Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars A Magical Valley for Kids and Adults OR The Difficulties of Getting Rid of a Hobgoblin’s Hat I love all the Moomintroll books by Tove Jansson because they are so whimsical and wistful, charming and unsettling, strange and deep. Each book has its own mood, setting, and story-type as it combines with the others to present a full picture of Moomin Valley life. So I was looking forward to hearing Hugh Laurie read an early book in the series, Finn Family Moomintroll (1948). In it, Moomintroll (a soft sensitive animal the size of a plump child), his parents (Moominpappa and Moominmamma), and his friends Snufkin (a wandering loner), the Snork Maiden (a vain and strong girl who loves Moomintroll), the Snork (her know it all brother), and Sniff (a self-pitying coward), as well as their guests the Hemulen (a pompous dress-wearing collector) and Muskrat (a dour hammock philosopher who’s always reading a book called On the Uselessness of Everything), and assorted mysterious creatures, like the deaf and dumb Hattifatteners, the kleptomaniacal mouse-sized herring-faced friends Thingummy and Bob, and the dread wintry Groke, participate in spring and summer adventures initiated by the finding of the Hobgoblin’s black hat: magical transformations, island explorations, alien encounters, nonsensical courtroom dramas, wish-fulfillment feasts, and more. There are many funny asides like when the narrator swears by “the-Protector-of-all-Small-Beasts” (instead of God) or says something like, “If you want to find out what the muskrat’s false teeth were turned into, you can ask your Mama. She's sure to know.” Most of the incidents in this story are charming and cheerful, but beneath them flow undercurrents of dissatisfaction, insecurity, loneliness, and sadness flow. The scene where Moomintroll is unwittingly transformed so that his friends and even (briefly) his own mother don’t recognize him starts off funny but turns distressing. The scene where the Hemulen is depressed because he’s completed his perfect stamp collection and hence has stopped being a collector and become an owner is interesting. Moominpapa is ever writing his memoirs and crying when he recalls his youth, and Moomintroll’s longing love for Snufkin is poignant. Amidst her whimsy, Jansson reveals the depths of the human heart through her cute, grotesque, and fantastic creatures. And her distinctive illustrations are prime: clean lined, lovely, strange, simple, detailed, and fantastic. All those features, in addition to her original imagination, make her books appealing to both kids and adults. Finn Family Moomintroll is not the best Moomintroll book and listening to any of them without Jansson’s illustrations is a loss. However, hearing Hugh Laurie (with his natural British accent) read moments like the rising of the August moon shivered me with pleasure: It sailed up, a deep orange colour, unbelievably big and a little frayed round the edges like a tinned apricot, filling Moomin Valley with mysterious lights and shadows. “Look! To-night you can even see the craters on the moon,” said the Snork Maiden. “They must be awfully desolate,” said Moomintroll. “Poor Hobgoblin up there hunting!” Yea, she can really write fantasy, like “A top hat is always somewhat extraordinary,” “Oh, to be a Moomin and to dance in the waves when the sun gets up,” “Far away, Lonely Island lay flaming in the light of the sunset,” AND-- “It [a ball of poisonous pink perennials] twisted slowly up out of the hat, and crept down onto the floor. Tendrils and shoots groped their way up the walls, clambered round the curtains and blind-cords, and scrambled through the cracks, ventilators, and keyholes. In the damp air flowers came out and fruit began to ripen, and huge leafy shoots blotted out the stairs, pushed their way between the legs of the furniture and hung in festoons from the chandelier. The house was filled with soft rustling sound: sometimes the pop of an opening bud could be heard, or the thud of ripe fruit falling on the carpet. But Moominmamma thought it was only the rain and turned over on her other side and went to sleep again.” View all my reviews
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Jefferson Peters
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