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The True Deceiver
A New York Review Books Original
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.
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.
181 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
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9913 people want to read
About the author
Tove Jansson
889 books3,908 followersTove Jansson was born and died in Helsinki, Finland. As a Finnish citizen whose mother tongue was Swedish, she was part of the Swedish-speaking Finns minority. Thus, all her books were originally written in Swedish.
Although known first and foremost as an author, Tove Jansson considered her careers as author and painter to be of equal importance.
Tove Jansson wrote and illustrated her first Moomin book, The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945), during World War II. She said later that the war had depressed her, and she had wanted to write something naive and innocent. Besides the Moomin novels and short stories, Tove Jansson also wrote and illustrated four original and highly popular picture books.
Jansson's Moomin books have been translated into 33 languages.
Although known first and foremost as an author, Tove Jansson considered her careers as author and painter to be of equal importance.
Tove Jansson wrote and illustrated her first Moomin book, The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945), during World War II. She said later that the war had depressed her, and she had wanted to write something naive and innocent. Besides the Moomin novels and short stories, Tove Jansson also wrote and illustrated four original and highly popular picture books.
Jansson's Moomin books have been translated into 33 languages.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,040 reviews
October 28, 2014
I like Tove Jansson’s brand of wisdom. It’s not a “hard won” wisdom of the sort that has grown from the rubble of cynicism, betrayal, and defeat. It’s a clear-eyed wisdom that has never lost its innocence; a wisdom that plays even as it sees through to the dark heart of people and things. It’s the wisdom of solitude and barrenness that attracts company and fertility but doesn’t need them; content to know but not participate overmuch, radiating a warmth from its detachment.
This is a late novel by Jansson, published in 1982, a good decade after the last Moomin book, and is something of an oblique manifesto of this wisdom. It’s the story of two women that plays out with eerie similarities to Bergman’s Persona - two women of (initially) radically different temperaments who through close proximity push each other to crisis and change of perspective, passing through each other as this occurs, and all transpiring in a small Scandinavian house. But the agent of change in The True Deceiver is a willful action by one of the women, a possibly sociopathic, yet very beguiling and fascinating character, a calculating loner whose heart is devoted to the welfare of her simple-minded brother. She forces change upon the other woman who for a lifetime has been sheltered from the world and its vagaries by her success as an artist.
It’s a cat and mouse game that proceeds with fairy tale touches (the Big Bad Wolf and the Flowery Rabbit) that only enhance its glaring realism. And once again after reading one of Tove Jansson’s “adult” novels, I am not only marveling at her narrative subtlety and evocativeness, and her effortless ability to use the natural cycles of the seasons as a plot device (this book proceeding from deep Winter freeze to the beginnings of a great Spring thaw), but also at the Finnish practice of carelessly dumping their garbage in the sea. This practice of garbage disposal plays a major role in this novel, as all the baggage of the artist character is lugged out onto the ice and piled up to await the Spring thaw when the ice will crack and all her unnecessary possessions will sink away, leaving room for her life to change even as it remains the same.
This is a late novel by Jansson, published in 1982, a good decade after the last Moomin book, and is something of an oblique manifesto of this wisdom. It’s the story of two women that plays out with eerie similarities to Bergman’s Persona - two women of (initially) radically different temperaments who through close proximity push each other to crisis and change of perspective, passing through each other as this occurs, and all transpiring in a small Scandinavian house. But the agent of change in The True Deceiver is a willful action by one of the women, a possibly sociopathic, yet very beguiling and fascinating character, a calculating loner whose heart is devoted to the welfare of her simple-minded brother. She forces change upon the other woman who for a lifetime has been sheltered from the world and its vagaries by her success as an artist.
It’s a cat and mouse game that proceeds with fairy tale touches (the Big Bad Wolf and the Flowery Rabbit) that only enhance its glaring realism. And once again after reading one of Tove Jansson’s “adult” novels, I am not only marveling at her narrative subtlety and evocativeness, and her effortless ability to use the natural cycles of the seasons as a plot device (this book proceeding from deep Winter freeze to the beginnings of a great Spring thaw), but also at the Finnish practice of carelessly dumping their garbage in the sea. This practice of garbage disposal plays a major role in this novel, as all the baggage of the artist character is lugged out onto the ice and piled up to await the Spring thaw when the ice will crack and all her unnecessary possessions will sink away, leaving room for her life to change even as it remains the same.
January 30, 2019
This is a perfect novel in the same way The Great Gatsby is a perfect novel. Not in the sense of "best" novel--but, in that it perfectly executes its intention, its reason to exist as a novel.
Instead of a traditional protagonist-antagonist relationship there are two antagonists of equal and opposing strength at the heart of this novel. The only characteristic the two women share is the utter isolation each endures in daily life. While part of a community, they are set apart from that community, the object of speculation and hostility from others, rather than of friendship and belonging. To survive in their isolation, each of the women has developed a highly idiosyncratic way of coping with the world. The choices each makes are so mutually incomprehensible that their clash is inevitable, and when it happens, it's heartbreaking.
Of the many wonders in this novel, what shines most bright for me is what happens when the women are forced to recognize, and to adapt to, the needs and flaws of the other. It's mysterious and untidy. Wonderful.
Instead of a traditional protagonist-antagonist relationship there are two antagonists of equal and opposing strength at the heart of this novel. The only characteristic the two women share is the utter isolation each endures in daily life. While part of a community, they are set apart from that community, the object of speculation and hostility from others, rather than of friendship and belonging. To survive in their isolation, each of the women has developed a highly idiosyncratic way of coping with the world. The choices each makes are so mutually incomprehensible that their clash is inevitable, and when it happens, it's heartbreaking.
Of the many wonders in this novel, what shines most bright for me is what happens when the women are forced to recognize, and to adapt to, the needs and flaws of the other. It's mysterious and untidy. Wonderful.
November 15, 2021
I like books with symbolic significance as much as the next person (which is to say, on a case by case basis), but I am a mere dandelion puff in the wind of my expectations even more than the next person (unless the next person is a toddler in the middle of a tantrum, or a member of the low-ranking nobility of a small nation).
That's a vague and odd way of saying that although this book is quite deep, I didn't necessarily enjoy it.
I have developed a major appreciation for Tove Jansson books based off of her charming and quirky characters, her clear and lovely writing style, her unique way of seeing the world and efficacy in conveying it in words, and the sort of love of life, if not optimism, that pervades it all.
