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The Listener
In her first ever story collection, Jansson revealed the clarity of vision and light philosophical touch that were to become her hallmark. From the good listener who begins to betray the secrets confided to her, to vignettes of a city storm or the slow halting of spring, these stories are gifts of originality and depth.
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First published January 1, 1971
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About the author
Tove Jansson
833 books3,790 followersTove Jansson was born and died in Helsinki, Finland. As a Finnish citizen whose mother tongue was Swedish, she was part of the Swedish-speaking Finns minority. Thus, all her books were originally written in Swedish.
Although known first and foremost as an author, Tove Jansson considered her careers as author and painter to be of equal importance.
Tove Jansson wrote and illustrated her first Moomin book, The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945), during World War II. She said later that the war had depressed her, and she had wanted to write something naive and innocent. Besides the Moomin novels and short stories, Tove Jansson also wrote and illustrated four original and highly popular picture books.
Jansson's Moomin books have been translated into 33 languages.
Although known first and foremost as an author, Tove Jansson considered her careers as author and painter to be of equal importance.
Tove Jansson wrote and illustrated her first Moomin book, The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945), during World War II. She said later that the war had depressed her, and she had wanted to write something naive and innocent. Besides the Moomin novels and short stories, Tove Jansson also wrote and illustrated four original and highly popular picture books.
Jansson's Moomin books have been translated into 33 languages.
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October 19, 2023i had a lot of fun on my trip to europe, but possibly my favorite part was the universal tove jansson appreciation
October 16, 2016
This collection is an acquired taste, for it takes time to get into, and once engaged, starts to grow on you. Comprised of very short pieces, some no more than a couple of pages, they are sketches of existential struggles overlaid with metaphoric external events: a storm, the spring thaw, a birthday party, rain, and almost always, snow.
The “artist as protagonist” features prominently; art intrudes upon life and vice versa, as do light, colour, and scenery—the essentials of the painter’s craft. Subtlety of expression is another character. Isolated lives brought about by climate, the creation of art, and the mania of introspection dominate the collection. One gets the impression that Jansson, being a visual artist in addition to a writer, was trying to fuse the two art forms of painting and writing, while revealing to us the life, challenges and moods of the consumate artist.
In the title story, Aunt Gerda’s situation dawns on us without the word “dementia” ever being mentioned. Similarly, the woman in “Proposal for a Preface” suffers from insomnia, but all we see are her actions while in the throes of her condition.
I liked “The Silent Room,” where a son explores the room of his hospitalized father and finds, to his surprise, the traces of a suppressed artist. “Black and White” is supposed to be a homage to Edward Gorey, an artist who never married and was much investigated and probed for his “sexlessness”; yet the protagonist in this story is married and is very much in love with his wife. The connection to Gorey probably lies in the art of suggestion, of leaving much unsaid and letting the reader figure out the rest of the story, as Jansson does so deftly with many of the pieces. For instance, what picture of the animal would the Japanese artist draw in the story “Wolf,” the real one or the imagined one?
“Rain” reminded me of death and the washing away of sins. “Blasting” implies that when man tries to do what is reserved for God, he moves into dangerous territory. “Lucio’s Friends” is more a character painting, like a portrait, rather than a short story, while “Blasting,” “The Wolf,” and “Squirrel” all have events creating a story line. The “Grey Duchesse” moves into the realm between the earthly and the spiritual, and the choices we make about which side to play on. “The Other” also plays with the supernatural and has subtle suggestions that finally reveal who is really narrating the story.
Which brings us around to the last and the longest story in the collection: “Squirrel.” A lonely woman on a deserted island is rattled out of her ordered existence when a squirrel washes up ashore on a piece of driftwood. The story reminded me of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, for obsession leads to a blend of competition and accommodation, creating a curious bond between human and animal. The ending of the story has a brilliant twist, unlike Hemingway’s tome that sailed towards its inevitable conclusion.
I was pleased to receive this collection from a visiting Finnish student of Swedish heritage, similar in background to Tove Jansson, and from the author’s hometown. Jansson is better known to English readers as the creator of the Moomin series of children’s literature. Yet her prowess in literary fiction, and in particular, the short story, is well showcased in this collection.
