Contemporary Reads: Fair Play

Fair Play (1989) is a novel by Finnish author Tove Jansson. Although she is better known internationally as a children's writer and illustrator thanks to her creation The Moomins, there has been some recent interest on her adult fiction after the publication of the English translations of The Summer Book and a collection of her best short-stories The Winter Book. Personally, my introduction to Jansson's fiction has been through Fair Play. A novella made out of vignettes depicting the lives of two elderly friends Mari and Jonna. The narrative is simple and straightforward and nothing much seems to happen: trips abroad, stays on an island, life on their Helsinki apartments, visits from friends, ... What I got from this book is a minimalist description of true friendship. The confidences, shared memories, little conflicts, etc.

The novel is subtle but it reaches where a lot of more complicated books fail to reach. It's true, it's honest and I love it.

Plays: Doll's House

A Doll's House (1879) was Ibsen's first major success. It caused great scandal at the time due its ending: its protagonist Nora abandons her family after her husband discovers she had forged her dead father's signature to borrow money. She did it to finance a trip to Italy that would save her husband's life.

A realist play about women's role in Victorian society that shows Ibsen's concern with women's rights, or human rights in general.

Plays: Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler (1890) is a play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Its protagonist Hedda Tesman (née Gabler) is one of the most fascinating characters in literature I've ever come across. She is manipulative, intelligent, unpredictable, ambitious, dishonest and suicidal.

This play is one of the best ones I've ever read. There'll certainly be more Ibsen on this blog soon!