This book didn't have any of that.
And it was still good, all the same, but it wasn't what I wanted.
Sorry for being a small bratty child throughout this review - it happens to the best of us, no?
Bottom line: Sometimes a book can be objectively excellent and still not exactly for you. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
----------------
pre-review
i've said things like "tove jansson could write a book about nothing and i would read it" before, but it's nice to know it's true.
review to come / 3ish stars
----------------
tbr review
i'm not completely sure, but i'm fairly certain that the way to achieve eternal happiness is by reading tove jansson books
That's a vague and odd way of saying that although this book is quite deep, I didn't necessarily enjoy it.
I have developed a major appreciation for Tove Jansson books based off of her charming and quirky characters, her clear and lovely writing style, her unique way of seeing the world and efficacy in conveying it in words, and the sort of love of life, if not optimism, that pervades it all.
This book didn't have any of that.
And it was still good, all the same, but it wasn't what I wanted.
Sorry for being a small bratty child throughout this review - it happens to the best of us, no?
Bottom line: Sometimes a book can be objectively excellent and still not exactly for you. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
----------------
pre-review
i've said things like "tove jansson could write a book about nothing and i would read it" before, but it's nice to know it's true.
review to come / 3ish stars
----------------
tbr review
i'm not completely sure, but i'm fairly certain that the way to achieve eternal happiness is by reading tove jansson books
October 23, 2022
I walked into this story bearing in mind it wouldn’t be The Summer Book all over again. Even preparing myself for it, in a way. Now, not to make this sound too dramatic, I also cracked this one open waiting for an oil change. But you know.
Tove Jansson wouldn’t have any of it and went right down to getting bunnies to hop and gossip to flow in a modest, remote village. I was grateful for the chance to reconnect with her take on coastal settings and the open air, the woods never too far from view, and not least the appearance of a simple life. Gone are the candid views of little Sophia, fair enough, we’re in grown-up territory this time, but that’s not to say the tone is heavier and I’m walking away from The True Deceiver with an assessment of humanity just as sensitive and clever.
Manipulation sits front and center, in this one. Being aware of it mostly remains the reader’s privilege, save for one pivotal character. As village favorites go about the seasons and spring to life the Jansson way, we are made privy to their wooden homes, their snacks, their quirks, their inside conflicts superseded by their kind manners; I felt the warmth of that wood stove once again, found the exchanges lively and didn’t miss The Summer Book so much, after all. There’s hygge in Jansson’s stories, the concept comes through: her literature feels cozy.
That she would make The True Deceiver a colourful tale is all the more remarkable this time, in a way. Her characters remained solar, even as the outside grew dark and cold.
A well-timed read for October, in my experience.
Tove Jansson wouldn’t have any of it and went right down to getting bunnies to hop and gossip to flow in a modest, remote village. I was grateful for the chance to reconnect with her take on coastal settings and the open air, the woods never too far from view, and not least the appearance of a simple life. Gone are the candid views of little Sophia, fair enough, we’re in grown-up territory this time, but that’s not to say the tone is heavier and I’m walking away from The True Deceiver with an assessment of humanity just as sensitive and clever.
Manipulation sits front and center, in this one. Being aware of it mostly remains the reader’s privilege, save for one pivotal character. As village favorites go about the seasons and spring to life the Jansson way, we are made privy to their wooden homes, their snacks, their quirks, their inside conflicts superseded by their kind manners; I felt the warmth of that wood stove once again, found the exchanges lively and didn’t miss The Summer Book so much, after all. There’s hygge in Jansson’s stories, the concept comes through: her literature feels cozy.
That she would make The True Deceiver a colourful tale is all the more remarkable this time, in a way. Her characters remained solar, even as the outside grew dark and cold.
A well-timed read for October, in my experience.
February 16, 2017
Tove Jansson is probably still best known as the creator of the Moomins. Having read The Summer Book some years ago, I was already aware that she was also a talented and perceptive writer for adults. This book is deceptive - at first glance it seems like a simple tale of life in a small village in the harsh Scandinavian winter, but it gradually reveals itself to be a devastating character study as well as a reflection on the nature of creativity.
It has two main characters. Katri is a somewhat sociopathic outsider, who is responsible for a younger brother Mats who might be described in modern politically correct language as having learning difficulties. Anna is a illustrator of children's books who lives alone in a large house inherited from her parents, whose relationship with the outside world is somewhat naive and trusting.
The plot centres on Katri's scheme to make herself Anna's protector and housekeeper, a role which enables her to do more for Mats. Initially Anna appears to be acquiescent, but by the end of the book the relationship between the two women is much more complex. The language is deceptively simple - this is a spare, moving book.
It has two main characters. Katri is a somewhat sociopathic outsider, who is responsible for a younger brother Mats who might be described in modern politically correct language as having learning difficulties. Anna is a illustrator of children's books who lives alone in a large house inherited from her parents, whose relationship with the outside world is somewhat naive and trusting.
The plot centres on Katri's scheme to make herself Anna's protector and housekeeper, a role which enables her to do more for Mats. Initially Anna appears to be acquiescent, but by the end of the book the relationship between the two women is much more complex. The language is deceptively simple - this is a spare, moving book.
April 18, 2023
Tuvin roman “Istinska varalica” ima nešto što me je duboko impresioniralo i ranije kada sam čitao njene pripovetke, a to je sposobnost da me uznemiri, a da ne mogu prstom da uperim u šta mi to tačno stvara nelagodnost. Nije lako objasniti o čemu se radi. Počnimo od toga da ovo nije vesela knjiga, ali da se u njoj ne dešava ništa tužno, čak, odiše i dozom ušuškanosti. Tome sigurno doprinosi diskretno mračna i nenametljiva lepota proze kojom se pripovedaju događaji u jednom skadinavskom selu tokom zime sa nikad više snega. Kada se zaplet prepriča, on zvuči kao triler - žutooka Katri, prepozantljiva po svojoj objektivnoj iskrenosti i velikom psu bez imena, uspeva na prevaru da se useli u dom uspešne i povučene ilustratorke Ane Eling i da preuzme kontrolu nad njenim životom i domaćinstvom – međutim, u zapletu nema ni napetosti, ni užasa, ni šokova, a ni tajni koje treba otkriti. Svi su tihi i svi su introvertni, ali je i sve puno ljubazne zlobe i pristojnog licemerja koje svako mora primenjivati nad drugima i trpeti od drugih da bi živeo u nečemu što se zove ljudska zajednica. Značenje je jasno, ali i nejasno, na korak prema alegoriji, ali daleko od alegorije kao Paraćin od Šangaja, realističan svet za koji smo sigurni da ne postoji. Pri čemu Jansonova ni u jednom trenutku ne poseže za nečim što bi trebalo da asocira na bilo šta uvrnuto. Naprotiv, sve je tako prosto i ušuškano.