The “artist as protagonist” features prominently; art intrudes upon life and vice versa, as do light, colour, and scenery—the essentials of the painter’s craft. Subtlety of expression is another character. Isolated lives brought about by climate, the creation of art, and the mania of introspection dominate the collection. One gets the impression that Jansson, being a visual artist in addition to a writer, was trying to fuse the two art forms of painting and writing, while revealing to us the life, challenges and moods of the consumate artist.
In the title story, Aunt Gerda’s situation dawns on us without the word “dementia” ever being mentioned. Similarly, the woman in “Proposal for a Preface” suffers from insomnia, but all we see are her actions while in the throes of her condition.
I liked “The Silent Room,” where a son explores the room of his hospitalized father and finds, to his surprise, the traces of a suppressed artist. “Black and White” is supposed to be a homage to Edward Gorey, an artist who never married and was much investigated and probed for his “sexlessness”; yet the protagonist in this story is married and is very much in love with his wife. The connection to Gorey probably lies in the art of suggestion, of leaving much unsaid and letting the reader figure out the rest of the story, as Jansson does so deftly with many of the pieces. For instance, what picture of the animal would the Japanese artist draw in the story “Wolf,” the real one or the imagined one?
“Rain” reminded me of death and the washing away of sins. “Blasting” implies that when man tries to do what is reserved for God, he moves into dangerous territory. “Lucio’s Friends” is more a character painting, like a portrait, rather than a short story, while “Blasting,” “The Wolf,” and “Squirrel” all have events creating a story line. The “Grey Duchesse” moves into the realm between the earthly and the spiritual, and the choices we make about which side to play on. “The Other” also plays with the supernatural and has subtle suggestions that finally reveal who is really narrating the story.
Which brings us around to the last and the longest story in the collection: “Squirrel.” A lonely woman on a deserted island is rattled out of her ordered existence when a squirrel washes up ashore on a piece of driftwood. The story reminded me of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, for obsession leads to a blend of competition and accommodation, creating a curious bond between human and animal. The ending of the story has a brilliant twist, unlike Hemingway’s tome that sailed towards its inevitable conclusion.
I was pleased to receive this collection from a visiting Finnish student of Swedish heritage, similar in background to Tove Jansson, and from the author’s hometown. Jansson is better known to English readers as the creator of the Moomin series of children’s literature. Yet her prowess in literary fiction, and in particular, the short story, is well showcased in this collection.
July 21, 2017
Sort Of Books’ publication is the first English translation of Tove Jansson’s first short story collection, The Listener, which was first published in Finland in 1971. 2014, in which the book was published in English, marked the author’s centenary, and what better way to celebrate than in picking up one of her stunning books?
As with several other works of Jansson’s upon the Sort Of Books list – The Summer Book, Fair Play and The True Deceiver, to be precise – Thomas Teal was responsible for the flawless translation of the collection. The book’s blurb states that in The Listener, Jansson ‘revealed the clarity of vision and light philosophical touch that were to become her hallmark’. It goes on to herald the collection as ‘a tour de force of scalpel-sharp narration that takes us from a disquieting homage to the artist Edward Gorey, to perfect evocations of childhood innocence and recklessness’.
The Listener is comprised of eighteen tales in all, and as ever, the difference between each and every one is striking. The stories are of varying lengths, and beautiful vignettes which run to just three or four pages sit alongside longer character studies. In the title story, the ‘listener’ is Aunt Gerda, who was ‘fifty-five when it began, and the first sign of change was in her letters. They grew impersonal.’ The narrator goes on to say: ‘When a person loses what might be called her essence – the expression of her most beautiful quality – it sometimes happens that the alteration widens and deepens and with frightening speed overwhelms her entire personality. This is what happened to Aunt Gerda’. Later stories focus upon such things as freak weather conditions, growing up, and sharing one’s private island with a wayward squirrel.
