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What Members Thought
This was absolutely joyous.
May 14, 2023
Emma
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
nyrb,
ocean-and-nautical
Loosely-connected vignettes about a grandmother, child, and father who vacation on a remote island in the Gulf of Finland. The mother in their family is an absent presence and the grandmother's mortality is a looming spectre. The beauty and simplicity of the nature around them provides a backdrop for wide-ranging dialogues between the grandmother and granddaughter about life, God, and nature. Very sweet, very tender, beautifully drawn. The illustrations are particularly touching.
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When it comes to things said and unsaid, it's difficult to describe the magic and magisterial achievement of Jansson's artistry in The Summer Book --the writing so lightly kept, so simple-seeming, so closely concerned with the weighing of moments that the weight of exegesis is probably too much and a complete disservice to a wonderful book. Just read it.
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I so enjoyed this sweet little book about Sophia and her grandmother and their summers on an island in Finland. It is full of love.
bought at the Watertown library 10/2011
This charming and spare collection of essays has special resonance for me. I married into a Finnish family with several older ladies very much like the grandmother in The Summer Book. Their relationship with children was also much like what's depicted in this book--loving, but decidedly crisp and no-nonsense. Here's to the Maki sisters--Gertrude, Ellen, Tyyne, and Mamie. We miss you.
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Feb 04, 2014
Leslie
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
2014,
international-and-translation
Apr 09, 2020
Cynthia Dunn
rated it
liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
nyrb,
scandinavian-lit