April 27, 2012
The True Deceiver would have been a good book about living with a face you can accept yourself with if it didn't tell the reader what the lies and the truths were instead of ever actually living with those lies for the reader to figure out. Do you know that scene in the 1980's film Labyrinth (a childhood favorite) when the door keepers give Sarah (Jennifer Connoly) a riddle to solve? One of them always tells the truth and the other always lies? I could never figure it out (my twin could). I have seen that movie hundreds of times. Screw the riddle. Something isn't ALWAYS true and it isn't always a lie. Not when it is about something that could change like people.
Protected Anna thinks of herself as a well spring of fluffy bunnies and nice things to say. She's not. So what? Exposed Katri pats herself on the back for being brutally honest.
Oh wait, she wasn't. She is honest when it suits her, same as everyone else she labels thusly. She was a liar and a thief and lived with the rabbit lady under false pretenses. It was never her right to determine if Anna was lying to herself or not. If they had known each other without those obvious universal truths (oh my god society functions with rules!), if anything was allowed to be known other than straight up text imparted repeatedly... I pretty much agree with David's review that Katri is little more than a symbol for the author to hang her message on because of this. Katri thinks she has the right to do what she wants. Anna has done what she thinks she wants to do. I can see her sitting alone in her house and going to sleep because she's so-called above problems because she has money. I could see Katri feeling she has the under dog's so-called right to fight to the teeth because she doesn't have security. How does it feel to be them?
Isn't it up to each person to decide, if they are lucky? I know what their convictions are. Katri has survivalist and Anna has this is how it is. I could have gotten that without their mouth peices telling me, too.
Isn't that the only way to have faith in people? To know if they aren't just being nice to be nice? Or forgive a bad day? To live with them and read them to determine if they seem honest according to your own experience? This fairytale moral of the story didn't work for me. I would have rather watched Katri interact without the fan fare. I always knew she was lying and that it was seen by her to be her right. Guess what? She's great at maths and she recognized that the snow figure of her made by the village kids honored her maths. Great time to bring that up- the first ever! It would have been neat to determine that Katri might be wrong about everyone on my own. Her past relations with the town was a good idea but the author rolls them out too plain sight, as she does with Katri and Anna. As for the former boss she turned down not so gently? Everyone gets rejected, right? Too damned bad. I don't get to see how he suggested a relationship only that he was hurt- because I am told he is. I am told she doesn't like him instead of getting to see it. It would have been neat to determine if he really liked her before. Katri wanted her brother to love her by doing nice things for him too (buying the boat). That doesn't make her so different, I think. She wanted to be liked too! How come she comes to think it her right to bluntly expose (what she sees to be true) others in the first place? And please don't say yellow eyes and her off color hair. People get to be how they are through a life time of human interactions. Katri avoided them. Did Jansson have to just tell me she was nervous with her brother, the one person she cared for? That could have been wonderful. Because he was hers? That is a start. The book doesn't say why he is the one person she cares for and that was good. Because he is also different (simple)? Couldn't I be allowed to watch them without the this means that and people are like this? Where did she come by her insight? I know how I developed mine. I was avoiding people too and trying to stay "safe" (whatever that is). It means everything to me to read between people and pick up on how they choose to read others, what they are afraid to see and what they want to see. Jansson opened her mouth too often and just told too much. I hate that! You aren't blowing my mind by saying people lie to get along with each other. What do they want to hear and why? Did Katri want for others to live as she did and wake up to the real world? Yes, she gave books to her brother. Jansson told me that she picked these books so her brother would see the real world as she knew it. Nooooo! Mouth piece!
It might be worth noting that I dislike fairy tales with easy answers. The True Deceiver reads like one. Answers and the questions already provided. It should not be that way. Katri and Anna comparing each other to learn about themselves could have been so good if they interacted without all that constant voice over of this means that. I am disappointed that she went that way because if The True Deceiver is about being honest with yourself then telling yourself things is the road to the lying to yourself, right?
A German shepherd service dog growled at me in a pharmacy today. I suspect it was a fake service dog because the woman clearly didn't need one. She wasn't blind, crippled or deaf. He was ruined like Katri's dog when Anna interferes in his obedience training. Service dogs are supposed to be above common folk like me! I was bad enough to get growled at for sitting in a chair across the aisle (and to the side!). Sob why don't all dogs like me. Can't they just pretend to be nice?!
Now that I mention it, the lady also fake smiled at me. This is getting ridiculous. I already assume that 99.9% of people don't really like me (the reasons vary). There are rules of polite society! Lie to me so that I will believe it. Is that too much to ask?
I'm sorry for the messiness of this review. I wrote it on my iPod. I usually only do that for those betterthanmasterandmargarita book reviews.... (Editors note: I am writing on a computer and I am only adding to the mess instead of cleaning it up. I had meant to back up my preachiness with quotes from the text. Intentions... Sighs.)
I unintentionally read a series of does anyone really like anyone books, I realized today. Probably the last few books I read were about the impossibility of relationships. I admit it is a hang up of mine. I knew this guy who would complain to me about people bothering him but he was too nice to tell them to leave him alone. I took that to mean me leave him alone and never approached him again and cut off all conversations he ever initiated years afterwards (I sound nutso but he would initiate conversations with those he complained about too). It isn't always possible to tell if people are having a bad day or if you really are bugging them. It's just something to get over if you're ever going to know anyone. I have to force myself to talk to people and I doubt it'll ever be any easier than it already is. For what it is worth I am so much better than I used to be. I should give myself credit when I compare me of today to how I was fifteen or even ten years ago. Katri would have looked more socially at ease than I was. I watch all people like a hawk (a bad ass eagle eyed hawk) for my sign to fuck off, though. It is hard for me to take seriously a book that presupposes one doesn't know that people can be nice without really meaning it. I am terrified of that! And how can you know when your cue to fuck off is happening when the book is surface talk?! I live between the lines. I'm probably always wrong too. But not in books. They are all I really got. You don't ever get to know if you are right unless it is in a book. It isn't worth it to know if you are right if the author hands it to you on a platter as Jansson did. Okay book but definitely not one that I found all that rewarding. I do want to know people.