Throughout, Jansson’s turns of phrase are beautiful, and each has been translated with such care: ‘In essence, Aunt Gerda was not much more than silence’, ‘The nights were luminous – the transparent, lingering blue that comes with spring’, and the description of a man’s cap as being ‘little more than a leaf that had floated down onto his hair’, for example. The author finds beautiy in absolutely everything, from the most simple of everyday tasks, to the nature which surrounded her. She makes even the mundane and commonplace endlessly fascinating, and is shrewd, profound and articulate in each and every story.
Jansson’s work is always incredibly perceptive, particularly with regard to her younger characters. The portrait of the young girl in ‘Unloading Sand’, for instance, is utterly sublime, and Jansson marvellously captures her vivacity: ‘With each step she moved further from the cottage, running and chewing, down to the shore and over the stones, jumping and skipping, precise, eating the whole way’. Nature is prevalent throughout The Listener, as is the exploration into intricacies of relationships, and the attention given to art and those who make it. The Listener is a stunning collection which is just as strong as Jansson’s later work, and it is sure to be adored by all of those who encounter it.
As with several other works of Jansson’s upon the Sort Of Books list – The Summer Book, Fair Play and The True Deceiver, to be precise – Thomas Teal was responsible for the flawless translation of the collection. The book’s blurb states that in The Listener, Jansson ‘revealed the clarity of vision and light philosophical touch that were to become her hallmark’. It goes on to herald the collection as ‘a tour de force of scalpel-sharp narration that takes us from a disquieting homage to the artist Edward Gorey, to perfect evocations of childhood innocence and recklessness’.
The Listener is comprised of eighteen tales in all, and as ever, the difference between each and every one is striking. The stories are of varying lengths, and beautiful vignettes which run to just three or four pages sit alongside longer character studies. In the title story, the ‘listener’ is Aunt Gerda, who was ‘fifty-five when it began, and the first sign of change was in her letters. They grew impersonal.’ The narrator goes on to say: ‘When a person loses what might be called her essence – the expression of her most beautiful quality – it sometimes happens that the alteration widens and deepens and with frightening speed overwhelms her entire personality. This is what happened to Aunt Gerda’. Later stories focus upon such things as freak weather conditions, growing up, and sharing one’s private island with a wayward squirrel.
Throughout, Jansson’s turns of phrase are beautiful, and each has been translated with such care: ‘In essence, Aunt Gerda was not much more than silence’, ‘The nights were luminous – the transparent, lingering blue that comes with spring’, and the description of a man’s cap as being ‘little more than a leaf that had floated down onto his hair’, for example. The author finds beautiy in absolutely everything, from the most simple of everyday tasks, to the nature which surrounded her. She makes even the mundane and commonplace endlessly fascinating, and is shrewd, profound and articulate in each and every story.
Jansson’s work is always incredibly perceptive, particularly with regard to her younger characters. The portrait of the young girl in ‘Unloading Sand’, for instance, is utterly sublime, and Jansson marvellously captures her vivacity: ‘With each step she moved further from the cottage, running and chewing, down to the shore and over the stones, jumping and skipping, precise, eating the whole way’. Nature is prevalent throughout The Listener, as is the exploration into intricacies of relationships, and the attention given to art and those who make it. The Listener is a stunning collection which is just as strong as Jansson’s later work, and it is sure to be adored by all of those who encounter it.
March 3, 2017
"I fell in love the way
you fall asleep: slowly,
and then all at once."
(John Green: The Fault in Our Stars)
I may still be on cloud nine but I found this book absolutely brilliant. The way Tove Jansson wrote, the breath she gave to her words... It's like nothing else.
I read the Finnish version of it, like I prefer to do with Tove Jansson's work, but I have no doubt I'd love this in Swedish and English as well. I must get it into my own shelf so I can return to it whenever I get the urge to do so.
you fall asleep: slowly,
and then all at once."
(John Green: The Fault in Our Stars)
I may still be on cloud nine but I found this book absolutely brilliant. The way Tove Jansson wrote, the breath she gave to her words... It's like nothing else.
I read the Finnish version of it, like I prefer to do with Tove Jansson's work, but I have no doubt I'd love this in Swedish and English as well. I must get it into my own shelf so I can return to it whenever I get the urge to do so.
