The Summer Book

Title: The Summer Book

Author: Tove Jansson

Number of pages: 172

Started: 23 July 2010

Finished: 27 July 2010

Opening words:

It was an early, very warm morning in July, and it had rained during the night. The bare granite steamed, the moss and crevices were drenched with moisture, and all the colours everywhere had deepened. Below the veranda, all the vegetation in the morning shade was like a rainforest of lush, evil leaves and flowers, which she had to be careful not to break as she searched. She held one hand in front of her mouth and was constantly afraid of losing her balance.

"What are you doing?" asked little Sophia'

See the introduction and an extract here.


Plot summary:

An elderly artist and her six-year-old grand-daughter while away a summer together on a tiny island in the gulf of Finland. As the two learn to adjust to each other’s fears, whims and yearnings, a fierce yet understated love emerges – one that encompasses not only the summer inhabitants but the very island itself.

What I thought:

Tove Jansson is the author of the Moomin books, which are clearly aimed at children. The Summer Book is definitely a book for adults, but does in its own way have the same disarming charm of a children’s book. It is the tale of the relationship between a six year old and her grandmother as they spend their summer on a small island.

It is an easy read and you can just let if flow over you, although if you think more about the words you see the deeper levels of the book, and what the grandmother is trying to teach her granddaughter.

A good summer read.

Unseen

Title: Unseen

Author: Mari Jungstedt

Number of pages: 368

Started: 15 July 2010

Finished: 23 July 2010

Opening words:

MONDAY, JUNE 4

The evening was turning out better than expected. Of course she had been a little nervous earlier, because it had been a long time since they had all seen each other, but now her anxiety had eased. After an extra-strong welcome drink, white wine with the appetizer, several glasses of red with the entrée, and port with dessert, everyone at the table was in a lively mood. Kristian told another joke about his boss, and the hoots of laughter echoed off the walls in the old limestone house.

Outside the window, fields of grain were swaying, and the poppies were still a few weeks from blooming in the meadows. Beyond the fields, the sea could be glimpsed in the last glow of twilight.

Over Whitsuntide, Helena and Per had taken a few days off and driven to the cabin on Gotland. They usually got together with Helena’s childhood friends on one evening during the holiday. This year, the second day of Whitsun was the only time that was good for everybody, so that’s when they had agreed to meet.

It was unusually cold for the time of year, around fifty degrees. The wind was blowing hard, howling and whistling in the treetops.

Read a longer extract here.

Plot summary:

The first body they found was the dog. The poor creature's throat has been cut, and one paw severed completely. Then they found the body of the woman. She had been stabbed, again and again; she was naked, a piece of cloth had been stuffed into her mouth. The picturesque holiday island of Gotland is in the middle of a busy tourist season when the young woman is discovered murdered. Suspicion falls on her husband - the couple had been seen fighting the evening before. Inspector Anders Knutas is hoping it will be a straight-forward case; the local authorities are hoping so too, but more out of an interest in protecting the tourist trade than any desire to see justice served. Then another victim is discovered, again she is a young woman and she has been murdered in the same chilling manner. Inspector Knutas must face up to the horrifying prospect that there is a serial killer loose on the island. Knutas, aided by investigative journalist Johan Berg, begins to piece together the tragic history that unites the two victims, and alarmingly points to more murders to come. The killer remains unknown, moving freely, unseen, on the island. All that is clear is that the two victims are just the beginning, unless Knutas and Berg find the killer before he strikes again.

What I thought:

This was the second Swedish book that I read while I was on holiday. I was initially slightly irritated by this book based on something rather superficial – the lines were very spaced out and it used a slightly larger font than is normally used in a book. I rather suspected this was a deliberate ploy to make the book look rather longer than it was. However, once I had come to terms with this, the book turned out to be very good. It was another murder/ detective novel, but it drew the reader in right from the beginning and had some genuinely suspenseful moments.

It was very readable, but did rather add to my feeling that Sweden must be a very dangerous place to live if their novels are anything to go by.

The Ice Princess

Title: The Ice Princess

Author: Camilla Lackberg

Number of pages: 393

Started: 7 July 2010

Finished: 14 July 2010

Opening words:

“ The house was desolate and empty. The cold penetrated every corner. A thin layer of ice had started to form in the bath tub. She had an eerie blue complexion. He thought she looked like a princess lying there. An Ice Princess. The floor he sat on was freezing cold, but it didn’t bother him. He stretched out his hand and touched her. The blood on her wrists had coagulated a long time ago. The love he felt for her had never been stronger. He caressed her arm, as he caressed the soul that had now left the body. He did not turn around when he left. This was not goodbye, they would meet again.”