Protected Anna thinks of herself as a well spring of fluffy bunnies and nice things to say. She's not. So what? Exposed Katri pats herself on the back for being brutally honest.
Oh wait, she wasn't. She is honest when it suits her, same as everyone else she labels thusly. She was a liar and a thief and lived with the rabbit lady under false pretenses. It was never her right to determine if Anna was lying to herself or not. If they had known each other without those obvious universal truths (oh my god society functions with rules!), if anything was allowed to be known other than straight up text imparted repeatedly... I pretty much agree with David's review that Katri is little more than a symbol for the author to hang her message on because of this. Katri thinks she has the right to do what she wants. Anna has done what she thinks she wants to do. I can see her sitting alone in her house and going to sleep because she's so-called above problems because she has money. I could see Katri feeling she has the under dog's so-called right to fight to the teeth because she doesn't have security. How does it feel to be them?
Isn't it up to each person to decide, if they are lucky? I know what their convictions are. Katri has survivalist and Anna has this is how it is. I could have gotten that without their mouth peices telling me, too.
Isn't that the only way to have faith in people? To know if they aren't just being nice to be nice? Or forgive a bad day? To live with them and read them to determine if they seem honest according to your own experience? This fairytale moral of the story didn't work for me. I would have rather watched Katri interact without the fan fare. I always knew she was lying and that it was seen by her to be her right. Guess what? She's great at maths and she recognized that the snow figure of her made by the village kids honored her maths. Great time to bring that up- the first ever! It would have been neat to determine that Katri might be wrong about everyone on my own. Her past relations with the town was a good idea but the author rolls them out too plain sight, as she does with Katri and Anna. As for the former boss she turned down not so gently? Everyone gets rejected, right? Too damned bad. I don't get to see how he suggested a relationship only that he was hurt- because I am told he is. I am told she doesn't like him instead of getting to see it. It would have been neat to determine if he really liked her before. Katri wanted her brother to love her by doing nice things for him too (buying the boat). That doesn't make her so different, I think. She wanted to be liked too! How come she comes to think it her right to bluntly expose (what she sees to be true) others in the first place? And please don't say yellow eyes and her off color hair. People get to be how they are through a life time of human interactions. Katri avoided them. Did Jansson have to just tell me she was nervous with her brother, the one person she cared for? That could have been wonderful. Because he was hers? That is a start. The book doesn't say why he is the one person she cares for and that was good. Because he is also different (simple)? Couldn't I be allowed to watch them without the this means that and people are like this? Where did she come by her insight? I know how I developed mine. I was avoiding people too and trying to stay "safe" (whatever that is). It means everything to me to read between people and pick up on how they choose to read others, what they are afraid to see and what they want to see. Jansson opened her mouth too often and just told too much. I hate that! You aren't blowing my mind by saying people lie to get along with each other. What do they want to hear and why? Did Katri want for others to live as she did and wake up to the real world? Yes, she gave books to her brother. Jansson told me that she picked these books so her brother would see the real world as she knew it. Nooooo! Mouth piece!
It might be worth noting that I dislike fairy tales with easy answers. The True Deceiver reads like one. Answers and the questions already provided. It should not be that way. Katri and Anna comparing each other to learn about themselves could have been so good if they interacted without all that constant voice over of this means that. I am disappointed that she went that way because if The True Deceiver is about being honest with yourself then telling yourself things is the road to the lying to yourself, right?
A German shepherd service dog growled at me in a pharmacy today. I suspect it was a fake service dog because the woman clearly didn't need one. She wasn't blind, crippled or deaf. He was ruined like Katri's dog when Anna interferes in his obedience training. Service dogs are supposed to be above common folk like me! I was bad enough to get growled at for sitting in a chair across the aisle (and to the side!). Sob why don't all dogs like me. Can't they just pretend to be nice?!
Now that I mention it, the lady also fake smiled at me. This is getting ridiculous. I already assume that 99.9% of people don't really like me (the reasons vary). There are rules of polite society! Lie to me so that I will believe it. Is that too much to ask?
I'm sorry for the messiness of this review. I wrote it on my iPod. I usually only do that for those betterthanmasterandmargarita book reviews.... (Editors note: I am writing on a computer and I am only adding to the mess instead of cleaning it up. I had meant to back up my preachiness with quotes from the text. Intentions... Sighs.)
I unintentionally read a series of does anyone really like anyone books, I realized today. Probably the last few books I read were about the impossibility of relationships. I admit it is a hang up of mine. I knew this guy who would complain to me about people bothering him but he was too nice to tell them to leave him alone. I took that to mean me leave him alone and never approached him again and cut off all conversations he ever initiated years afterwards (I sound nutso but he would initiate conversations with those he complained about too). It isn't always possible to tell if people are having a bad day or if you really are bugging them. It's just something to get over if you're ever going to know anyone. I have to force myself to talk to people and I doubt it'll ever be any easier than it already is. For what it is worth I am so much better than I used to be. I should give myself credit when I compare me of today to how I was fifteen or even ten years ago. Katri would have looked more socially at ease than I was. I watch all people like a hawk (a bad ass eagle eyed hawk) for my sign to fuck off, though. It is hard for me to take seriously a book that presupposes one doesn't know that people can be nice without really meaning it. I am terrified of that! And how can you know when your cue to fuck off is happening when the book is surface talk?! I live between the lines. I'm probably always wrong too. But not in books. They are all I really got. You don't ever get to know if you are right unless it is in a book. It isn't worth it to know if you are right if the author hands it to you on a platter as Jansson did. Okay book but definitely not one that I found all that rewarding. I do want to know people.
September 29, 2014
Early, in this little gem of a novel, Katri Kling and Edvard Liljeberg have this dialogue:
"I can take the mail up to Miss Aemelin," she said.
"I can't let you do that; it's the postman's job to deliver the mail. It's a position of trust."
Katri lifted her face and opened her eyes at him; in the hard light on the porch they were truly yellow. "Trust," she said. "Don't you trust me?" She paused and then repeated, "I can take the mail up to Miss Aemelin. It's important to me."
"Are you trying to help?"
"You know I'm not," Katri said. "I'm doing it entirely for my own sake. Do you trust me or don't you?"