February 8, 2024
upeeta kieltä ja kuvailua! ne oli ehkä tän suurin vahvuus. jotkin novellit iskivät ja niiden pariin haluisin myös palata vielä. joistain taas en ehkä niin paljoa saanut irti. ihanaa oli lukea tovelta lisää ja pitää ehottomasti laajentaa omaa toven kirjallisuuden tuntemusta jatkossa vielä lisää.
September 5, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 28, 2024
4.5
tässä oli hienoa kieltä ja ihanaa tunnelmaa ja alleviivasin ahkerasti katkelmia koko ajan. tykkäsin kaikista novelleista ja moni herätti syvempää pohdintaa. oisin ehkä voinu lukea pidempiäkin tekstejä niistä novelleista, joissa oli vähän enemmän juonta. niiden lyhyys ei kuitenkaan haitannu, koska lemppareita oli "no plot just vibes" keväällä, ehdokas johdannoksi ja lucion ystävät. uskon palaavani näiden lisäks koko teokseen laajemmin.
tässä oli hienoa kieltä ja ihanaa tunnelmaa ja alleviivasin ahkerasti katkelmia koko ajan. tykkäsin kaikista novelleista ja moni herätti syvempää pohdintaa. oisin ehkä voinu lukea pidempiäkin tekstejä niistä novelleista, joissa oli vähän enemmän juonta. niiden lyhyys ei kuitenkaan haitannu, koska lemppareita oli "no plot just vibes" keväällä, ehdokas johdannoksi ja lucion ystävät. uskon palaavani näiden lisäks koko teokseen laajemmin.
November 23, 2014
In ‘Black-White’, the fifth story in this collection (which is described as an homage to Edward Gorey), the artist at the centre of the story makes the following observation: “It’s the unexpressed that interests me, he thought. I’ve been drawing too explicitly; it’s a mistake to clarify everything.” This point of view can also apply to writers and it’s one clearly that Tove Jansson takes to heart in this book; she’s only willing to take you so far and the rest is up to you. This, of course, will annoy some readers and so if you are the kind of reader who likes everything laid out neatly with a beginning, a middle and an end then you might want to think twice about these because they’re more vignettes than traditional stories where stuff gets resolved. The story ‘Lucio’s Friends’ for example is little more than a character study:
My favourite was ‘The Squirrel’ which was the only story that reminded me of the other books of hers I’ve read. A woman living alone on an island looks out of her window one day and see that somehow a squirrel has found its way into her insular wee world. We then see how this tiny creature affects—almost destroys—her orderly, predictable, safe routine. This one does have something resembling a punch line but then she keeps going and when the actual ending comes it’s ambiguous.
I think part of the problem—not that it’s a big problem—is that this was Jansson’s first collection, published in 1971, and I’m more familiar with her mature work. This isn’t to suggest that what we have here is immature because every story is carefully crafted and her word choice is impeccable. But the voice is a little different. She’s obviously still finding that voice. Of course there are inklings in these stories of what I’ve come to expect from her. Isolation is a big thing. A lot of people spend their time alone and it’s not always good for them. Even where the isolation isn’t physical it’s still there as in ‘The Birthday Party’ where two sisters try to throw a birthday party for their niece and clearly have no clue what to do with a bunch of kids:
Actually, there’s nothing the matter with him except that he’s so terribly nice. Maybe that’s natural for a big endomorph like Lucio, but it doesn’t seem to me that endless, almost heart-breaking niceness of that kind can be natural for a person who has had so many disappointments. I heard about those indirectly, not from him; he never talks about himself. I really don’t believe I’ve ever heard him make any voluntary statement about anyone he knows or has ever known or been introduced to. It creates an empty space around him.We actually learn very little about the man bar his name and that he works at “the Institute”. It’s as if Jansson has decided to take a slice out of his life and only describe the man by reference to everything that’s caught within its limits, i.e. Lucio as seen through the eyes of his friends and workmates. I say “little more” but that’s not a bad thing.
Of course we all love Lucio. But it’s an affection that borders on despair and can even cross over into irritation.
My favourite was ‘The Squirrel’ which was the only story that reminded me of the other books of hers I’ve read. A woman living alone on an island looks out of her window one day and see that somehow a squirrel has found its way into her insular wee world. We then see how this tiny creature affects—almost destroys—her orderly, predictable, safe routine. This one does have something resembling a punch line but then she keeps going and when the actual ending comes it’s ambiguous.
