Reviews

Travelling Light by Tove Jansson

adru's review against another edition

Go to review page

Jaa, väga hea lugeda, nii mõnigi lugu vaimustab.

eils's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

4.25

sve100's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Има нещо много поетично в тези разкази, такъв нежен детайл и толкова обич към ежедневните, обикновени неща. Животът в този сборник изглежда толкова лесен, почти като детска игра, а героите и пейзажите усещам леки и акварелни.

sumlittlebee's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

justinsinclair's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Beautiful, funny, straightforward, anxious and thoughtful

How Tove manages to move between these moods with such ease in these compact book of short stories about change and identity is such a delight.

hillersg7's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Beautiful, raw, bewildering, scary, mysterious, spacious writing - and more, in this collection of short stories.

purplemuskogee's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

"Perhaps you have some idea of the depth of my fatigue, of my exhaustion and nausea in the face of this constant need to feel sorry for people?"

I have only started to read Tove Jansson a few months ago and already she is one of my favourite authors. This is the first time I read her short stories and I loved them so much. In Travelling Light, all the characters are somewhat misfits, outsiders, not quite fitting in or not wanting to fit in. They were all interesting and well-written and original - mysterious without being dark -, but my favourite ones have been "The Summer Child", where a middle class family decides to take a city boy with them on holiday to give the boy a taste of summer in the countryside, and the boy turns out to be dark and negative, a little boy who watches the sea and reminds everyone that pollution will erase all this beauty, a boy who likes to remind everyone around him of their own deaths, their own failures and of every danger... I loved "Travelling Light", where a man has made arrangements to give up his flat, his belongings, his whole life, to go travelling and finally be a person "who never took any interest in anyone", only to find that it is very difficult not to; and "Shopping", a post-apocalyptic short story where a couple survives in fear after some event has ravaged their surroundings and their home. 

The introduction by Ali Smith was also worth reading. 

bryoniadioica's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

nemirowski's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Det är så enkelt, så obekvämt, så vackert, så finstämt, så talande, så närvarande, så allt. Tove Jansson är en av mina absoluta favoriter för att det är så träffsäkert och mänskligt.

bestdressedbookworm's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

To abstract for me, you can't just start a new chapter and start a new story and pick it up in the middle of someone's life, maybe this makes more sense in Swedish.