The True Deceiver (New York Review Books Classics)
In this Swedish novel, life on a wintry island turns into a tense study of deception, power, and attachment between two women.
Work Information
A cold island novel about deception and power.
Within the silence of a small island community, the desire to see through the other person clashes with the desire not to be seen at all.
Book Information
- Publisher
- NYRB Classics
- Published
- 2009-12-08
- Pages
- 208 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 12.7 x 1.12 x 20.27 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781590173299
- ISBN-10
- 1590173295
- Price
- 3086 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Mystery & Thrillers/Thrillers/Psychological & Suspense
A New York Review Books Original Winner of the Best Translated Book Award Deception—the lies we tell ourselves and the lies we tell others—is the subject of this, Tove Jansson’s most unnerving and unpredictable novel. Here Jansson takes a darker look at the subjects that animate the best of her work, from her sensitive tale of island life, The Summer Book , to her famous Moomin stories: solitude and community, art and life, love and hate. Snow has been falling on the village all winter long. It covers windows and piles up in front of doors. The sun rises late and sets early, and even during the day there is little to do but trade tales. This year everybody’s talking about Katri Kling and Anna Aemelin. Katri is a yellow-eyed outcast who lives with her simpleminded brother and a dog she refuses to name. She has no use for the white lies that smooth social intercourse, and she can see straight to the core of any problem. Anna, an elderly children’s book illustrator, appears to be Katri’s opposite: a respected member of the village, if an aloof one. Anna lives in a large empty house, venturing out in the spring to paint exquisitely detailed forest scenes. But Anna has something Katri wants, and to get it Katri will take control of Anna’s life and livelihood. By the time spring arrives, the two women are caught in a conflict of ideals that threatens to strip them of their most cherished illusions.
Tove Jansson (1914–2001) was born in Helsinki into Finland’s Swedish-speaking minority. Her father was a sculptor and her mother a graphic designer and illustrator. Winters were spent in the family’s art-filled studio and summers in a fisherman’s cottage on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, a setting that would later figure in Jansson’s writing for adults and children. Jansson loved books as a child and set out from an early age to be an artist; her first illustration was published when she was fifteen years old; four years later a picture book appeared under a pseudonym. After attending art schools in both Stockholm and Paris, she returned to Helsinki, where in the 1940s and ’50s she won acclaim for her paintings and murals. From 1929 until 1953 Jansson drew humorous illustrations and political cartoons for the left-leaning anti-Fascist Finnish-Swedish magazine Garm, and it was there that what was to become Jansson’s most famous creation, Moomintroll, a hippopotamus-like character with a dreamy disposition, made his first appearance. Jansson went on to write about the adventures of Moomintroll, the Moomin family, and their curious friends in a long-running comic strip and in a series of books for children that have been translated throughout the world, inspiring films, several television series, an opera, and theme parks in Finland and Japan. Jansson also wrote novels and short stories for adults, of which The Sculptor’s Daughter, The Summer Book, Sun City, Fair Play , and The True Deceiver have been translated into English. In 1994 she was awarded the Prize of the Swedish Academy. Jansson and her companion, the artist Tuulikki Pietilä, continued to live part-time in a cottage on the remote outer edge of the Finnish archipelago until 1991. Thomas Teal has translated Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book, Sun City , and Fair Play. Ali Smith is the author of seven works of fiction, including the novel Hotel World, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize in 2001, and The Accidental , which won the Whitbread Award in 2005 and was short-listed for the 2005 Man Booker Prize.