I think part of the problem—not that it’s a big problem—is that this was Jansson’s first collection, published in 1971, and I’m more familiar with her mature work. This isn’t to suggest that what we have here is immature because every story is carefully crafted and her word choice is impeccable. But the voice is a little different. She’s obviously still finding that voice. Of course there are inklings in these stories of what I’ve come to expect from her. Isolation is a big thing. A lot of people spend their time alone and it’s not always good for them. Even where the isolation isn’t physical it’s still there as in ‘The Birthday Party’ where two sisters try to throw a birthday party for their niece and clearly have no clue what to do with a bunch of kids:
“Come in,” said Miss Häger. “Please, go right on into the sitting room, where there’s room for everyone. Don’t stand in the doorway, go right on in …” The children went into the sitting room. She clapped her hands and cried, “Now you can start to play! What game would you like to play?” They stared at her without answering. Vera Häger went out into the kitchen and said, “You’ve got to come, right now, right away. It’s not working.”The two women end up hiding in the bedroom while the children entertain themselves:
Her sister lifted the platter with the decorated ice cream and said, “What do you mean? What’s not working?”
“The party. They’re just standing around. I don’t think they like me. And Daniela hasn’t come.”
Anja Häger sat up in her bed, looked at the wall and said, “Social life is dreadful unless you love the people you entertain. People smile with their teeth because they’re afraid. Children are honest. They make a dark jungle and roar.”There are eighteen stories in all so none is very long—only ‘The Squirrel’ is in any way substantial—and the longer ones do work better. One of the shortest is ‘The Rain’ which you can read in full here. It’s not the best piece but it will give you a flavour of what to expect. This was one where I actually went back and reread the thing convinced I’d missed stuff. Which I had. Every word counts and so don’t think about skimming these or reading when you’re tired (which I was by the time I got to ‘The Rain’).
“I don’t understand,” Vera said.
“Is there anyone,” Anja said, “is there one single person we long to spend time with?”
“Are you trying to start an argument?” Vera said.
“It’s possible,” Anja answered. “But not right now. I’m asking because I’d like to know. We could talk about it.”
“We never talk,” Vera said. “We just live.”
January 4, 2017
Kauniita pieniä tarinoita, hetkiä ja tunnelmia. Erilaista Tovea, mutta pidin minä näistäkin.
January 5, 2024
ajan kuluttua en luultavasti muista yhtäkään näistä novelleista juoneltaan, mutta tuun vielä pitkään palaamaan niihin tunteisiin, joita koin tätä lukiessa. tove jansson saa mut kirjottajana vähän jopa kadehtimaan ja pelkäämään, etten pystyis luomaan mitään lähellekään näin uniikkia. en tiiä nyt tekee mieli alkaa kirjottamaan taas…
February 12, 2021
Jättefin! <3
June 27, 2021
Kratke zgodbe so temačne, polne tesnobe, nemira, osamljenosti, pojavi se blaznost, polno je metafor, itd. Ker je avtorica sama pisateljica in ilustratorka (kdo se ne spomni njenih Muminov?), je ta tema pogosto prisotna. Tudi narava je pomemben motiv.
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August 18, 2021Aldrei slær hún feilnótu mín frábærasta Tove. Bestu sögurnar: stórbrotnar. Eftirlætis voru sagan um teiknarann og sagan um íkornann.
February 18, 2024
Alle burde lese alt av Jansson! Jeg elsker spesielt språket hennes. Det er så lekent og barnslig og voksent på samme tid.
October 9, 2022
Откровенная Янссон, представляющие моменты, которые мы все видим и откладываем вглубь себя.
May 8, 2016
I have decided, for definite, Tove Jansson is by far my favourite writer of all time. Her endless wit, her enduring love and zest for life was phenomenal. She watch and journalled every side of life in such a wonderful juxtaposition of detached attachment that makes you understand as a participant, and a voyeur of life how she viewed the world.
