the book no justice at all. There is a story thread that runs through the book, hidden in plain sight.
To say that Jansson uses commonplace events as metaphors to illuminate deeper truths, and in so doing makes the commonplace extraordinary, is too simplistic. Jansson seems to skirt the line between metaphor and on-the-nose narration.
Her prose is sparse, and while this may reflect the work of the translator, it is somehow perfectly suited to the story and the characters.
The willful and sensitive granddaughter, Sophie, does not exactly grow up, but in the spaces between the chapter-anecdotes, which read almost nostalgically, we see the structure of the grown woman Sophie will one day become – this vision lends depth to the anecdotes and gives the reader important perspective.
And in the spaces between the grandmother’s many naps and clandestine cigarette breaks, we see that same woman: an unwritten character whose invisible womanhood binds the granddaughter and grandmother to each other, giving this short novella the breadth of a multigenerational epic.
No plot spoilers, but the final chapter made me cry. I’m not even sure if it was the subtle metaphor I imagined she was employing, or simply Jansson’s plain, beautiful writing onto which my mind projected a metaphor. And in the end, is there any difference?
Because either way, if I remain a writer and live as long as the grandmother, I would count myself lucky to ever write something as simple, as perfect and as honest as The Summer Book.
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