Reviews
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a great read
Lovely story and so beautifully written. I was enchanted by the characters and the setting. A clever plot and well described
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Creativity vs. Pragmatism
A few weeks ago, the cover of this novel caught my attention as I was browsing here on Amazon. You could say, then, than I judged--and bought--this book based on the cover. The beautiful illustration is by none other than the novel’s author, Tove Jansson, who is famous for her series of children books about the Moomins. Jansson, a Finnish woman who wrote in Swedish, also penned a few novels, five of which are available in English. Before buying _The True Deceiver_ (1982), I checked out a copy of _The Summer Book_ (1972) from my local library, to sample the author’s prose. I was charmed by the impressionistic, episodic, and poetic musings of a young girl who spends a summer with her grandmother. I wanted more, and so I ordered _The True Deceiver_. Jansson allows us to witness the daily life of a small community. The portrayal is quite vivid for such a brief novel, so much so that, cliché as it may sound, I feel as if I had visited this town in person. The specific characters we follow closely are Katri Kling, Anna Aemeling, and Katri’s brother Mats. As the novel begins, Katri and Mats live in an attic over a store. She’s 25 and he’s 15. She’s perceived as a cynic; he’s described as “a bit simple.” (I couldn’t help thinking of Tarjei Vesaas’ _The Birds_, which I read and reviewed a few weeks ago.) Things change for the siblings when they become close to the older Anna, an illustrator of children’s books. Katri offers to help Anna manage her affairs, and the siblings soon move to Anna’s house. The novel might have been titled “Parasite,” as Katri takes over Anna’s life for her own purposes. Anna is the artist; Katri, the pragmatist. We witness the clash between the creative and the practical principles. Perhaps the best example of this occurs when Katri suggests answering the children’s letters with a generic response. Anna would take the time to answer each letter individually. To Katri, this is just a waste of time. She believes everything can be categorized, organized, simplified, and expedited. She destroys the beautiful spontaneity of life. To the pragmatist, “All art is quite useless,” though not exactly in the sense that Oscar Wilde meant it. Katri is good with numbers and seems to know everything there is to know about people. That doesn’t help her to function in society: she is an outcast. An understanding of human nature would lead one to compassion or to misanthropy; Katri is inclined towards the latter. She excels at turning people against each other. She’s the predator who observes life from a distance and is ready to pounce. “As far back as I can remember,” she says, “I’ve done nothing but wait, wait to finally act, to wager all my insight and foresight and daring, wait for the big decisive change that will set everything right” (137). Anna thinks more along these lines: “I would much rather be cheated than to go around distrusting everyone” (128). The meeting of these two seems like the perfect recipe for disaster. What, then, is Mats’ role? He seems to me like a type of synthesis. Like Anna, he draws, but he draws blueprints of boats. He is thus both artistic and pragmatic, and so he can move comfortably between the two women’s perspectives. _The True Deceiver_ is a beautiful, quiet novel. The ending is masterfully understated, open but satisfying. This is not a novella, though. _The Summer Book_ is, by virtue of its episodic, repetitive structure. There is development in _The True Deceiver_, and this makes it a novel, though Jansson incorporates to it elements of the novella, to great advantage. _The Summer Book_ seems to have a wider audience, but I’ll admit I enjoyed _The True Deceiver_ more. Both books were good enough for me to be interested in reading more by Jansson. Next on my list, by the same author: the novel _Fair Play_ (1989) or the short story collection _The Woman Who Borrowed Memories_. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the book!
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Ignorance vs. Realism
I loved this work for it's exploration of the idea of someone is completely naive to the failings of our species and the other completely jaded about it being in the same space. It really got me thinking about the superficial society that we live in and how we construct acceptable norms which so often hide the truth and reality of a situation. I thought that it read well in English and found that I couldn't put it down. Great book!
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Small Psychological Gem
If you're a fan of psychological studies, you owe THE TRUE DECEIVER a look. Set in Sweden in the first half of the 20th century, the book offers a battle of wills that you don't even realize is happening at times, it's so subtle. Katri Kling becomes a care-taker for the famous children's book illustrator, Anna Aemilin, and it sets the small-town tongues wagging. "They make an odd couple, after all, so what's afoot?" seems to be the question of the moment. Katri is logical to a fault and has little patience for the "games people play." She plays ice to emotional Anna's fire. In fact, not only is Anna well-versed in the games people play, she has practically written her own game. Throw into this face-off two wildcards: Katri's "simple-minded" brother, Mats, and her dog with no-name (which Anna initially fears and then wins over) and you have the cast for a mimimalist drama set against a relentless background of snow, ice, and winter. Spring does come, however, and it plays a decided role in the denouement. When you reach it, you'll wonder how Tove Jansson pulls it off. It sure SEEMS like not much is happening -- and yet, all along, something is. A metaphorical chess match, in fact, one you have to sit back and admire because it could have come across as so melodramatic and treacly in the wrong hands. Best of all? The matter of who the "true deceiver" is remains subject to debate, even after the end. I love books like that, because they leave you thinking, engaging in your own internal debates. Good literature -- even smaller examples like this -- should do just that, no?
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Intense and intriguing.
I was actually looking for something whimsical and or light when I chose this book. But it was (to me) a very intense and dark book. Nonetheless I found it very intriguing. I felt Tove built these characters up in a true manner, to the point of being almost disturbing.