Her writing style was so easy, I love her short sharp sentences that had no need for flowers, because the space gives the words room to breath into your soul in such a beautiful way. Open the book at any page and I can find a couple of sentences that move me to the core. This from The Squirrel '' The room had lost its morning light, the glow of expectation and potential. The daylight was now grey, and the new day was already used, a little soiled by mistaken thoughts and makeshift undertakings'' And that was just opening a page at random, gorgeous.
Read one story at a time and then reflect on what you have read because some of these stories will seem odd at first. I would finish a story and in some cases read them in their entirety to my Husband and then go off and wash up, do the hoovering, drive to work and then I would suddenly completely understand what she was seeing and why she chose to write the words down.
I will read all her whole body of work again and again, because even though I had already read the last story The Squirrel in one of her other compilations I still enjoyed immensely reading it again.
Her writing style was so easy, I love her short sharp sentences that had no need for flowers, because the space gives the words room to breath into your soul in such a beautiful way. Open the book at any page and I can find a couple of sentences that move me to the core. This from The Squirrel '' The room had lost its morning light, the glow of expectation and potential. The daylight was now grey, and the new day was already used, a little soiled by mistaken thoughts and makeshift undertakings'' And that was just opening a page at random, gorgeous.
Read one story at a time and then reflect on what you have read because some of these stories will seem odd at first. I would finish a story and in some cases read them in their entirety to my Husband and then go off and wash up, do the hoovering, drive to work and then I would suddenly completely understand what she was seeing and why she chose to write the words down.
I will read all her whole body of work again and again, because even though I had already read the last story The Squirrel in one of her other compilations I still enjoyed immensely reading it again.
June 9, 2018
In this short story collection, Tove Jansson explores emotional experiences through the everyday; she tells us stories of people who are aging, who are isolated, who dream, who are mesmerized by art and by nature. They are stories with a twist, some even have a surrealist tone to them - like the story of the embroider woman who can foresee death. For the most part the people in Jansson's stories are unremarkable, but the way she gives them life feels authentic - they feel warm blooded; her stories, like in The Summer Book, capture the process and feelings of aging and loneliness in a way I've never quite seen in any other writer. Even though Jansson's writing and use of language itself is bare, stripped down, and quite understated - there is a sharpness and feeling of selectivity in her wording that makes her writing all the more effective.
May 27, 2016
This was an odd little collection of stories. I liked most of them and thought the others were okay. The ones I liked, I liked very much, and they were written so well and so tight. Definitely going to read more.
December 28, 2024
“Probably few of us pay adequate attention to all the things constantly happening to the people we love, a steady, compact mass of activity that can be grasped in its entirety only by a person like Aunt Gerda - before she changed, of course. Loved ones take exams and degrees or fail to take them; they get pay rises and grants or fail to get them; they have children and miscarriages and neuroses; they have trouble with the help and their sex lives and teenage rebelliousness and misconceptions and money and maybe their stomachs or their teeth; they lose their faith or their jobs or their self-confidence or the person they're trying to live with and then lose themselves in politics or self-deception or disappointment or ambition; they get disloyalty and funerals and all sorts of frights thrown right in their faces; and eventually they get wrinkles and a thousand other things they hadn't expected…”
December 18, 2018
I remember getting scared easily when I was younger. I must have seen very few scenes of the Moomins which were eerie and gloomy and caused me to avoid the series entirely for years to come. I was familiar with the cartoon characters but that was about it.
When I travelled to Finland last summer I walked right into a tiny Tove Jansson exhibition and got to know her as the amazing badass woman behind and beyond the Moomin stories for children. The woman who painted herself and her female lover on a mural for said lover's father's restaurant. The woman in pants and with short hair and the incredible self-portraits. I was enthralled.
And yet it wasn't until this year when my flatmate obtained this very book that I rediscovered her, anew: As a writer for adults, a gifted author of short stories. The first story of this collection, the eponymous 'Listener', was so thoroughly well written that I had to put the book aside, and then read it again before I could move on. As my flatmate put it, there are some great stories and some filler ones, and the book is not entirely on the same high level. But I will still highly recommend it to anyone who will listen.