Plot summary:

Returning to her hometown after the funeral of her parents, writer Erica Falck finds a community on the brink of tragedy. The death of her childhood friend, Alex, is just the beginning. Her wrists slashed, her body frozen in an ice cold bath, it seems that she has taken her own life. Erica conceives a memoir about the beautiful but remote Alex, one that will answer questions about their lost friendship. While her interest grows to an obsession, local detective Patrik Hedstrom is following his own suspicions about the case. But it is only when they start working together that the truth begins to emerge about the small town with a deeply disturbing past.


If you can read Swedish, Camilla Lackberg’s website is here.

To find out more about Scandinavian books and authors, you can visit Nordic Bookblog or Scandinavian Books.

What I thought:

I like to read books set in the country where I am on holiday, so I sought out some Swedish authors. It seems that the majority of Swedish authors who are translated into English are crime writers, including Camilla Lackberg. I read reviews of this book before I decided to read it, and they were mixed. So I wasn’t quite sure what I would make of this book. As it turned out, I thought it was pretty good. It was a decent plot and an easy read. It also had a (minor) theme in it that seems to occur in a number of books, domestic violence, and that makes me curious whether that tells us anything about the Swedes themselves. I certainly hope not.

My only obvious issue with this book was that it was set in a very cold and snowy winter in Sweden and when I was there it was very sunny, which made it slightly more difficult to feel the book was about he place where I was based at the time. But it was a good crime novel and I will be reading more of her books.

A small anecdote I liked about the author was that she became an author after her parents and husband signed her up to a writing course as a Christmas present. She went on to be Swedish Writer of the Year in 2005.

Plan for Chaos

Title: Plan For Chaos

Author: John Wyndham

Number of pages: 234

Started: 27 June 2010

Finished: 6 July 2010

Opening words:

Lois looked up from the switchboard as I went by.

“Oh, hey there!—Limey!” she said.

I turned back, reluctantly.

“Look,” I told her. “Didn’t somebody once call this a melting-pot? So on account of that, couldn’t you just let a guy do his melting quietly?”

She thought about it. Head a little on one side. Gold hair like sliding water across a cheek like young roses. Very effective.

“Takes time, doesn’t it?” she said. “I guess Limeys have a kinda high melting point.—Got more corners than most, too.”

“Like to see my passport?” I inquired.

She shook her head.

“I know: got an eagle on it. All the same, you talk Limey, you sorta think Limey. I guess you most likely kiss Limey, too.” She looked speculative.

“I go on trying,” I told her.

For more on Plan for Chaos, look here.

Plot summary:

In a city that could well be New York, a series of identical women are found dead in suspicious circumstances. Magazine photographer Johnny Farthing, who is reporting on the suspected murders, is chilled to discover that his fiancée looks identical to the victims too – and then she disappears. As his investigations spiral beyond his control, he finds himself at the heart of a sinister plot that uses cloning to revive the Nazi vision of a world-powerful master race… Part detective noir, part dystopic thriller, Plan for Chaos reveals the legendary science fiction novelist grappling with some of his most urgent and personal themes.

What I thought:

I am a big fan of John Wyndham, but even as such, I knew that this book was not likely to be one of his best. This book was a previously unpublished book that was written by John Wyndham at the same time as The Day of the Triffids (a brilliant book), but no publisher would take it. This did not bode well.

The start of the book was like reading a 1930s American detective novel (think Dashiel Hammett or similar), but it wasn’t entirely convincing. However, Wyndham seemed to quietly drop the poor American accents etc part way through the novel and instead focus on the plot a bit more.

I am not sure that I found the book convincing or anywhere near as engaging as his other novels. I am pleased that I read it, purely because it was written by Wyndham, but I can’t help feeling that his publishers might have been wise not to let this novel take away from the glory that is Triffids.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Title: The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Author: Leo Tolstoy

Number of pages: 106

Started: 26 June 2010

Finished: 27 June 2010

Opening words:

In the large Law Court building, during an adjournment of the Melvinsky trial, the members of the bench and the Public Prosecutor had come together in the office of Ivan Yegorovich Shebek, and the conversation touched on the celebrated Krasovsky case. Fyodor Vasilyevich argued vehemently that it was beyond their jurisdiction, Ivan Yegorovich had his own view and was sticking to it, while Pyotr Ivanovich, who had kept out of the discussion at the outset and was still not contributing, was perusing a copy of The Gazette which had just been delivered.

‘Gentlemen!’ he said. ‘Ivan Ilyich is dead.’

‘Is he really?’

‘Here you are. Read it yourself,’ he said to Fyodor Vasilyevich, handing him the paper, fresh off the press and still smelling.

