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nwhyte's review against another edition
5.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2769446.html
This is the most recent of Jansson's story collections to be translated into English, but it was the first collection of Tove Jansson's short stories to be published in her native Swedish (apart from the semi-autobiographical The Scupltor's Daughter). They show her already at the top of her form, quietly understated observation, sometimes brief vignettes, sometimes mapping out a brief section of a character arc that you can extrapolate further if you want. The two that particularly jumped out at me are both about a third of the way in, "Black-White", a tribute to Edward Gorey, about an illustrator who becomes consumed by his work, and "Letters to an Idol", no doubt inspired by her own experiences on both ends of the fannish dynamic, about obsession, communication and acceptance. But they are all good, and give a real feeling of life in Jansson's Bohemian urban and rural spaces.
This is the most recent of Jansson's story collections to be translated into English, but it was the first collection of Tove Jansson's short stories to be published in her native Swedish (apart from the semi-autobiographical The Scupltor's Daughter). They show her already at the top of her form, quietly understated observation, sometimes brief vignettes, sometimes mapping out a brief section of a character arc that you can extrapolate further if you want. The two that particularly jumped out at me are both about a third of the way in, "Black-White", a tribute to Edward Gorey, about an illustrator who becomes consumed by his work, and "Letters to an Idol", no doubt inspired by her own experiences on both ends of the fannish dynamic, about obsession, communication and acceptance. But they are all good, and give a real feeling of life in Jansson's Bohemian urban and rural spaces.
libraryanned's review against another edition
4.0
Like all short story books, some of them were beautiful and left you wanting more and some of them were just wanting. But I loved the writing no matter what.
annaclarimoto's review against another edition
5.0
Tove's short stories are absolutely wonderful. Each tale is so simple and relatable on one level, yet so deep!
bookwoods's review against another edition
3.0
Tämän novellikokoelman lyhyet, arkipäiväistä elämää tarkkanäköisesti kuvailevat tarinat ovat kyllä omalla tavallaan ihastuttavia, mutta myös helposti unohdettavia.
leilania's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
My favourite collection of her short stories so far, I particularly enjoyed black-white, letters to an idol, and a love story
markvb's review against another edition
emotional
funny
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
Some fun stories, no great epic tales but rather some more casual lighthearted short fragments of people's, especially artists', lives in different situations completely unrelated to each other. What really appealed to me in this work was really how well it was able to capture the feeling of Finland and being Finnish to me as a Finnish person, I can't say if this idea would translate at all to a non-Finnish reader but at least to me it is the glue that ties the collection together and makes it seem like a cohesive work even though the stories are unrelated. Also, I don't want to make it seem like this is the only thing the collection has going on for it, I particularly enjoyed the stories where Jansson dipped her foot into the absurd/surreal notably on Stormen and Den Andre. Some of my other favourites were Svart-vitt, En Kärlekshistoria, Sprängningen and Ekorren. I didn't feel as strongly for some of the other stories but nevertheless really enjoyed this collection.
balancinghistorybooks's review against another edition
5.0
Sort Of Books’ publication is the first English translation of Tove Jansson’s first short story collection, The Listener, which was first published in Finland in 1971. 2014, in which the book was published in English, marked the author’s centenary, and what better way to celebrate than in picking up one of her stunning books?
As with several other works of Jansson’s upon the Sort Of Books list – The Summer Book, Fair Play and The True Deceiver, to be precise – Thomas Teal was responsible for the flawless translation of the collection. The book’s blurb states that in The Listener, Jansson ‘revealed the clarity of vision and light philosophical touch that were to become her hallmark’. It goes on to herald the collection as ‘a tour de force of scalpel-sharp narration that takes us from a disquieting homage to the artist Edward Gorey, to perfect evocations of childhood innocence and recklessness’.
The Listener is comprised of eighteen tales in all, and as ever, the difference between each and every one is striking. The stories are of varying lengths, and beautiful vignettes which run to just three or four pages sit alongside longer character studies. In the title story, the ‘listener’ is Aunt Gerda, who was ‘fifty-five when it began, and the first sign of change was in her letters. They grew impersonal.’ The narrator goes on to say: ‘When a person loses what might be called her essence – the expression of her most beautiful quality – it sometimes happens that the alteration widens and deepens and with frightening speed overwhelms her entire personality. This is what happened to Aunt Gerda’. Later stories focus upon such things as freak weather conditions, growing up, and sharing one’s private island with a wayward squirrel.
