Moominvalley in November (1970)

Moominvalley in November was a charming read, full of a good fall atmosphere. I've heard about Jansson's stuff for years, but for whatever reason I never thought to look for Moomin books at the library -- and then I saw this one sitting there, cover out, in the YA section.

It took me a little while to warm up to it, between the writing and the unfamiliar characters, but by the time I got to Fillyjonk I was hooked.

Rabbit read this one too: I left it on the table and she saw it and read a chapter then declared it "weird." I said OKAY and didn't bother trying to dissuade her, and then two days later, after seeing me read it off and on, she decide she wanted to read it, after all. ( )

The Moominfamily have gone away. No one knows where they are. Several people come to their house hoping for one reason or another to find them and some of them stay for quite awhile, sleeping in their beds and forming an odd waiting society but eventually for one reason and another most of them go away again. A strange autumnal book full of a kind of satisfying emptiness that feels somehow Novemberish. ( )

A Moomin book starring no Moomins at all! Yet their presence is felt through the other characters who all turn up in Moominvalley one November.

In this book even more than any other of the Moomin adventures I've read, Jansson's incredible perceptiveness of human moods, anxieties and irrationalities shows through. The characters will reflect sides of people you know (or yourself) far better than most other books, for children or adults.

Like other reviewers, with the air of melancholy, not the Moomin book I'd start a child on, but I'd recommend it to any adult for its riches of distilled psychology. ( )

Link to a review on my personal website ( )

A good, surprising end to the Moomin stories. The Moomin family has left Moominvalley and other, all somehow awkward and difficult people, enter the scene. Not that much happens in this book. It's just a mixed bunch of people coming -- all pretty much on their own -- to terms with a new, at first frightening situation, and dealing with change in their lives. Though Finnish November can be grey and depressing, the characters in this book all make it, one way or another.

I tend to look for metaphores of childhood's end whenever I read the last part of a series of childrens' books. In this book it's very strong, with the Moomin family representing the good memories of childhood. By the way, I don't (I refuse to) believe that the Moomins actually returned to Moominvalley as they appear to do in the end of this book. I like to think it's just Toft's imagination, a reminder that one can return to one's childhood in one's memories. ( )