Katri's question is not only to Liljeberg, but to the reader as well. The seemingly oxymoronic title begs the question: How can a deceiver be true?
Katri wants to get enough money so she can have a boat built for her slow brother Mats. He has been working on the plans. Miss Aemelin is the honey pot that can make that happen. In a series of small deceptions, Katri wins Miss Aemelin's trust. But things will change.
Miss Aemelin lives alone in 'the rabbit house.' It's called that because Miss Aemelin is the illustrator of books, known for the rabbits she paints on the letters of words. She seems largely unaware. Katri, blunt but good at numbers, warns her of the duplicity of neighbors.
(Tove Jansson was an illustrator of children's books before she wrote serious fiction and she always managed to intrude herself as a character in her books. Not just that, but the delightfully minimalist watercolor on the cover of the nyrb-classic is the painting she drew for the original edition.)
Enough of the plot, except to say, by book's end, you will wonder who the True Deceiver really is.
I bookmarked wonderfully written passages that sang to notions of innocence and whether a person can change, but I won't bore you with them. Just saying you should read this; they're that good. But you know how you get to a wonderful passage that you immediately read again and then again before you push forward and then you go back to immediately after the last page? That's what happened when I read this:
I remember the dog at home, when I was a girl; the one that killed chickens. They tied a dead hen around his neck and he carried it around with him all day until he just lay there unmoving with his eyes shut in a morass of shame. It was cruel. There's nothing so hideously easy as giving someone a bad conscience...
"I can take the mail up to Miss Aemelin," she said.
"I can't let you do that; it's the postman's job to deliver the mail. It's a position of trust."
Katri lifted her face and opened her eyes at him; in the hard light on the porch they were truly yellow. "Trust," she said. "Don't you trust me?" She paused and then repeated, "I can take the mail up to Miss Aemelin. It's important to me."
"Are you trying to help?"
"You know I'm not," Katri said. "I'm doing it entirely for my own sake. Do you trust me or don't you?"
Katri's question is not only to Liljeberg, but to the reader as well. The seemingly oxymoronic title begs the question: How can a deceiver be true?
Katri wants to get enough money so she can have a boat built for her slow brother Mats. He has been working on the plans. Miss Aemelin is the honey pot that can make that happen. In a series of small deceptions, Katri wins Miss Aemelin's trust. But things will change.
Miss Aemelin lives alone in 'the rabbit house.' It's called that because Miss Aemelin is the illustrator of books, known for the rabbits she paints on the letters of words. She seems largely unaware. Katri, blunt but good at numbers, warns her of the duplicity of neighbors.
(Tove Jansson was an illustrator of children's books before she wrote serious fiction and she always managed to intrude herself as a character in her books. Not just that, but the delightfully minimalist watercolor on the cover of the nyrb-classic is the painting she drew for the original edition.)
Enough of the plot, except to say, by book's end, you will wonder who the True Deceiver really is.
I bookmarked wonderfully written passages that sang to notions of innocence and whether a person can change, but I won't bore you with them. Just saying you should read this; they're that good. But you know how you get to a wonderful passage that you immediately read again and then again before you push forward and then you go back to immediately after the last page? That's what happened when I read this:
I remember the dog at home, when I was a girl; the one that killed chickens. They tied a dead hen around his neck and he carried it around with him all day until he just lay there unmoving with his eyes shut in a morass of shame. It was cruel. There's nothing so hideously easy as giving someone a bad conscience...
October 25, 2022
4.5 stars.
I would describe both the story and the writing as mesmerizing. Tove Jansson weaved a spell over this reader. Having never read her before, I was duly impressed.
Two women lie at the heart of this story: Katri Kling, an elusive, solitary woman, whose main goal in life is to protect her brother Mats, who is described as “simple”. Anna Aemelin lives a reclusive life in the “big home”. She is a successful illustrator of children’s books. The two women are total opposites. Katri is suspicious of everyone and Anna is trusting of everyone.
As per the title, deception is key to this story- deception of others and self deception.
The story takes place in a remote region of Sweden. The villagers all come to life under the skillful touch of the author. The cold, the snow, the awakening of spring is beautifully drawn out.
I loved the writing so much- the translation is pure and seamless.
Anna says to Katri: “ Now don’t take this the wrong way, Miss Kling, but I find your way of never saying what a person expects you to say, I find it somehow appealing. In you there’s no, if you’ll pardon my saying so, no trace of what people call politeness….And politeness can sometimes be almost a kind of deceit, can it not? “
This book certainly drew me in. There is an underlying tension which is quite unnerving. But we are in skilled hands. There are so many scenes that feel imprinted on my brain. One in particular is the bond between Mats and Anna over their shared love of books.
I picked up this book now as it is going to be discussed on a podcast I listen to- Tea or Books. How fortuitous for me!
Published: 1982
I would describe both the story and the writing as mesmerizing. Tove Jansson weaved a spell over this reader. Having never read her before, I was duly impressed.
Two women lie at the heart of this story: Katri Kling, an elusive, solitary woman, whose main goal in life is to protect her brother Mats, who is described as “simple”. Anna Aemelin lives a reclusive life in the “big home”. She is a successful illustrator of children’s books. The two women are total opposites. Katri is suspicious of everyone and Anna is trusting of everyone.
As per the title, deception is key to this story- deception of others and self deception.
The story takes place in a remote region of Sweden. The villagers all come to life under the skillful touch of the author. The cold, the snow, the awakening of spring is beautifully drawn out.
I loved the writing so much- the translation is pure and seamless.
Anna says to Katri: “ Now don’t take this the wrong way, Miss Kling, but I find your way of never saying what a person expects you to say, I find it somehow appealing. In you there’s no, if you’ll pardon my saying so, no trace of what people call politeness….And politeness can sometimes be almost a kind of deceit, can it not? “
This book certainly drew me in. There is an underlying tension which is quite unnerving. But we are in skilled hands. There are so many scenes that feel imprinted on my brain. One in particular is the bond between Mats and Anna over their shared love of books.
I picked up this book now as it is going to be discussed on a podcast I listen to- Tea or Books. How fortuitous for me!
Published: 1982
November 21, 2025
So assured of itself, the novel has so much to say and does it with crystalline, sharp prose that evokes the bleakness of winter as you wait for spring’s thaw.
It asks of the reader, which is more important: being right or being good? And is it easier to be good when you are in a position of power or in a role that requires obedience? How, if at all, do our strivings corrupt us?
