The Listener

68/2020. Translator Thomas Teal. My edition has the original Tove Jansson cover illustration as frontispiece but a tiny 5.5 x 9cm size.

Contents:
The Listener
Unloading Sand
The Birthday Party
The Sleeping Man
Black-White
Letters to an Idol
A Love Story
The Other
In Spring
The Silent Room
The Storm
Grey Duchesse
Proposal for a Preface
The Wolf
The Rain
Blasting
Lucio's Friends
The Squirrel (also published in The Winter Book)

Had a strong sense of deja vu while reading some of these, although as far as I know the only story in this collection that I've read before is The Squirrel. I suspect the author would be pleased with that sensation though, because her stories are mostly deliberately written in a spare style apparently intended more to evoke reactions show more from the subconscious than for intellectual stimulation. This also makes them a slow read for me because, especially with very short fiction, trying to evoke more than two widely differing reactions in a row from me results in diminishing returns. I'm tempted to claim that this is one of the reasons why many people prefer novels to short stories but, of course, I'm entirely able to switch between different reactions when reading a book of short poems so that claim wouldn't hold up to close scrutiny. Maybe it's more to do with how much work each author is supplying as a ratio to how much they expect from their readers, with comparatively minimalist writing asking more effort to fill in the gaps than, for example, sentimental romanticism.

My favourite story was The Listener, about a nervous breakdown and self-administered art therapy (sort of...). My second favourite was A Love Story, which is a recipe for true love indeed. I also found In Spring particularly evocative. But none of the stories with effects reliant on breaking out of middle-class comfort zones work on me, which is probably why the positive tales resonate more for me than those intended to be unsettling or horrifying. show less

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2769446.html

This is the most recent of Jansson's story collections to be translated into English, but it was the first collection of Tove Jansson's short stories to be published in her native Swedish (apart from the semi-autobiographical The Scupltor's Daughter). They show her already at the top of her form, quietly understated observation, sometimes brief vignettes, sometimes mapping out a brief section of a character arc that you can extrapolate further if you want. The two that particularly jumped out at me are both about a third of the way in, "Black-White", a tribute to Edward Gorey, about an illustrator who becomes consumed by his work, and "Letters to an Idol", no doubt inspired by her own show more experiences on both ends of the fannish dynamic, about obsession, communication and acceptance. But they are all good, and give a real feeling of life in Jansson's Bohemian urban and rural spaces. show less

Eighteen short stories, of uneven quality. They were sad and dark. Writing was sharp and incisive. Many concerned only one usually lonely character. Psychological studies, they mostly concern the main characters' interior feelings and thoughts although there's a certain amount of 'action' in them. Some of the endings are totally unexpected.

The ones I liked best:
* "The listener": how an old woman copes with senile dementia and how it overwhelms her
* "Black-white": a homage to Edward Gorey through the story of an artist who draws only in black and white
*" Letters to an idol": a fan writes to and meets a famous writer and the aftermath
* "In Spring": coming of the Swedish spring through one woman's eyes
* "The storm": a woman observing and show more living through a bad storm in Sweden
* "Proposal for a preface": woman contending with insomnia
* "The squirrel": a lonely woman at the seaside cultivates a 'friendship' with a squirrel.

I read this in English: entitled The listener. show less

Absolutely stunning translation from the Swedish of Tove Jansson short stories; if you've only known her from the Moomins, prepare to be amazed. Vignettes and sketches of lives and people in a closed, chilly Finland, just beautiful stuff.

So subtle that I often missed what was supposed to be interesting about the stories.