Morfars Maria

by Hans-Eric Hellberg

A little Swedish girl has many adventures living with her grandfather while her mother is hospitalized.

120 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1969

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Comprehensive Review of “Grandpa’s Maria” by Hans-Eric Hellberg
Preface
I initially took to reading this book as a time-killer on my trip to the beach, since going on my phone the entire time makes my mind turn to mush. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I found an absolutely wonderful story housed inside.

Reading through all 189 pages, it genuinely felt like I was reading a nonfictional biography for a young Swedish girl and her summer before starting school. Hellberg takes careful attention and time to detail this world as artistically and beautifully as possible.

Looking back
Let me tell you, this book is easily one of the most realistic, human books I’ve ever read, if that makes sense. Everything feels so genuine, that I wouldn’t be surprised if the author wrote from his own childhood, and perhaps from that of his own daughter’s.

All of it astounds me. The themes are on point for a children’s book, but have such depth that older readers can enjoy too.

Maria’s life is very nuanced, and to avoid saying “realistic” to the point of exhaustion, I’ll just share what happened within.

Recap
Maria is 7 years old, born on June 10th, 1962, meaning the book takes place in the summer of 1969. Her grandmother helped deliver her, which confuses Maria when her mother shares the story. Her grandmother passed away at the age of two, and she never really knew her.

It’s likely that around this same time, Maria’s father and her mother divorced. The reason for it is never explicitly stated, but Maria observed that “Obviously Daddy had quarreled with Mama and left home and got another wife who was called Ruth and another child who was called Karl” (139).

Maria’s comment indicates that her father initiated the divorce, and further subtext suggests that the father, Rickard, feels uncomfortable with his new wife, Ruth, and his daughter, Maria, being around at the same time. This is especially evident when Ruth is absent, as Rickard is much happier.

Recap, continued
Maria’s grandfather plays a pivotal role in her development, seeing as her biological father is absent from her life. The information I provided above is given at the end of the book, and as such is a literal footnote in her story.

Maria’s grandfather, lovingly called “Grampy” or “Daddy” by Maria, is a very compassionate caretaker of Maria. His daughter and Maria’s mother, Sigrid, watches over her as well. She withholds information about her husband, with only hints and pieces given here and there.

Maria’s friend, Marianne, spills the beans under a table in the lilac arbor, that apparently her father is rich, far away in some mansion. Marianne is critical of Maria for acting childish, insisting that Grampy isn’t her father, and that she should call him “grandfather”. Marianne is never brought up again except for the end, much like Chap the dog.

Back to her grandfather, Grampy worked in photography, and developed photos in the dark, developing them with nothing but a red lamp in his shed.

Grampy himself, named Johan, has a paralyzed arm thanks to some incident, likely WWII if I had to guess. Maria likes helping her Grampy wherever she can.

A major incident in the book is the mother going to a rest home to treat her insomnia, presumably.

Grampy makes a metaphor out of this, comparing nerves to telephone wires connected to his brain. The ones in his arm are asleep, according to Maria. Grampy continues, saying that mama’s telephones in her brain never stop, even when trying to sleep.

It rains numerous times throughout out the book, signifying change, as I’ve been told in former English classes. As such, it rains when Mama leaves for the rest home, Maria devastated.

Maria tries to teach herself how to ride a bike, with much trial and error. It is also about this point when her honorific brother, Harald, is introduced as being an absent figure in her life, spending most of his time with his love interest, Brigit.

Recap, continued again
Maria is undeterred by her near constant failure riding the bike, over and over again.

Eventually though, she succeeds! Grampy secretly photographed her journey from the shed, and Maria is overjoyed. Although she is told to not ride alone on the road, or street, she does so anyway.

We’re introduced to an old rich lady named Agnes Holmlund, and a dutiful mail carrier named Henning Anderson. Maria collides into the two of them, totaling her bike. They share a lovely moment together afterward, with Agnes overjoyed by her son sending her a money order.

Maria went back to her home with the postman Henning, and found her mother sent her a package! It had to be retrieved from the post office, but enclosed was a gift card for the bike shop, perfect timing considering her recent crash.

Maria and Grampy took the same “Love Lane” they used to get to the post office, this time going to Wennergren’s bike shop. Maria fell in love with the blue green bike in the back, but it rained just before she could ride back home.

Recap break, reflection
I know it’s a lot of odd details I’m dumping out here, but this is what I meant when I said that this book is just so human! Everything above feels sincere, what with small talk and small moments I’m omitting even from this thorough recap!

There’s just so much wonderful stuff crammed in this book, like Grampy’s history of photography, traveling the world, Mama’s cooking, Maria bathing herself in perfume in anticipation of “presenting well” for her father, and so on!

There is just so much detail here, trying to encapsulate all that in one go feels insurmountable. I’ll explain my reasoning for being this thorough later. This recap is almost done, I assure you.

Recap, continued yet again
Maria finally takes the bike back home, and falls in love with it. She crashes it as soon as she gets back, which she finds admirable since now the bike is “used” and not perfect anymore, so little scrapes mean less.

Maria believes her bike has a soul, she’s that connected with it. She also calls her mother at the care home, and finds that her friend Marianne has a baby brother now, named Peter.