Many layered. Chilling. A story worth visiting and revisiting. It’s easy to read but hard to digest. I’m impressed.
It asks of the reader, which is more important: being right or being good? And is it easier to be good when you are in a position of power or in a role that requires obedience? How, if at all, do our strivings corrupt us?
Many layered. Chilling. A story worth visiting and revisiting. It’s easy to read but hard to digest. I’m impressed.
January 23, 2011
Tove Jannson's The True Deciever is a curious, unsettling book. Katri Kling speaks the truth with unceremonious judgment. Anna Armelin illustrates children's books, focusing on the forest floor moss and adding misplaced, superfluous bunnies. Katri's stoic dog, her brother Mat, and the residents of the novel's isolated Swedish town fill out this exploration of truth, deceit, and whether or not the outliers of self-deception and blunt-force truth can be reconciled.
Rarely do more than a few characters interact concurrently in the course of the storyline. Jannson relies on intense personal drama in small acts; playing fetch with a dog, for example, can be an act of betrayal and subversion. Characters pass hours in isolation, considering the nuance of careful planning, impulsive behavior, and others' motivations.
Jannson does a remarkable job integrating snow and winter into the storyline. The insular, almost surreal quality of walking alone through a supernaturally quiet Swedish night heightens the sense of remoteness. Both Katri and Anna believe they're doing the right thing; still, Katri's pursuit of the truth contains pinheads of duplicity, while Anna's clawing at safety and denial acknowledges the outside world's looming presence. Jannson leaves the novel and reader uncertain with the possibility of muted but spring-like growth.
Do you remember that Todd Haynes movie Safe? The True Deceiver reminded me somewhat of that film. While the plots are different both allow quiet to embody its own action. This novel jarred me a bit; the characters are left raw and human, their dignity chipped, but with inherent possibility. The True Deceiver is a painstakingly constructed book that delves deeper than its length and plain language might, at first glance, indicate. Katri and Anna, the dog and the rabbit, beguile, like a dark fairy tale playing out in the plainest room.
1/23/11 Edit: I'm moving this book to four stars after thinking of Evan's comments and how the book has haunted me the last few days.
Rarely do more than a few characters interact concurrently in the course of the storyline. Jannson relies on intense personal drama in small acts; playing fetch with a dog, for example, can be an act of betrayal and subversion. Characters pass hours in isolation, considering the nuance of careful planning, impulsive behavior, and others' motivations.
Jannson does a remarkable job integrating snow and winter into the storyline. The insular, almost surreal quality of walking alone through a supernaturally quiet Swedish night heightens the sense of remoteness. Both Katri and Anna believe they're doing the right thing; still, Katri's pursuit of the truth contains pinheads of duplicity, while Anna's clawing at safety and denial acknowledges the outside world's looming presence. Jannson leaves the novel and reader uncertain with the possibility of muted but spring-like growth.
Do you remember that Todd Haynes movie Safe? The True Deceiver reminded me somewhat of that film. While the plots are different both allow quiet to embody its own action. This novel jarred me a bit; the characters are left raw and human, their dignity chipped, but with inherent possibility. The True Deceiver is a painstakingly constructed book that delves deeper than its length and plain language might, at first glance, indicate. Katri and Anna, the dog and the rabbit, beguile, like a dark fairy tale playing out in the plainest room.
1/23/11 Edit: I'm moving this book to four stars after thinking of Evan's comments and how the book has haunted me the last few days.
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November 26, 2023Kratak roman sjajno postavljen i strogo sproveden. U malom mestu, siromašna pomoćnica i knjigovođa u jedinoj trgovačkoj radnji smišlja lukav i surov plan - treba se približiti lokalnoj ekscentričnoj i usamljenoj ilustratorki i steći njeno poverenje - i baca se na sprovođenje.
Radnja deluje jednostavno i pravolinijski; ali škrto i naizgled prozračno pripovedanje Tuve Janson uspeva da nas zavara i iznenadi više puta. Na svakom značajnom raskršću u romanu čini se kao da je sasvim jasno šta će se sledeće desiti, ali se onda dogodi nešto drugo, jednake uverljivosti i jednostavnosti. I tako do samog kraja.
U Iskrenoj varalici svi misle da znaju pravu istinu o drugima; ali ma koliko zajednica bila mala i zatvorena, ima dovoljno prostora za laži, zlobne glasine, obične nesporazume i čisto neshvatanje. Centralni likovi takođe ne shvataju i ne poznaju sami sebe. Tuve Janson je ovde povukla, rekla bih, majstorski potez: razdvojila je svoju javnu i privatnu personu u dva književna lika i suprotstavila ih u suptilno vođenoj borbi volje. I dok spoljni svet misli da Katri uspešno podvlašćuje stariju, slabiju i nesnalažljivu Anu, istina je znatno drugačija. Nema jasnih i konkretnih odjeka Bergmanove Persone, ali sukob karaktera i oštro ocrtane promene, pobede i porazi u toj borbi (šta se ovde, na kraju, podvodi pod "pobedu"?) svakako evociraju taj film. Gotovo da nema jednoznačne i nedvosmislene scene i postupka, uprkos već pomenutoj prozračnosti pripovedanja; a pojedine slike nose veliku simboličku težinu (moram da izdvojim odbačeni nameštaj koji se preko zime gomila na ledu da bi ga odnele prolećne vode).
Iskrenu varalicu je, kao i sva druga dela Tuve Janson kod nas, prevela Slavica Milosavljević i hvala joj na tome :)
I samo jedan nezadovoljni, sitničavi dodatak koji se slobodno da preskočiti: na naslovnici ovog izdanja vidimo ljudsku figuru koja vodi psa na dugom i labavom povocu koji se vuče po zemlji. Na 11. strani knjige i petoj strani teksta saznajemo da pas NIKAD nije nosio povodac i da je UVEK išao tik uz gazdaricu "kao da je srastao uz nju". I kasnije se to često ponavlja i vrlo je značajno u okviru knjige. Pa dobro bre. Razumem ja da dizajneri ne čitaju uvek knjige koje opremaju i da treba da budemo srećni što je na naslovnici ubodena makar okvirna konstelacija osoba - pas, i hvala lepo, znam da postoji umetnička sloboda. Ali kad nam autorka da tako precizne podatke, red bi bio da se ne oglušimo o njih, a možda naročito ako je ta autorka inače i umetnica koja je i za prvo izdanje ovog romana sama kreirala naslovnicu: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
Radnja deluje jednostavno i pravolinijski; ali škrto i naizgled prozračno pripovedanje Tuve Janson uspeva da nas zavara i iznenadi više puta. Na svakom značajnom raskršću u romanu čini se kao da je sasvim jasno šta će se sledeće desiti, ali se onda dogodi nešto drugo, jednake uverljivosti i jednostavnosti. I tako do samog kraja.
