A review by psr
Letters from Klara by Tove Jansson

3.0

While not as strong as 'Sculptor's Daughter' or 'Art in Nature', say, there was still an appeal to aspects of this uneven collection. It is Tove Jansson, after all... From my perspective, Jansson's last two volumes of short stories were her weakest, understandably, perhaps, as by the time 'Letters from Klara' was published she was 77 years old. And when you're the author of 'The Summer Book', you're entitled to have your off days. The best of the stories possessed an unsettling, Mittel-European atmosphere, 'The Pictures', for instance, and 'Emmelina' that elevated them above the other vignettes here. It got me thinking how strong a selection from her last three collections could be, truly reflecting her genius as an observer of charged moments and odd characters.