Summer Book in NYRB Classics

Jun 22, 2017 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: recommended-novels, women-writers, translation, read-in-2017, nyrb, under-200-pages, novella

First day of summer and I finished The Summer Book. I rather didn't like the beginning but it quickly improved and I was a firm fan by the end. Just the opposite of summer, which I like at first but loathe by the time it's over. ...more

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Feb 24, 2011 Laura rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scandinavian-literature, bookmooch, fiction, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, read-2011, novellas, nyrb-classics

Just arrived from UK and it was kindly sent by H. Turner. Not so great as I expected.

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Dec 30, 2016 Dree rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scandinavia, 1001-read, 2016-reads

A series of vignettes, with 3 characters--grandma, dad, and 6-year-old Sophia. They spend every summer on an island in the sea, fishing, playing, gardening, watching nature. Sophia is a bit of a spitfire, dad is very busy fishing and doing undefined paperwork, and grandma isn't feeling that great in her old age. Bittersweet and sad, yet somehow happy and exciting as Sophia explores more and more. Makes me want to go spend a summer on a Scandinavian island. ...more

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Aug 18, 2015 Amy Gentry rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, short-stories, crones, existential-vacation, gentle-reads, nyrb-classics

These gentle regionalist sketches set on a tiny island in Finland are quaintly humorous, but somehow never sentimental, perhaps due to their frank reckoning with aging and death. A six-year-old girl, Sophie, spends the summer with her grandmother after the death of her mother; the father who putters with fishing nets in the background is probably dealing with his own grief, but this isn't his story. This is the story of a clever, capable woman well past the age of being taken seriously and a pre ...more

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Sep 10, 2022 Bronwyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: by-women, about-women, novels, title-s-z-and-number, author-j-r, european, nyrb-books, 2022-reads, in-translation

I read Fair Play last year and adored it so wanted to read more Jansson. This wasn’t quite as good for me, but was still really charming. Sophia was a bit obnoxious, but she is a kid, and I loved Grandmother. The little vignettes were sweet and made me want to live on an island off Finland. The one where Sophia is dictating her book was so relatable - my son has been dictating poems to me recently. I’m glad I read this and will continue to read more Jansson.

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Jul 25, 2018 Dave rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: clouds, lost-in-translation

At first I thought this was so cold and precise that it reminded me of The Road, if you can believe it. Woman and girl, terse symbolic arguments, etc. But now I think I agree with the intro, and that the book is determinedly UN-symbolic (as well as unsentimental and non-narrative). What it is is the picture of Jansson's version of a summer, and if I wish it were warmer and better rounded, then that's just me being resistant to what it is.

I think it's written very well, and perfectly illustrated ...more

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Jun 28, 2023 Nicole Chilton rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: travel, nyrb-picks, own-read, 2023

Some people love page-turners and romance for summer reads. I prefer these slow, trance-like vignettes that I can pick up and put down and the action pauses while I break.

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Aug 05, 2011 Nicholas During rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A very beautiful book. I want to call it lyrical, though that might not be the right word, as it has a very sparse and almost unemotional feel to it.

The chapters are structures as 'vignettes', as it says in the back-copy, but really it is about a grandmother and her granddaughter, Sophia, living on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland. The father is around, but barely enters the picture at all. It is briefly mentioned that the mother has died, and both father and Sophia seem to be traumatized. I ...more

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