U Iskrenoj varalici svi misle da znaju pravu istinu o drugima; ali ma koliko zajednica bila mala i zatvorena, ima dovoljno prostora za laži, zlobne glasine, obične nesporazume i čisto neshvatanje. Centralni likovi takođe ne shvataju i ne poznaju sami sebe. Tuve Janson je ovde povukla, rekla bih, majstorski potez: razdvojila je svoju javnu i privatnu personu u dva književna lika i suprotstavila ih u suptilno vođenoj borbi volje. I dok spoljni svet misli da Katri uspešno podvlašćuje stariju, slabiju i nesnalažljivu Anu, istina je znatno drugačija. Nema jasnih i konkretnih odjeka Bergmanove Persone, ali sukob karaktera i oštro ocrtane promene, pobede i porazi u toj borbi (šta se ovde, na kraju, podvodi pod "pobedu"?) svakako evociraju taj film. Gotovo da nema jednoznačne i nedvosmislene scene i postupka, uprkos već pomenutoj prozračnosti pripovedanja; a pojedine slike nose veliku simboličku težinu (moram da izdvojim odbačeni nameštaj koji se preko zime gomila na ledu da bi ga odnele prolećne vode).
Iskrenu varalicu je, kao i sva druga dela Tuve Janson kod nas, prevela Slavica Milosavljević i hvala joj na tome :)
I samo jedan nezadovoljni, sitničavi dodatak koji se slobodno da preskočiti: na naslovnici ovog izdanja vidimo ljudsku figuru koja vodi psa na dugom i labavom povocu koji se vuče po zemlji. Na 11. strani knjige i petoj strani teksta saznajemo da pas NIKAD nije nosio povodac i da je UVEK išao tik uz gazdaricu "kao da je srastao uz nju". I kasnije se to često ponavlja i vrlo je značajno u okviru knjige. Pa dobro bre. Razumem ja da dizajneri ne čitaju uvek knjige koje opremaju i da treba da budemo srećni što je na naslovnici ubodena makar okvirna konstelacija osoba - pas, i hvala lepo, znam da postoji umetnička sloboda. Ali kad nam autorka da tako precizne podatke, red bi bio da se ne oglušimo o njih, a možda naročito ako je ta autorka inače i umetnica koja je i za prvo izdanje ovog romana sama kreirala naslovnicu: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
September 24, 2011
You know how sometimes books have characters that are so preposterously symbolic that they fail to resemble normal human beings? Meet Katri Kling, the yellow-eyed outcast at the center of Jansson's The True Deceiver—and recipient of the Simon (from Lord of the Flies) Overstated Symbol Award. And don't worry if you forget that Katri has yellow eyes, by the way, because Jansson will remind you of it five dozen more times. Katri is a naked concept masquerading as a character: a cold, almost emotionless woman (with a remarkable aptitude for 'maths') who doesn't believe in fibs or the niceties of polite society. In other words, she's basically robot running on a bitch operating system. Although the novel is reasonably diverting, it tries too hard to be Meaningful with a Capital M. Toward the end, as dogs revert to wolves and Katri grows a walnut-sized heart, I lost my patience with all the pregnant details. One of the rules of good writing (I think) is to never let 'em see you sweat. And you can see Tove Jansson sweating like a Finnish pig all through this thing.
February 15, 2022
3.5
Anna is a popular illustrator whose flowered rabbits have made her famous. In hibernation during the winter, once spring arrives, she paints, with realism, the ground of the forest around her home. She then paints realistic rabbits on her painted forest floor, and then inexplicably feels compelled to paint flowers on the rabbits’ bodies. She doesn’t know why she does it: such are the demands of Art. (I’m reminded of the so-called Big Eyes artist and such a thing possibly being considered kitsch. Then there’s the Blue Dog male artist from my state whose work is not considered such.)
Katri is a prickly young woman who has a plan to insinuate herself into Anna’s home. At least one of her actions could be considered psychopathic. It’s all in service to her undemanding, so-called simple brother, a quiet teenager who, in many ways, has more sense than either woman, though he too has a temper (referred to obliquely) that needs to be kept in check. Katri is described, more than once, in wolf-like terms: her profile, her yellow eyes, her 'familiar' (a wolfhound). When Anna's personality starts to change due to Katri’s machinations, Katri doesn’t necessarily like it.
The two women are described in broad strokes—rabbit versus wolf—yet the story leaves me with many subtle questions: the good kind. I have my own answer about the last sentence of the book, but yours may differ.
*
The illustration for the original cover, done by Jansson, is much better than the cover of the edition I read. At least on the latter's title page there’s a small square from the original’s foreground and on the last endpaper there’s a small rectangle from the original’s landscape.
Anna is a popular illustrator whose flowered rabbits have made her famous. In hibernation during the winter, once spring arrives, she paints, with realism, the ground of the forest around her home. She then paints realistic rabbits on her painted forest floor, and then inexplicably feels compelled to paint flowers on the rabbits’ bodies. She doesn’t know why she does it: such are the demands of Art. (I’m reminded of the so-called Big Eyes artist and such a thing possibly being considered kitsch. Then there’s the Blue Dog male artist from my state whose work is not considered such.)
Katri is a prickly young woman who has a plan to insinuate herself into Anna’s home. At least one of her actions could be considered psychopathic. It’s all in service to her undemanding, so-called simple brother, a quiet teenager who, in many ways, has more sense than either woman, though he too has a temper (referred to obliquely) that needs to be kept in check. Katri is described, more than once, in wolf-like terms: her profile, her yellow eyes, her 'familiar' (a wolfhound). When Anna's personality starts to change due to Katri’s machinations, Katri doesn’t necessarily like it.
The two women are described in broad strokes—rabbit versus wolf—yet the story leaves me with many subtle questions: the good kind. I have my own answer about the last sentence of the book, but yours may differ.