There was an announcement within a black border: ‘It is with profound sorrow that Praskovya Fyodorovna Golovina informs family and friends that her beloved husband, Ivan Ilyich Golovin, Member of the Court of Justice, passed away on the 4th of February this year, 1882. The funeral will take place on Friday at 1 p.m.’

Read a longer extract here.

Plot summary:

Ivan Ilyich is wasting away. He lies alone, dosed up on opium and deceived by doctors, haunted by memories and regrets. His friends come to see him, their faces masks of concern. His faithful servant tends to his every need. But as he forces down false remedies and listens to empty promises, Ivan grows aware of one terrible truth.

His wife and his children are not awaiting his recovery.

They are waiting for him to die ...

What I thought:

This was a very readable book. It started in good humour, but took on more sober tones. It was ultimately a book about death, as the title suggests, but was not depressing – it was more of a reflection on life, and a way of seeing our place in it.

This book is well worth a read, and at just over 100 pages, you can say that you have read a Tolstoy book in under two hours. Let this book see if it can tempt you to read some of his rather longer tomes.

Falling Man

Title: Falling Man

Author: Don DeLillo

Number of pages: 246

Started: 22 June 2010

Finished: 24 June 2010

Opening words:

It was not a street anymore, but a world, a time and space of falling ash and near night. He was walking north through rubble and mud and there were people running past holding towels to their faces or jackets over their heads. They had handkerchiefs pressed to their mouths. They had shoes in their hands, a woman with a shoe in each hand, running past him. They ran and fell, some of them, confused and ungainly, with debris coming down around them, and there were people taking shelter under cars.

Plot summary:

There is September 11 and then there are the days after, and finally the years.
Falling Man begins in the smoke and ash of the burning towers and traces the aftermath of this global tremor in the intimate lives of a few individuals. Theirs are lives choreographed by loss, grief and the enormous force of history.


What I thought:

What to say about this book? I think, primarily, that I wasn’t a fan. I found the book a bit pretentious and as though it was trying to be profound, but didn’t quite succeed in doing it in a way that was credible or appealing.

I didn’t really feel as though the book had a purpose as such and that it rather drifted without making any real point. It wasn’t a book that I enjoyed particularly, it was based on a very sensitive issue – the 11 September attacks on the US – but I feel the book lacked substance or any real meaning.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Title: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Author: Milan Kundera

Number of pages: 305

Started: 17 June 2010

Finished: 21 June 2010

Opening words:

The idea of eternal return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsche has often perplexed other philosophers with it: to think that every¬thing recurs as we once experienced it, and that the recurrence it¬self recurs ad infinitum! What does this mad myth signify?

Putting it negatively, the myth of eternal return states that a life which disappears once and for all, which does not return, is like a shadow, without weight, dead in advance, and whether it was horrible, beautiful, or sublime, its horror, sublimity, and beauty mean nothing. We need take no more note of it than of a war be¬tween two African kingdoms in the fourteenth century, a war that altered nothing in the destiny of the world, even if a hundred thousand blacks perished in excruciating torment.

Will the war between the two African kingdoms in the four¬teenth century itself be altered if it recurs again and again, in eternal return?

It will: it will become a solid mass, permanently protuberant, its inanity irreparable.

If the French Revolution were to recur eternally, French his¬torians would be less proud of Robespierre. But because they deal with something that will not return, the bloody years of the Revolu¬tion have turned into mere words, theories, and discussions, have become lighter than feathers, frightening no one. There is an in¬finite difference between a Robespierre who occurs only once in his¬tory and a Robespierre who eternally returns, chopping off French heads.

Let us therefore agree that the idea of eternal return im¬plies a perspective from which things appear other than as we know them: they appear without the mitigating circumstance of their transitory nature. This mitigating circumstance prevents us from coming to a verdict. For how can we condemn something that is ephemeral, in transit? In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine.

Plot summary:

A young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover--these are the two couples whose story is told in this masterful novel. In a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous events, a world in which everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence, we feel "the unbearable lightness of being" not only as the consequence of our private actions, but also in the public sphere, and the two inevitably intertwine.

What I thought:

Hmm, what did I make of this book. In some ways, it was a bit like War and Peace meets Paulo Coelho. This is probably not the strongest recommendation. The War and Peace bit because the way The Unbearable Lightness was written in places reminded me of it – things about coincidence and whether people are really in charge of their own destiny. It was also a sort of philosophical book – and I thought some of the philosophy was somewhat questionable and made assertions that if you thought about it for a few moments you would realise was completely based on flawed thinking.

The book was readable though and I feel as though I have read another of those books that people talk about and nod profoundly when it is mentioned. But I don’t really think that it lives up to its reputation.