FAIR PLAY by TOVE JANSSON
thank you to @Rita for the recommendation!
tove jansson, most well known for creating the moomins, also wrote for adults! fair play has been recommended to me a couple of times by @Rita, and i finally sat down and got through it
officially a novel, it reads more as a collection of vignettes. not quite a collection of short stories, as the characters and, for the most part, the setting, remain the same. while i like this approach, there were definitely some hits and some misses for me. one important thing to note about this book is that it has some striking similarities to jansson's life. jansson spent summers on a small island with her partner, who was also an artist. it is unclear if the events of the book are otherwise based on true events.
i... am honestly having difficulty pulling my thoughts together for this book. (perhaps why i'm focusing so much on the similarities to jansson's experiences?) i liked it, especially the ways in which it explores love, partnership, and the creative process. sometimes the chapters almost read as proverbs, showing some sort of issue that mari and jonna, the two main characters, go through and providing some sort of commentary on various themes of relationship.
and... honestly i want more. the book is very short, 127 pages, and while i appreciate jansson's ability to encapsulate each story in such a small amount of space, i want more of the stories, haha! i'll have to look at some of her other work (i know the summer book is well-received) and see if i can get more of what i'm looking for
sorry to leave this overview on a bit of a weird note but... idk! i'm honestly not sure where to start nor where to end. i'd recommend you check it out though ::)