When I travelled to Finland last summer I walked right into a tiny Tove Jansson exhibition and got to know her as the amazing badass woman behind and beyond the Moomin stories for children. The woman who painted herself and her female lover on a mural for said lover's father's restaurant. The woman in pants and with short hair and the incredible self-portraits. I was enthralled.
And yet it wasn't until this year when my flatmate obtained this very book that I rediscovered her, anew: As a writer for adults, a gifted author of short stories. The first story of this collection, the eponymous 'Listener', was so thoroughly well written that I had to put the book aside, and then read it again before I could move on. As my flatmate put it, there are some great stories and some filler ones, and the book is not entirely on the same high level. But I will still highly recommend it to anyone who will listen.
June 29, 2025
har kost meg veldig med denne<3 synes Jansson skriver veldig fint og gjenkjennelig om temaer som ensomhet og isolasjon, aldring, natur, drømmer osv. jeg liker hvordan hun beskriver emosjonelle opplevelser gjennom veldig hverdagslige hendelser. liker også skrivestilen hennes veldig godt!
kommer definnetivt til å lese novellene om og om igjen
kommer definnetivt til å lese novellene om og om igjen
January 27, 2018
Even as Tove Jansson writes about things which are heavy, such as loneliness, depression, despair... her writing remains light and delicate. And there’s strength in such lightness and delicacy.
August 31, 2023
nice collection of short stories of varying quality. easy breezy read
February 14, 2022
I’m totally seduced by the way Jansson sees the world.
July 23, 2017
Beautiful and haunting. Tove's stories have a perspective unlike any other author I have ever read. A few of these stories have appeared in other collections but were worth rereading.
November 25, 2018
An enjoyable collection although the first story looms so large that I couldn’t get past the feeling of wanting it to connect to all the other stories and it didn’t. I guess what I really wanted was the first story spun out into a novel.
September 10, 2021
I read my first Tove Jansson short stories and I am impressed.
The plethora of characters in The Listener are all alone. Are they lonely or lost? I don’t think so. It’s a strange feeling reading about characters who are living alone, forgetting their social connections or trying to remember past loves and compulsions with total equanimity and acceptance of life. The busy Indian in me is impressed by this strange, stoic attitude that Jansson presents here. There’s a feeling of overwhelming acceptance of humanity in all its shape and form.
And this inner slowing down of the characters are dramatically juxtaposed with the gorgeous descriptions of turbulent nature whether it is of the island battered by the sea or a thunderstorm that hits the city! Calm and violence exist side by side and take you by surprise in this constant internal-external exchange that runs through this collection.
My 3 favourite stories are of course Aunt Gerda, a fragile woman who is losing her memory after an active life of social interactions. This is offset by the tragi-comic duo of the two sisters in The Birthday Party who have no clue about how to handle children although they have thrown a birthday party for their niece. I so see myself in these two women! It’s funny but also tragic in the sense that they have no role to fill and hence, they go undefined which seems like a good thing but may ultimately not be.
And last but not the least, Black- White whose architectural details and the slow recoiling from one’s home to an empty space to gain a sense of artistic control, escaping the suffocating environment of marriage, was truly the masterpiece for me. I loved the descriptions of the walls with their rich colours and how they feel like closing in on the writer’s sense of self. This would make a great movie!
Jansson has been a powerful discovery for me. She is intuitive, balanced, surgical in her observations and yet deeply human. I learnt a lot about the Nordic spirit from this book. I almost felt like I grew up by leaps and bounds and developed a more positive perspective on ageing and loneliness after reading this and that feels like an achievement!
The plethora of characters in The Listener are all alone. Are they lonely or lost? I don’t think so. It’s a strange feeling reading about characters who are living alone, forgetting their social connections or trying to remember past loves and compulsions with total equanimity and acceptance of life. The busy Indian in me is impressed by this strange, stoic attitude that Jansson presents here. There’s a feeling of overwhelming acceptance of humanity in all its shape and form.
And this inner slowing down of the characters are dramatically juxtaposed with the gorgeous descriptions of turbulent nature whether it is of the island battered by the sea or a thunderstorm that hits the city! Calm and violence exist side by side and take you by surprise in this constant internal-external exchange that runs through this collection.
