Tove Jansson's The Summer Book is every bit as charming as I thought it would be, at once elegiac and humorous, and even a little surprising to me in its depth. The story of a grandmother and her six-year-old granddaughter is told through a series of vignettes as they pass the summer on an island in the Gulf of Finland following the natural rhythms of the season. What's not entirely obvious is that Sophia's mother has just died, as the event is barely remarked upon. Although her father moves through the pages as well, it's Sophia and her elderly grandmother who capture the reader's attention.
Tove Jansson wrote The Summer Book in 1972 a year after the death of her own mother, the artist Signe Hammersten. They had had a particularly close relationship and Jansson felt the death intensely. Much of Jansson's life is reflected in the book. Not only is her mother featured in the story, but the island where Jansson lived and had built a home with her brother Lars, Sophia's father, where they spent many summers. Although I read the NYRB edition of the book, I discovered I had the UK version on my shelf as well, so I am sharing a few of the photos that the US version lacks. Esther Freud, who wrote the introduction in the UK version was lucky enough to visit the island and meet the real Sophia, who was an inspiration for the story. She found the island to be immediately recognizable from the descriptions in the book and discovered how small the island actually is.
"Sophia puts the kettle on. She feeds the cat, and carefully waters her garden of flowers. I leave my bag outside the house and set off to explore. I stick to the very edges, skirting the rocks on its most northerly side, stepping over boulders, climbing through the undergrowth of scrub, past a miniature meadow of flowers, another of dry grass, up into the pinewood and I'm back at the house. I feel a little uneasy. Claustrophobic even. My walk has taken me four-and-a-half minutes!"
Apparently when her own island became too crowded with family Jansson moved to an even smaller island with her long-time companion spending part of every year there from 1964 to 1991 when she finally moved permanently to Helsinki at age seventy-seven. The house is still there and has become a sort of museum. Just as in the book they left instructions to travelers who might drop by and rarely does a day go by without a visitor.
It's hard to describe the story since it tends to meander giving brief glimpses of Sophia and her grandmother's world. They are such a quirky pair, though their affection for each other is obvious. Sophia's grandmother is slightly curmudgeonly, a little shaky on her feet, apt to lie down and gaze at the sky, but always willing to listen to her granddaughter and join her in her island explorations. Sophia is temperamental and passionate and always showing concern for her grandmother's health. The two talk about everything, discussing, agreeing and even at times arguing.
The natural world is lovingly and deftly described--the flora and fauna as well as the unpredictable nature of the weather. Nothing is too small or too unimportant to take notice of from a soft, downy feather that has landed on a blade of grass to the uncertain way a day may dawn clear with blue skies and end with a titanic storm that topples boats and rips apart nets. I liked the often irreverent conversations between Sophia and her grandmother--whether there is or isn't a hell and how or whether God listens to prayers and whether it's okay to break the locks on the shutters of a new neighbor's house whose presence isn't exactly welcome, so they can look inside.
The Summer Book was such an enjoyable book, different than I expected, but different in good ways. It is a classic in Scandinavia, where it has never been out of print. Tove Jansson is famous for her Moomin children's books, which I have never come across as well as a number of books for adults. I'd very much like to read her Winter Book now, though I think I might save it for the hottest days of summer! The Summer Book is being discussed by the Slaves. You can read more about it here and if you've also read it, please feel free to join the discussion here. The top photos show (left) Tove Jansson's home which she built with her brother, and (right) her mother, Signe Hammarsten, and her niece, Sophia.