Book No. 39 of 2020
This very expedient read was really calming, but also brimming with quiet heartbreak. The story—which isn’t a narrative so much as it’s a string of moments—is shaped by the invisible specter of loss.
I tried to find a way to describe the writing style without resorting to the whole “Tove Jansson wrote children’s books” thing but it’s unavoidable—The Summer Book has the type of precise spareness and pointed suggestion that I typically associate with children’s books, and it’s deployed really effectively in describing the melancholy left in the wake of absence.
Similar Reads
Some of the themes reminded me of Beverly Cleary’s Dear Mr. Henshaw (a book I still reread regularly in adulthood!)