World Famous Comics: The Summer Book (New York Review Books Classics)
The Summer Book (New York Review Books Classics)
By: Tove Jansson Publisher: NYRB Classics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: NYRB Classics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 176 Publication Date: May 20, 2008 Release Date: May 20, 2008
Product Description: In The Summer Book Tove Jansson distills the essence of the summer—its sunlight and storms—into twenty-two crystalline vignettes. This brief novel tells the story of Sophia, a six-year-old girl awakening to existence, and Sophia’s grandmother, nearing the end of hers, as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. The grandmother is unsentimental and wise, if a little cranky; Sophia is impetuous and volatile, but she tends to her grandmother with the care of a new parent. Together they amble over coastline and forest in easy companionship, build boats from bark, create a miniature Venice, write a fanciful study of local bugs. They discuss things that matter to young and old alike: life, death, the nature of God and of love. “On an island,” thinks the grandmother, “everything is complete.” In The Summer Book, Jansson creates her own complete world, full of the varied joys and sorrows of life.
Tove Jansson, whose Moomintroll comic strip and books brought her international acclaim, lived for much of her life on an island like the one described in The Summer Book, and the work can be enjoyed as her closely observed journal of the sounds, sights, and feel of a summer spent in intimate contact with the natural world.
The Summer Book is translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal.
Insular Sorrow Yes, this is truly a great work of literature. For one, the unique, intimate descriptions of life on a small island off the west coast of Finland are exquisite. The writing captures so much of this maritime word in such sure, spare language, that the reader is placed there among the nordic flora, tasting and feeling the ocean, the sky. Nature binds this book together.
The other facet of this book is the relationship between the child, Sophia, and her Grandmother. We do not learn anything about the father, other than that he works at a desk, plants flowers, and skeins. We do learn early that the mother has died, but aside from its initial mention, it is never directly addressed again. Instead we get an oblique look at grief through the interactions between the two primary characters -- granddaughter and grandmother. Sophia deals with the loss primarily through questioning the natural world around her, observing and mourning the deaths of other small creatures, like mice and birds. In fact a lot of dead animals make an appearance in this work. The psychological portrayal of Sophia is astute, at times subtle. Perhaps the strongest part of the books is when she dictates a book to her grandmother about the death of a worm, which turns into a free-flow stream of conscious on death in general. Powerful stuff.
The grandmother seems less affected by the loss of Sophia's mother (her daughter-in-law?). She does not seem overly concerned with death, although she has to deal with its imminence daily through her own physical limitations, but more with the emotions of her granddaughter. She proves to be very tolerant and wise.
The book's ultimate power and brilliance rests heavily on the use of an old woman juxtaposed against a child. They are both confronting the mystery of existence, and their conversations and interactions reveal a deep longing to understand the eternal. A great book.
PS -- this reader felt that the illustrations added to the work, however the few with human characters seemed strangely off-putting.
Summer's perfect pace As a child, Tove Jansson lived in summer on islands in the Gulf of Finland, and later she and her partner Tuulikki Pietilä lived on a small island called Klovharu. Jansson wrote many children books, including the Moomin series, and ten books for adults.
The plot of the most famous of her adult novels is very simple; an elderly artist and her six-year-old granddaughter Sophia spend the summer on a tiny island exploring and talking about everything but Sophia's mother's death and their love for each other. They wander, pick flowers, watch storms, take trips in a rowboat. The 22 short episodes create a unity: "On an island," thinks the grandmother, "everything is complete."
The interaction between Sophia and her grandmother is a clash of wills, Sophia stubborn, impetuous and supportive; her grandmother wise, unsentimental, on the edge of exhaustion, dizzy, fearful of losing her balance "the balance between survival and extinction was so delicate that even the smallest change was unthinkable".
"It was just the same long summer always, and everything lived and grew at its own pace."
The book has been a major best seller in Scandinavia since it was first published in 1972. Thomas Teal has produced a wonderful English translation. This new edition from NYRB Classics is beautifully printed and bound. This novel captures a summer growing "at its own pace."
Robert C. Ross 2008
Beauty in simplicity This book was given to me by an uncommon friend and I enjoyed it very much. It is about the friendship between a grandmother and her young grandaughter who live on a bit of an island in Finland (?). The beauty and treasures discovered in the quiet lives they lead, finding joy in simple things and loving each other besides those petty annoyances of personality (they are very much alike). There are many "huggable" humorous moments. I think of one in which they trade cats--their cat is indifferent to the grandaughter's overtures and the one traded was much more warm and cuddly, but then (and I quote from the book).
"Hunt! Do something! Be like a cat!" And then she started to cry and ran to the guest room and banged on the door. "What's wrong now?" Grandmother said. "I want Moppy back!" Sophia screamed. "But you know how it will be," Grandmother said. "It'll be awful," said Sophia gravely. "But it's Moppy I love."
I wish I owned a copy so I could read it over and over again Mm, this is a beautiful, wonderful little book! It is a collection of little stories of a very small girl and her small grandmother going adventures on their little island in Sweden. So full of green things and little bites of happiness. The grandmother is oh so clever and says so many poignants to the girl. The girl is wise too. So full of joy.
Charming, beautiful and philosophical I rejoice that this short work has come into print again, though it's rather sad that it took the author's recent death to prompt the publishers into action. I'd read an extract in a guide to the top 100 books of the twentieth century and was surprised and disappointed not to be able to get my hands on the full edition.
Jansson has an inate understanding of the wisdom and skewed world-view of children, and manages to capture the fragile - and ephemeral - friendship which can exist between the very old and the very young. There is a freshness about her style which never teeters into whimsy. A rare achievement indeed.
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