Fynn (1919–1999)

This is a book about God, and maths. Fynn, the author, is a teenage boy who meets a four year old runaway girl, and takes her home. She lives with him until she dies in a terrible accident a few years later, before she is eight. She is a strange, insightful, curious child, and the book is Fynn's story about their time together.

I was surprised how much I cared if the story was true or not. It felt important to my interpretation of the book whether there had been a real person who had lived this strange life and been so cruelly bereaved, or whether the book was made up out of saccharine whole cloth and Anna was just an invention to tug at our heartstrings. From what little internet research I can do, the author really did grow up in the East End, and did claim the story was true. Should it matter if it is Deep Truths anyway?

It is definitely a book that feels from very long ago. Taking home a runaway child as though they were a kitten, with no-one else particularly intervening or caring! Wandering the streets of the East End in the middle of the night with the other drifters... It leaves you with a feeling we tidy up the world and make it better and safer, but take away some of the spaces for great goodness as we remove the risk of great evil. Then again, maybe a home that lets a 7 year old fall on a spiked fence when going after a kitten isn't the sort of home we should place vulnerable kids in!… (more)

I’ve been wanting to read this story for years, but never got around to it. When I realized it fit a reading challenge I was doing recently, I decided it was high time to pick it up. This is a short story, but it is FULL of vivacious, joy-filled, lived-to-the-hilt life. It was beautiful to experience, and when I finished the book, it felt like the end came too soon—but that, too, is life. Anna is the kind of person you never forget, and I can understand why Fynn felt like it was high time to put her story to paper. The world is richer for having had Anna in it—even if her story isn’t so well-known anymore.

I didn’t agree with all the conclusions Anna came to, as the book went on, but overall, her thoughts, observations, and approach to philosophy were intriguing and well-described. Reading this book is like taking a step back in time. It’s beautiful, poetic, gripping, well done, and memorable.

I’ll finish this review with one of my favorite quotes. It made me laugh out loud, and my family had to listen to me read it out. It doesn’t have anything directly to do with Anna, but I loved the general concept:

“Mum, being the daughter of an Irish farmer, was given to making stews. A large black iron pot and an equally large black iron kettle were the two most used utensils in the kitchen. Often the only way one could distinguish the stew from the brew was that tea always came in large cups and stew was put on plates. Here the difference ended, for the brew often had as much solid matter in it as did the stew.”… (more)