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Невидимая девочка и другие истории by Tove Jansson, Туве Янссон

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juushika's review against another edition

4.0

Nine stories. Short fiction provides an opportunity to view lesser-seen aspects of characters (Snufkin's hidden depths are always a delight, particularly the view into his relationship with Moomintroll in "The Spring Tune") and build one-off arcs and characters. Most stories have distinct lessons, but the moralizing is lampshaded (as in "Cedric") and has new and mollifying tone: a cynicism that caveats the hopeful endings but also makes them more valuable. The Moomin cast are frequently at odds with social expectation, they're awkward or yearning; but this sense of discontent is different and feels more mature. It makes for stories like "The Fillyjonk Who Believed in Disasters," raw and cathartic and bitter and joyful, which I loved. And while short fiction collections always vary in quality, the bits of tone that don't work for me are contained to a single story rather than compromising an otherwise-strong work, which is an issue I've had in the novels. This is probably my favorite of the Moomin books thus far, which I wouldn't've expected of a short story collection, but I guess it's no surprise that I prefer my whimsy with a side of bitterness/sadness.

kittybetty's review against another edition

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5.0

This is an all-time favorite, and reading the final story aloud is a Yuletide tradition. My daughter and I shared the whole volume as a read-aloud in our latest re-read, savoring it slowly, one story at a time, every few days. Even so, it was over too soon, and now we will have to re-read the entire Moomin series together. Every time I read Tove Jansson, I treasure familiar moments, but other moments pop out that I hadn't savored enough before, and so I'm surprised and delighted anew. Recently we branched out to read Jansson's writing for adults, not having realized before that she had written anything non-Moomin, so now we have a whole pile of new favorites, but it's her ability to weave wisdom for all ages into light and fanciful children's books that puts Jansson forever on a top shelf, alongside Milne, Kipling, Grahame, and Lindgren.