The Summer Book

Another quick read for me. Insomnia has its advantages. This book was strange and rather otherworldly.  I know it's a Scandinavian classic and yes, I did enjoy it a lot but one thing is, I didn't find it funny. Many of the reviews say it is humorous, but I never found it to be so! 

I thought it was beautiful, comforting, philosphical and oddly zen like. Like reading and meditating at the same time, but not funny.

Tove Jansen, of Moomin fame,  wrote this after her own mother died and based it on her mother and niece, who used to spend the summer months in the Gulf of Finland on their little Island. The Grandmother is very old, extremely independent and also wise and fair and the little six year old grand daughter, Sophia is 6 and prone to mad tantrums, wild out bursts and full of imagination.  Their relationship together is brilliantly told. Jansen gets into the childlike inquisitiveness of Sophia just as well as the end of life stillness of the Grandmother.  Both seem to spend a lot of time on the ground, Sophia coz she is inquisitive, grandmother because her legs are too weak to move very far. They both end up cheating together whilst playing cards,  going out on boat trips, breaking into houses and talking about heaven and death. grandmother  says that there are no ants in heaven and that Angels have day trips away to go and see their friends in hell. The two of them also seem to spend of a lot of time doing nothing and just sleeping. I suppose this is because the sun must be up for nearly 24 hours a day so their body clocks are a bit screwed! 

The island is also a main character in the book and almost every flower, bit of bark and forest is described in great detail.  It seems like a vast and exciting world and obviously to these two it is!  The introduction is interesting too, written by Esther Freud. She visited the island and was shown around by the now adult Sophia and it took just 4 minutes to walk around!   I think that is what I like the most about the book, the joy of greatness to be found even in the  smallest of places. It all depends on how you view things! I also loved the character of the rather crotchety old grandmotherShe is absolutely brilliant. But as for a good read, I'm in two minds, lots of the little chapters were just rather weird. I just couldn't get my head around what was/ wasn't going on. The stories were not in any order, time was all mixed up and the father figure, who never said a word, was just a brooding figure in the back ground who just worked at his desk whilst mourning his dead wife. For me this was all a bit unsettling because there was a lot being said through absence of writing. 

I can't explain what I mean... An interesting book which I found uplifting, extremely calming and just a little bit odd!