A review by ceallaighsbooks
The Woman Who Borrowed Memories: Selected Stories by Tove Jansson

dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“…so I ran to Uncle Einar again and shouted, “So what did you do? What did you do the first time you had your own money?” He said, “It was burning a hole in my pocket. I had to get rid of it, as quickly as possible. I had to buy the most important thing I could think of.” And he went out and bought a dreadfully tiny bottle of attar of roses. I think he did exactly the right thing. Some people say Uncle Einar is a snob, and I sincerely hope I can develop along the same lines.” — from “My Beloved Uncles”

TITLE—The Woman Who Borrowed Memories
AUTHOR—Tove Jansson
PUBLISHED—this edition, 2014 (stories & various translations published since 1971)
PUBLISHER—New York Review Books (USA)

GENRE—literary fiction; short stories
SETTING—Finland, Scandinavia, continental Europe, & various other places
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—art, isolation, darkness & light, life, philosophy, storms, neurodivergency, family & friendship, work & worth as an artist, the morbid and the macabre, nuclear apocalypse & the Cold War, Nature, travel

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
STORY/PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
BONUS ELEMENT/S—Loved all the really really subtle neurodivergent vibes in a lot of these stories! Great philosophical meanderings too!
PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“What is night? Sleeping till the next day; trying to sleep away your tiredness so you can face what you don’t want to face; hiding yourself in a cautious little death for which you’re not to blame—for hours that seem like seconds when you wake up… And dreams, what are they? They dig up your fear and display it, enlarged by cruelty. There is no rest, there is no comfort!” — from “The Storm”

I loved this collection of dark and beautifully written short stories by one of my favorite authors. Each one was so different and yet the same philosophy weaves its way through them all, connecting them in theme and style and feeling.

There were none that fell short for me though a few of them were a bit more upsetting than others. 😅 A few of my favorites were: “Black-White”, “The Storm”, “The Cartoonist”, “White Lady”, “The Doll’s House”, “The Summer Child”, “A Foreign City”, “Traveling Light”, and “Correspondence” (probably my favorite).

I would recommend this book to readers who are fans of Shirley Jackson, Zora Neale Hurston, and other authors who blend a beautiful, literary style of writing with themes exploring the darkness and disturbing inclinations inherent in human nature.

Final thoughts: I read this slowly over the course of a year-plus and will probably reread it that way, many times in the future, as well. 🥰

“P.S. Living honorably, I mean with dignity—Samuli said once that the whole secret is to live with some kind of dignity. I didn’t understand. Now I think he meant something about standing behind your idea, your purpose, leaning on it and believing in it and never yielding. Never abandon your guiding principle, he said, that’s the only thing that’s really dangerous. Never go against your true nature.” — from “Letters to Konikova”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

TW // animal cruelty, animal death (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—
  • everything else by Tove Jansson
  • DARK TALES, by Shirley Jackson
  • HITTING A STRAIGHT LICK WITH A CROOKED STICK, by Zora Neale Hurston
  • Virginia Woolf
  • and also, bear with me 😅, I felt a little F. Scott Fitzgerald coming through at times—that sort of dark, self-deprecating whimsy