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tillydaisym's reviews
408 reviews
Notes from an Island by Tuulikki Pietilä, Tove Jansson
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Tove Jansson’s books have always been a special source of solace for me. She writes with such wisdom and honesty about art, life, nature, friendship, loneliness, and belonging.
Notes From an Island (tr. Thomas Teal) is a collection of diary entries from her time living on a secluded island off the Gulf of Finland with her lifetime partner, ‘Tooti’ (and is interspersed with art by Tuulikki Pietilå too).
It’s a meditation on the empowering force of solitude in nature, but also the relentlessness of a stark, isolated seascape.
*Thankyou to the publisher for a gifted copy; all thoughts my own xo
Notes From an Island (tr. Thomas Teal) is a collection of diary entries from her time living on a secluded island off the Gulf of Finland with her lifetime partner, ‘Tooti’ (and is interspersed with art by Tuulikki Pietilå too).
It’s a meditation on the empowering force of solitude in nature, but also the relentlessness of a stark, isolated seascape.
*Thankyou to the publisher for a gifted copy; all thoughts my own xo
A Helping Hand by Celia Dale
dark
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Nothing to be Rescued by Asta Sigurdardottir
emotional
sad
medium-paced
4.0
An aura of melancholy drifts through each of these short stories in Nothing to Be Rescued, the first English translation of the Icelandic author, Ásta Sigurðardóttir (tr. Meg Matich) for nordisk books*.
At the centre of daily repetition and mundanity is an unlikely protagonist, yet only towards the end of each story does the real misery or misfortune or grotesquery unveil itself with brutal clarity.
A woman seeks an abortion due to her shame of being unmarried and poor; another woman obsesses over the faces of babies in prams due to mourning the loss of her own child; another woman keeps a bird trapped in a cage, unsure whether freedom is truly liberating, symbolic for her own confines within society.
The Icelandic author had a turbulent life herself, suffering from alcoholism and complicated relationships and scrutiny under the male gaze. Her personal stories seem to ripple as an undercurrent in her writing.
If you like the danish author, Tove Ditlevsen, I’m naming Ásta Sigurðardóttir Iceland’s equivalent.
*Takk to the publisher for a gifted copy; all thoughts my own xo
At the centre of daily repetition and mundanity is an unlikely protagonist, yet only towards the end of each story does the real misery or misfortune or grotesquery unveil itself with brutal clarity.
A woman seeks an abortion due to her shame of being unmarried and poor; another woman obsesses over the faces of babies in prams due to mourning the loss of her own child; another woman keeps a bird trapped in a cage, unsure whether freedom is truly liberating, symbolic for her own confines within society.
The Icelandic author had a turbulent life herself, suffering from alcoholism and complicated relationships and scrutiny under the male gaze. Her personal stories seem to ripple as an undercurrent in her writing.
If you like the danish author, Tove Ditlevsen, I’m naming Ásta Sigurðardóttir Iceland’s equivalent.
*Takk to the publisher for a gifted copy; all thoughts my own xo
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Child death, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, and Grief