Throughout, Jansson’s turns of phrase are beautiful, and each has been translated with such care: ‘In essence, Aunt Gerda was not much more than silence’, ‘The nights were luminous – the transparent, lingering blue that comes with spring’, and the description of a man’s cap as being ‘little more than a leaf that had floated down onto his hair’, for example. The author finds beautiy in absolutely everything, from the most simple of everyday tasks, to the nature which surrounded her. She makes even the mundane and commonplace endlessly fascinating, and is shrewd, profound and articulate in each and every story.
Jansson’s work is always incredibly perceptive, particularly with regard to her younger characters. The portrait of the young girl in ‘Unloading Sand’, for instance, is utterly sublime, and Jansson marvellously captures her vivacity: ‘With each step she moved further from the cottage, running and chewing, down to the shore and over the stones, jumping and skipping, precise, eating the whole way’. Nature is prevalent throughout The Listener, as is the exploration into intricacies of relationships, and the attention given to art and those who make it. The Listener is a stunning collection which is just as strong as Jansson’s later work, and it is sure to be adored by all of those who encounter it.
As with several other works of Jansson’s upon the Sort Of Books list – The Summer Book, Fair Play and The True Deceiver, to be precise – Thomas Teal was responsible for the flawless translation of the collection. The book’s blurb states that in The Listener, Jansson ‘revealed the clarity of vision and light philosophical touch that were to become her hallmark’. It goes on to herald the collection as ‘a tour de force of scalpel-sharp narration that takes us from a disquieting homage to the artist Edward Gorey, to perfect evocations of childhood innocence and recklessness’.
The Listener is comprised of eighteen tales in all, and as ever, the difference between each and every one is striking. The stories are of varying lengths, and beautiful vignettes which run to just three or four pages sit alongside longer character studies. In the title story, the ‘listener’ is Aunt Gerda, who was ‘fifty-five when it began, and the first sign of change was in her letters. They grew impersonal.’ The narrator goes on to say: ‘When a person loses what might be called her essence – the expression of her most beautiful quality – it sometimes happens that the alteration widens and deepens and with frightening speed overwhelms her entire personality. This is what happened to Aunt Gerda’. Later stories focus upon such things as freak weather conditions, growing up, and sharing one’s private island with a wayward squirrel.
Throughout, Jansson’s turns of phrase are beautiful, and each has been translated with such care: ‘In essence, Aunt Gerda was not much more than silence’, ‘The nights were luminous – the transparent, lingering blue that comes with spring’, and the description of a man’s cap as being ‘little more than a leaf that had floated down onto his hair’, for example. The author finds beautiy in absolutely everything, from the most simple of everyday tasks, to the nature which surrounded her. She makes even the mundane and commonplace endlessly fascinating, and is shrewd, profound and articulate in each and every story.
Jansson’s work is always incredibly perceptive, particularly with regard to her younger characters. The portrait of the young girl in ‘Unloading Sand’, for instance, is utterly sublime, and Jansson marvellously captures her vivacity: ‘With each step she moved further from the cottage, running and chewing, down to the shore and over the stones, jumping and skipping, precise, eating the whole way’. Nature is prevalent throughout The Listener, as is the exploration into intricacies of relationships, and the attention given to art and those who make it. The Listener is a stunning collection which is just as strong as Jansson’s later work, and it is sure to be adored by all of those who encounter it.
curiousreader's review against another edition
4.0
In this short story collection, Tove Jansson explores emotional experiences through the everyday; she tells us stories of people who are aging, who are isolated, who dream, who are mesmerized by art and by nature. They are stories with a twist, some even have a surrealist tone to them - like the story of the embroider woman who can foresee death. For the most part the people in Jansson's stories are unremarkable, but the way she gives them life feels authentic - they feel warm blooded; her stories, like in The Summer Book, capture the process and feelings of aging and loneliness in a way I've never quite seen in any other writer. Even though Jansson's writing and use of language itself is bare, stripped down, and quite understated - there is a sharpness and feeling of selectivity in her wording that makes her writing all the more effective.
susannam's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not a lover of the short form, so I'm probably not a good judge of this collection of short stories by Tove Jansson, an author most famous for her wonderful memoir from childhood called The Summer Book and for her fantastical and wildly popular Muumin stories for children. Short stories generally leave me too soon (well, yeah, they're short) and I feel their unfinished quality in a way that doesn't feel satisfying. That said, there are a few short stories in this book that I love, so if you ARE a short story afficionado, I'd say, try this one.