Going to the beach, flying a kite, and other rites of summer

Last week, we had some beautiful days of gorgeous weather, so I decided it was the perfect time to read Tove Jansson's The Summer Book.  The only previous experience I've had with Jansson is with her book The True Deceiver, which is set in the deep of winter and has a different atmosphere entirely to this one.  Though not so different that you can't tell they are written by the same author.

I was quite excited to read The Summer Book because it seems like most people really love it.  It's more a series of short stories than one cohesive novel, all centered on a young girl, Sophia, and her grandmother.  Sophia's mother passed away recently and she's taken care of by her father and grandmother on an idyllic little island.  Sophia and her grandmother spend their days together traipsing through the woods, going to the beach, flying kites and doing other lovely activities, all the while talking about life, love, death, and other important matters.

I am sorry to say that I didn't really like Sophia.  Maybe something was lost in translation but it seemed like Sophia never just talked, she was always shouting or yelling.  Granted, she's six.  So... well, she probably did scream a lot, but it got exhausting even for me to just read about it.  That said, I do think that Jansson captured Sophia brilliantly here.  I don't know many six-year-olds, but I think that Jansson probably did because the way she shows Sophia's short-term thinking, her ability to jump from one topic to another, her passions and her boredom, is just so spot on.  She doesn't make Sophia out to be some sort of angel - she really does humanize her and shows us childhood, warts and all.

I did really like Grandmother.  Similarly to how she portrayed Sophia's youthfulness so wonderfully Jansson is fantastic at conveying Grandmother's mortality.  She gets exhausted quickly but doesn't want to show it.  She has lived a long and full life that Sophia doesn't even think about.  In every story, I was vividly aware that Sophia would not have her grandmother around for many more years, and it made me so sad for her. 

I admit I did not love this book the way that I expected to.  I don't blame the book, though, which when I think about objectively, really does sound quite lovely and just the sort of book that I would really enjoy.  I love vignettes!  And stories about young learning from old and vice versa.  And as someone who loved reading about Anne Shirley, who also grew up on an idyllic island, I feel like I should really like this book, too.  But I didn't adore it as much as I expected.  I think it's one I'll keep on my shelf to read in another few years, though.  Have you ever read a book and just known that if you read it again, you would have a totally different experience of it?  That's how I felt reading this one.

So if you are looking for a book that isn't too much of a time commitment but really does deliver on lovely stories and memorable characters, then try this one out!  But only if you are in the proper frame of mind :-)

Vikings Raid, Find God, and Search for Treasure

Gosh, this book is fun.  I mean, I knew it was going to be fun but I didn't expect it to be nearly as much as it was.  As usual, the New York Review Books team did a fantastic job of finding a truly fitting cover image as well - I could see Red Orm, the main character, standing on the prow (is that the front of a ship?  I don't know my terminology) and leading his team forth to battle or pillaging or finding treasure in a manner very like the man on the front of this book.

What's this book?  It's The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson, written in the 1940s about life in the 10th century.  I've had it on my radar for a while and then Eva reviewed it at the end of 2011 and reminded me about it and confirmed its awesomeness.  And then recently Amazon had it on Kindle Daily Deal, so I snatched it up (figuratively, not literally, of course, as it is an e-book) and then I started reading it in India and on my flight back from India.

While I enjoy reading, and often read on planes, I do think that a book needs to be fast-paced for me to enjoy reading it on a plane.  I am not sure why this is so - perhaps because if I am hurtling through the air at 700 miles per hour, I feel that the book I am reading should also be moving super-fast?  The Long Ships does move really fast, for the entirety of its nearly 500 pages.  And it's great fun the whole way through.

[TSS] Musings: The True Deceiver

Tove Jansson's The True Deceiver is one of those deceptive books.  It's written in very straightforward, plain language over the course of only 180 pages, but within those short sentences and each short chapter, we delve into issues such as reality vs. perception, trust vs. distrust, isolation vs. population, winter vs. spring and, a major theme, wolf vs. rabbit.

I must admit that I enjoyed this book but didn't understand all its subtleties and symbols until after I read the introduction by Ali Smith.  At that point, I had many "A-ha!" moments, and so in this case I can say that for me, at least, the introduction was a great help in comprehending the many levels of this novel.

Katri Kling and her brother, Mats, live in a very isolated town in northern Sweden.  They don't have many friends.  Katri isn't very friendly or polite, but she is honest and has a very good sense for numbers, so while people do not like her, they respect her.  The villagers think there is something wrong with Mats' mind, so they give him odd jobs to do around the village.  The two are close, but don't talk much.  They also have a large, silent dog without a name.

Anna Aemelin lives farther removed from the village, in a large house she inherited from her parents.  She is a well-known illustrator of children's books, in which she renders the details of the forest ground at spring in minute detail.  She also populates these pictures with rabbits that have flowery fur, which have made her very popular, but which she doesn't like very much herself. Katri has a plan to become necessary to Anna, insinuating herself and her brother into Anna's life until they no longer have to worry about money or other people.  But at what cost will this more comfortable life come?