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A review by jem_ko
Fair Play by Tove Jansson
3.0
Putting aside my expectations and releasing my wants for this book I do have to admit it is an excellent quiet piece and the most honest homage to the true nature of enduring love. It is all at once atmospheric (specifically creating the feeling of constant thunder if that is something you like), sweet and humbling.
This is where my personal expectations re-emerge, when I sought sweetness in this book I found it to be in the bitterest form: truth. This is not the sweeping tale of love and kindness that keeps through age, time and distance but rather the blunt and brittle kind of fiction that plays out in beautiful but short-cut vignettes. It is amazing how true the words of both critics and fans of Tove’s work ring: she managers to write about “everything” by somehow writing “about nothing at all”.
This is the perfect just-over-100-page read for a rainy day but it will not warm your heart in a any swooping or customarily romantic way. My expectations certainly dimmed my experience of this book.
This is where my personal expectations re-emerge, when I sought sweetness in this book I found it to be in the bitterest form: truth. This is not the sweeping tale of love and kindness that keeps through age, time and distance but rather the blunt and brittle kind of fiction that plays out in beautiful but short-cut vignettes. It is amazing how true the words of both critics and fans of Tove’s work ring: she managers to write about “everything” by somehow writing “about nothing at all”.
This is the perfect just-over-100-page read for a rainy day but it will not warm your heart in a any swooping or customarily romantic way. My expectations certainly dimmed my experience of this book.