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The Summer Book

Tove Jansson,

Esther Freud (Contributor)

Start date: July 1, 2020

Finish date: July 31, 2020

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Jun 29, 2022 Sara rated it really liked it

Shelves: multi-generational, family, women-writers, archive-org, aging

Perhaps children and the very elderly are closer to God, or at least closer to nature, because one is newly born and knows little and the other is near death and knows too much. While reading this sweet story of a grandmother and grandchild sharing their summer on a Finnish island, I kept thinking of them as opposite ends of a spectrum and yet as alike as two newly-minted pennies.

There is a kind of serene loveliness to this book, which is more a series of vignettes than an actual novel. It is su Perhaps children and the very elderly are closer to God, or at least closer to nature, because one is newly born and knows little and the other is near death and knows too much. While reading this sweet story of a grandmother and grandchild sharing their summer on a Finnish island, I kept thinking of them as opposite ends of a spectrum and yet as alike as two newly-minted pennies.

There is a kind of serene loveliness to this book, which is more a series of vignettes than an actual novel. It is summer and Sophia and her grandmother share adventures, break the rules, and befriend one another; one on a path of discovery and the other contemplating and sharing all the things she has gleaned over a lifetime. And, sometimes it is the young who have the wisdom.

It's funny about love', Sophia said. 'The more you love someone, the less he likes you back.'
'That's very true,' Grandmother observed. 'And so what do you do?'
'You go on loving,' said Sophia threateningly. 'You love harder and harder.

Jansson transports us to this island and helps us to see it through the loving eyes of a person who has known it forever and the wondering eyes of a person who is just discovering all its hidden treasures. I kept thinking of another work of this type, The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories, in which the natural environment is almost a character itself. The Summer Book gave me that same immersed feeling.

We end the book with the first indicators that fall is approaching.

It is still summer, but the summer is no longer alive. It has come to a standstill; nothing withers, and fall is not ready to begin. There are no stars yet, just darkness.

And we know, if the child does not, that the summers of her grandmother are limit; she has already passed into the autumn of her life and winter is nipping at her heels. But what a blessed thing this time is for them both, for Grandmother has a chance to see the wonder that her life has been and Sophia is building memories that will someday stand in for this person she must surely lose.

This is not a melancholy book, but there is a trace of melancholy that runs beneath its surface, and a current of joy as well.
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Aug 10, 2013 Christine rated it really liked it

Shelves: library-books, short-story-novella, country-finland, read-in-2013, best-of-2013, authors-i-to-l, around-the-world-in-80-books, family-relationships

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The book reminds me of my own relationship with my grandma. A lot of memories keep coming up during my reading of "The Summer Book".

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cover
Looking at the cover, I easily dreamt myself to an island to spend my summer holidays on. Love it!

my thoughts

I picked up "The Summer Book" when the summer was already over and autumn greeted me with leaves falling from the trees. I was not quite ready to believe that the summer was over and therefore wanted to read "The Summer Book", as ...more

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Jun 05, 2024 Kara rated it really liked it

“Smell is important. It reminds a person of all the things he’s been through; it is a sheath of memories and security.”

I absolutely love this quote from The Summer Book and I so enjoyed this quick, quiet, lovely read. Sophia, a young girl who is grieving the death of her mother, spends the summer with her father and grandmother on a tiny island off the Gulf of Finland. There is not action packed adventure or driving plot here, just beautiful glimpses into the life of this young girl learning how ...more

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Jan 10, 2023 Annette rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-read, books-by-women, library, 2023

Precious vignettes of a girl, her grandmother and summer on an island. I particularly loved the patience, wisdom and fancy of the grandmother. Ah, I did not want this to book to end.

Some favorite quotes:
“Sophia had learned the song and she sang it just as badly as her grandmother did.”
”Wise as she was, she realized that people can postpone their rebellious phases until they’re eighty-five years old, and she decided to keep an eye on herself.”
”They had both become impossible and couldn’t get alo ...more

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