Maria reuses this name for a squirrel she watches from a window, now also named Peter. She later spots Peter on Love Lane when she’s biking, and swerves into the water.
(This is the point I stopped reading because of how dark it was, but moving on!)

Maria is helped up and out by Harald and Brigit, and she hated feeling helpless. Harald soon finds her again, and encourages her to go with him to Solberga, where Rickard, her father, lived.

She jumps at the opportunity, and after a long bike ride, soon discovers her father isn’t flashy with his wealth, rather just owns a lot of farm land. The impressive stuff is inside the house.

This is where we’re introduced to Karl, her half brother. Ruth, her step mother, doesn’t like Maria, and Rickard is much happier to see Maria without his new wife.

On the way, Harald and Maria find an injured bird with a broken wing. Harald plans to kill it, but Maria insists to rehabilitate it, even though it looks dreadful.

This minor conflict drives Maria to persistently contact her father, in hopes of updates about the bird.

Since Harald was absent once again, Maria decides to just walk to Solberga, in the muggy end-of-summer heat. She rests at the cool graveyard, and miraculously runs into Agnes! We also see Henning as well, offering a ride up to the home.

The bird looks terrible. Maria looks for Karl, who spooks her, hiding away in a clubhouse during a rainstorm. Maria realizes the bird is still outside!

Recap, finale
Maria saves the bird with Karl, putting it in a greenhouse. Miraculously, the rain reinvigorates the bird, to the delight of Maria and Karl.

Rickard calls Maria back- and big surprise, Mama’s coming back home!!! Her father drives her back home, and Maria has to rush to make it to the train station with Grampy.

The final conflict of the book is Maria not being allowed to pee, as there is a huge rush to get to the station on time. Fortunately, they do make it, and Mama seems like a different woman.

She seems a lot more tired now, with Maria remarking “Can you rest so much that it makes you tired” (177)? Whatever sedatives Mama has to use now, it’s certainly changed her demeanor.

Maria rushed past the crossing gates, and into the station office. The guard secretary was a huge jerk, saying she had to pay to enter the bathroom. Much to Maria’s dismay, she peed herself just before leaving, which is funny considering the guard’s dismissiveness now becoming his problem. We don’t see his reaction, but using your imagination is equally rewarding.

The heavy rain masked the accident, and the last scene of the book features Maria and her mother comforting her, taking care of her clothes and tucking her into bed.

My Thesis
So, why did I choose to write about ALL of this in such exhaustive detail? Those of you who’ve read this far, I thank you for everything, so you should know.

When I started this book on Friday, I noticed that the author put a little foreword, saying,

“This book is about a girl in Sweden, Maria Charlotta Hoffman. If you want to know anything more about her, just write me a letter and I will try to answer as soon as possible. It’s nice to get letters” (5).

I was very touched by that, and I was devastated to discover that Hans-Eric Hellberg passed away in 2016.

I should’ve anticipated this, considering the book is from the 1970s, but the mortality of life just hit me, and how an author’s living words persists through the page.

That moved me deeply. The relationship between Maria and her grandfather reminded me of my own experiences with my own grandparents on my mother’s side. I always loved going to their house,

This book allowed me to experience and explore a childhood that never was my own, but entirely plausible to be someone else’s. Maria’s childhood struggles feel so real, her annoyance at the dullness of adults saying “when you’re older” and so on.

Another reason why I chose to write about all this, is that I found that hardly anybody else online, if at all, has anything to say about this book. This is very likely due to its age and obscurity, but it made me feel something powerful in its simplicity.

I want this book to have a place somewhere in the modern day, not just book listings online to be bought. “Grandpa’s Maria” deserves praise and care, since it is just such a real, authentic expression of humanity, able to be understood by anyone and everyone.

Closing Thoughts
“Grandpa’s Maria” has all the flair and flavor of an adventurous novel, but it is aggressively established in reality. Nothing extremely fantastical or wonderful happens in the story, and nothing of the sort needs to happen for it to work.

Maria’s perspective on the world and her experiences in childhood, translated to the page, makes for an entertaining and light-hearted read that made me smile over and over again.

No single event defines this story, save for the mother’s absence of course. It’s much like life, where events happen to us, but each instance has its own nugget of importance to us, the individual.

The bike. Grampy’s photo studio in the shed. The street road. Love Lane. The Post Office. Wennergren’s bike shop. Rickard’s farm. Maria busting a tooth after her bike crash. The kindness of her neighbors. The mystery of her parents former marriage. Grampy’s past. Harald’s love life.

It all culminates and blooms into a beautiful story.

It is criminal this story isn’t anywhere to read online, but that’s just my two cents. Perhaps it’s fitting this story is bound to the physical medium, obscure to the internet.

This story is a flash in time, a single summer in a Swedish girl’s life just before she starts school for the first time. In a way, I am Maria. I have school coming up myself, and reading this story just reminded me the sheer joy and wonder of just experiencing and exploring the world.

Some may call it mundane, but to me, I find the most beauty in the quieter moments. That, is Grandpa’s Maria. Thank you, Hans-Eric Hellberg.