My 3 favourite stories are of course Aunt Gerda, a fragile woman who is losing her memory after an active life of social interactions. This is offset by the tragi-comic duo of the two sisters in The Birthday Party who have no clue about how to handle children although they have thrown a birthday party for their niece. I so see myself in these two women! It’s funny but also tragic in the sense that they have no role to fill and hence, they go undefined which seems like a good thing but may ultimately not be.
And last but not the least, Black- White whose architectural details and the slow recoiling from one’s home to an empty space to gain a sense of artistic control, escaping the suffocating environment of marriage, was truly the masterpiece for me. I loved the descriptions of the walls with their rich colours and how they feel like closing in on the writer’s sense of self. This would make a great movie!
Jansson has been a powerful discovery for me. She is intuitive, balanced, surgical in her observations and yet deeply human. I learnt a lot about the Nordic spirit from this book. I almost felt like I grew up by leaps and bounds and developed a more positive perspective on ageing and loneliness after reading this and that feels like an achievement!
January 20, 2015
Tove Jansson is most famous for her Moomin books, but I was curious to read some of her other works as well.
Lyssnerskan (The Listener) is a collection of short stories and is quite different from the Moomin tales. Regrettably, I have to say I did not like it as much as I hoped.
Most of the stories do not tell entire tales, but rather depict fragments of different (usually lonely) people's lives and thoughts. Many of the situations are strange, some even fantastical, but it is still the people that are the focus.
I personally could not relate to most of those people, but I don't consider this absolutely necessary for a good reading experience. I can still enjoy reading about a well portrayed character, even if I don't feel him close. And the characters in Lyssnerskan are indeed well portrayed. Nevertheless, some of the stories simply did not engage me and I often found myself distracted during reading.
Actually, the first time I started reading this book I soon put it down and it was only months later that I was in the mood to give it another chance.
It turned out some of the stories were actually to my liking, particularly my two favourites, Svart-vitt (Black-white) and En kärlekshistoria (A Love Story).
Overall, Lyssnerskan left me with a pleasant feeling, but for the most part it did not really touch me.
Lyssnerskan (The Listener) is a collection of short stories and is quite different from the Moomin tales. Regrettably, I have to say I did not like it as much as I hoped.
Most of the stories do not tell entire tales, but rather depict fragments of different (usually lonely) people's lives and thoughts. Many of the situations are strange, some even fantastical, but it is still the people that are the focus.
I personally could not relate to most of those people, but I don't consider this absolutely necessary for a good reading experience. I can still enjoy reading about a well portrayed character, even if I don't feel him close. And the characters in Lyssnerskan are indeed well portrayed. Nevertheless, some of the stories simply did not engage me and I often found myself distracted during reading.
Actually, the first time I started reading this book I soon put it down and it was only months later that I was in the mood to give it another chance.
It turned out some of the stories were actually to my liking, particularly my two favourites, Svart-vitt (Black-white) and En kärlekshistoria (A Love Story).
Overall, Lyssnerskan left me with a pleasant feeling, but for the most part it did not really touch me.
May 23, 2016
"Like everything Jansson wrote, it's much more than it seems. . ." Although this quote is referring to another of Tove Jansson's book, it fits perfectly with this work. It was completely different to what I expected - I think I anticipated something similar to 'The Summer Book' - but once I had adjusted I completely appreciated this book. Did I like every story? No, but it would be true to say that each one got under my skin, always a sign of a well-written piece. And as should be the case for short stories, the endings were never cut and dried, having no clear black and white conclusion, which meant that each one lingered in the mind long after completion. Some stories were easy to grasp and understand, whilst for others the meaning was somewhat enigmatic; on occasions the story was horrific as you could see the characters moving towards an awful, but inevitable, end, whilst others held out a gleam of hope. But what can be said of each story without exception is that the writing was brilliant. Did I have any favourites? Both 'The Storm' and 'Grey Duchesse' were definitely stand-outs for me, but there were many others I thoroughly enjoyed for a wide range of reasons. Without a doubt, this is a book worth reading, but if your only encounter with Tove Jansson has been the Moomins, (or, as in my case, 'The Summer Book', be prepared for something completely different!
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