This is quite a different moomin book. Like others have said in their reviews, on first sight it is quite a melancholy book. This is why I never read that far as a child. I got it as a Christmas present though as a child and I'm quite happy I did even if I didn't finish it, because I get a warm and fuzzy feeling every time I see the greeting on the title page from my granny. I wouldn't say that it's completely melancholy though; it's sort of calm and quiet most of the time and sometimes even happy and funny too. It's about a bunch of characters who gather at the moomins' home to visit them, while they are not there, stay there for a while, and then most of them go away again. It's the Fillyjonk, the Whomper Toft, the Hemulen, Mymble, Snufkin and Grandpa Grumble (I looked up the English names on the net as I read this in Swedish and I'm not sure if Toft is translated to something in English as well). Mymble and Snufkin are quite happy with themselves at the start so I feel the story is a little less about them, because the others have some more issues with themselves and with others too that they somewhat reslove by the end of the book. All of them come to visit the cheerful moomin family, who however turn out to be away and while most of them came to especially find one of the family, they still focus on that relationship. The Fillyjonk for example admires Moominmamma and alternately tries to be like her and do the same things even better, until in the end she happily finds herself returning to her own old ways. They are also a very different bunch of characters and have trouble understanding and living with each other at the start. Even the laid back Snufkin has trouble with these relationships as he finds himself pulled into everything that's going on, while he just wants to be left alone. I like the way the relationships between all of them progress throughout the book. You also might not like them all at all times, but in the end at least I did like all of them at some times. They all have their good and bad sides, and they are maybe better developed characters in the end than most in the other moomin books. So really, it is quite a different moomin book from the others, but it still has a lot of the same humour and familiar characters even if most of the main ones aren't there. It is also worth a read for it's calm and quiet November atmosphere. Maybe November isn't that bad after all.
"On niitä jotka jäävät ja toisia jotka lähtevät, niin on ollut aina. Kukin saa valita itse, mutta on valittava ajoissa, eikä koskaan saa antaa periksi.”Kirja, joka pitää lukea uudelleen aina syksyisin. Mietteliäin, melankolisin, ja ehkä muumikirjoista selkeimmin "aikuisille suunnattu" kirja.Muumiperhe on lähtenyt (kukaan ei tiedä minne), ja koleaan, syksyiseen ja tyhjään muumitaloon kokoontuu erikoinen joukko muumiperheen ystäviä.Heistä jokainen käy läpi omanlaisensa identiteettikriisin uudessa tilanteessa, kun muumiperhettä ei olekaan, ja on tultava toimeen omillaan. Kirja tuo syvyyttä ja uusia kulmia moneen hahmoon, kuten Nuuskamuikkuseen, joka tuntee tässä kirjassa olonsa ensimmäistä kertaa yksinäiseksi, ja esittelee myös aivan uusia otuksia. Näistä kiinnostavin on kenties muistamaton Ruttuvaari, joka haluaa sitkeästi päättää omista asioistaan ja kyllästyy sukulaistensa holhoukseen. Suosikkihahmokseni tässä kirjassa taisi nousta kuitenkin homssu Tuhto, joka lukee Muumipapan kätköistä löytämäänsä vaikeaa, luonnontieteellistä kirjaa ja sepittää samalla omaa tarinaansa, tarinaa yksinäisestä nummuliitista. Vaikka kirja on näennäisesti satu, siinä käydään läpi suuria eksistentiaalisia kriisejä ja kysymyksiä, hahmotellaan omaa identiteettiä ja rakennetaan uudelleen käsityksiä sellaisista asioista kuten vaikkapa koti, ystävyys, onnellisuus, vapaus ja elämä.
What do You think about Moominvalley In November (2003)?
I love Tove Jansson's Moomin books and discovered at an exhibition of her work in Helsinki that she is an even better painter. This quote clicked with me to reshape the structure of my coming book 'Burn My Letters' (see http://bit.ly/burnmyletters)'There are those who stay at home and those who go away and it has always been so. Everyone can choose for himself, but he must choose while there is still time and never change his mind.'My only qualm with this book is that its sudden ending with little sense of resolution (where ARE the family? when will they come home?) breaks structural rules, but hey, Tone Jansson has such a strong following that she gets away with it. Beautiful sense of place, of characters well defined. Must read more.
—Ruth Bonetti
Ignorer den forrige kommentaren, den skulle ikke publiseres.. har tydeligvis ikke mestret kommentarskriving på mobilen. Den aller første, The Moomins and the Great Flood, er en barnebok, men den med kometen og trollmannshatten kan du nok fint lese. Jeg likte den andre boken veldig godt, samme med Trollvinter. Usikker på hvilken jeg skal fortsette med.
—Stine
Could Narnia survive without Aslan? Would Hogwarts be relevant without Harry Potter? The effect of the abscence of the most iconic characters of a world of fiction with which they are inherently linked could be devastating, but Moominvalley manages to survive the mysterious "dissapearance" of the endearing family of trolls that had been the focus on all previous books. When a disparate band of characters arrive to the valley in search of reasurance, after a major identity/life crisis that has shaken their comfort zones, the abscence of their "saviours" forces them to forge unlikely community bonds and find their own selve's again, in spite or perhaps because the Moomin are not there to provide them with easy answers. Whether it's control-freak Hemulen, spiritual orphan Toft, clean-freak Fillyjonk, grinchy Grandpa Grumble, or characters more familiar with the Moomins (Mymble and Snuffkin), all have come to the valley searching for answers, but they find it in the most unlikely ways. As the final installment of the Moomin novels, "Moominvalley in November" is a melancholic, but powerful farewell to the Moomins and a reminder that, although we must return to our own worlds, the adventures and life-lessons that we have learned with the Moomins will remain with us forever.
—Leonardo
