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A review by pluviophilebookworm
Karlsson on the Roof by Astrid Lindgren
5.0
It’s been years since I’ve reread this childhood favourite of mine, but it’s almost like not a day has passed. dear little Smidge is still a massive mood, somehow almost even more so than when I was his age and first read the book. I mean, the entire internal monologue about how he’ll end up married one day ‘whether he wanted to or not’ was something I related to so hard for nearly all my life, whether I was Smidge’s age or twice or thrice his age, as a very aroace person even before I knew what that meant; and the whole cuddly toy dog business towards the end… still seems like a needlessly cruel (and rather badly thought-out) joke on his siblings’ part even though I’m far too old to be so affected by it still.
Enough about Smidge, though, even if I could go on about him for hours; as for the titular handsome, thoroughly clever, perfectly plump man in his prime, why, he was once upon a time the Hyde to my rule-abiding Jekyll, but his motto ‘Easy now, take it easy’ is something we might all do well to live by. I mean, he’s first and foremost a living, breathing, flying lesson in being unbothered by life’s mere trifles and that is why millions of readers from so many generations all over the world love him.
Now, this has never quite been my favourite Karlson book (much too tame compared to the latter two) — that would be number two simply for the bit where Smidge explains television to Karlson; but this introduction to the story of the World’s Best Karlson still is the nostalgic gold it’s always been to me, so it’s thoroughly deserved its full 5/5* rating.
Enough about Smidge, though, even if I could go on about him for hours; as for the titular handsome, thoroughly clever, perfectly plump man in his prime, why, he was once upon a time the Hyde to my rule-abiding Jekyll, but his motto ‘Easy now, take it easy’ is something we might all do well to live by. I mean, he’s first and foremost a living, breathing, flying lesson in being unbothered by life’s mere trifles and that is why millions of readers from so many generations all over the world love him.
Now, this has never quite been my favourite Karlson book (much too tame compared to the latter two) — that would be number two simply for the bit where Smidge explains television to Karlson; but this introduction to the story of the World’s Best Karlson still is the nostalgic gold it’s always been to me, so it’s thoroughly deserved its full 5/5* rating.