*
The illustration for the original cover, done by Jansson, is much better than the cover of the edition I read. At least on the latter's title page there’s a small square from the original’s foreground and on the last endpaper there’s a small rectangle from the original’s landscape.
May 16, 2012
The True Deceiver may well be a perfect book. Not a word is wasted and nothing is dumbed down: it is, in turns, complex and subtle, psychologically astute, unsettling, and controlled.
The language can only be described as spare: taut, minimalistic, precise. Take the opening lines: “It was an ordinary dark winter morning, and snow was still falling. No window in the village showed a light.” In a mere two sentences, Tove Jansson sets up an entire mood and introduces a sense of danger.
The two key characters are “the wolf”, Katri Kling, a yellow-eyed, wolfish young woman who stands on the outskirts of her Finnish village due to her bluntness and lack of social amenities. Katri cares for her gentle and slow-witted brother, Mats, and a nameless dog who obeys her every command. She revels in her superiority to others: “My dog and I despise them. We’re hidden in our own secret life, concealed in our own innermost wilderness.”
Her opponent – and that is what she becomes – is Anna Aemalin, an illustrator of children’s books, who has achieved a degree of fame with her charming bunnies. At first meeting, she is trusting, truthful, and, like Katri, very solitary.
As Katri gains her trust – and breaks down her sense of security – many themes come into play. Among them: “How many different truths are there, and what justifies them? What a person believes? What a person accomplishes? Self-deception? Is it only the result that counts?” Is it indeed safe and reassuring to believe in only one thing? And ultimately…who is the wolf and who is the rabbit?
As readers, we stand by rapt as we watch the caustic and subtle effects of deception on innocence and integrity. The “prize” may be nothing less than personal identity. My hat’s off to translator Thomas Teal, who expertly and precisely translated this 1982 Finnish masterwork with all its nuances intact.
The language can only be described as spare: taut, minimalistic, precise. Take the opening lines: “It was an ordinary dark winter morning, and snow was still falling. No window in the village showed a light.” In a mere two sentences, Tove Jansson sets up an entire mood and introduces a sense of danger.
The two key characters are “the wolf”, Katri Kling, a yellow-eyed, wolfish young woman who stands on the outskirts of her Finnish village due to her bluntness and lack of social amenities. Katri cares for her gentle and slow-witted brother, Mats, and a nameless dog who obeys her every command. She revels in her superiority to others: “My dog and I despise them. We’re hidden in our own secret life, concealed in our own innermost wilderness.”
Her opponent – and that is what she becomes – is Anna Aemalin, an illustrator of children’s books, who has achieved a degree of fame with her charming bunnies. At first meeting, she is trusting, truthful, and, like Katri, very solitary.
As Katri gains her trust – and breaks down her sense of security – many themes come into play. Among them: “How many different truths are there, and what justifies them? What a person believes? What a person accomplishes? Self-deception? Is it only the result that counts?” Is it indeed safe and reassuring to believe in only one thing? And ultimately…who is the wolf and who is the rabbit?
As readers, we stand by rapt as we watch the caustic and subtle effects of deception on innocence and integrity. The “prize” may be nothing less than personal identity. My hat’s off to translator Thomas Teal, who expertly and precisely translated this 1982 Finnish masterwork with all its nuances intact.
December 14, 2020
bir oturuşta bitirdim kitabı.
iki kadının -ki biri anasının gözü, son derece ketum ve içten hesaplı olarak betimlenen katri, diğeri ise çocuk kitapları yazarı saf, temiz kalpli anna- iktidar savaşını acayip hamlelerle anlatmış.
nerdeyse bir satranç maçı gibi. saf sandığımızla anasının gözü sandığımızın nasıl yer değiştirebildiğini görüyoruz yavaş yavaş.
ve tabii ki o ıssız isveç kırsalı, kar, kar, kar, orman, deniz, balıkçılık, dedikoducu kasaba gibi iskandinav taşrasından alışkın olduğumuz doğa...
tove jansson gerçekten doğayı insan gibi çizmiş.
kendi de çocuk kitaplarıyla ünlenen tove jansson’un ruhun karanlık taraflarına dair bir roman yazması da ilginç bence. çocuk kitabı yazarı hakkaten anna gibi olur diye bekliyor insan.
ve romandaki etkisiz eleman erkekleri düşününce, kadınlardan korkun beyler diyesim geliyor :)
iki kadının -ki biri anasının gözü, son derece ketum ve içten hesaplı olarak betimlenen katri, diğeri ise çocuk kitapları yazarı saf, temiz kalpli anna- iktidar savaşını acayip hamlelerle anlatmış.
nerdeyse bir satranç maçı gibi. saf sandığımızla anasının gözü sandığımızın nasıl yer değiştirebildiğini görüyoruz yavaş yavaş.
ve tabii ki o ıssız isveç kırsalı, kar, kar, kar, orman, deniz, balıkçılık, dedikoducu kasaba gibi iskandinav taşrasından alışkın olduğumuz doğa...
tove jansson gerçekten doğayı insan gibi çizmiş.
kendi de çocuk kitaplarıyla ünlenen tove jansson’un ruhun karanlık taraflarına dair bir roman yazması da ilginç bence. çocuk kitabı yazarı hakkaten anna gibi olur diye bekliyor insan.
ve romandaki etkisiz eleman erkekleri düşününce, kadınlardan korkun beyler diyesim geliyor :)
January 22, 2016
[4.5] Alongside The Summer Book, this is surely the strongest of Jansson's adults' fiction works. I've connected with her grown-up books in a way I never quite did with Moomins, and this is the fifth volume I've read since joining GR.
I almost didn't read The True Deceiver, assuming that it would have a sinister unreliable narrator, a type that, although it has obvious room for literary artistry, I do get tired of. Aside from the odd paragraph, The True Deceiver is actually told in third person. I may not have picked it up if it hadn't won the 2011 Best Translated Book Award; it was intriguing that a prize leaning towards the experimental and highbrow had chosen a Tove Jansson novella.
It's a mysterious little thing. The synopsis sounds like a contemporary domestic thriller. That is sort of the storyline, but it's also quite different. Certainly more philosophical about human character, priorities and art. The writing is very clear and spacious; it doesn't feel suffocating to the reader, although it's abundantly clear that characters may feel that way.
The last few occasions I've encountered books with intentionally 'timeless' settings, I wasn't too happy: I like historical placement as atmosphere. The True Deceiver for a while I assumed to be in the 1920s or 30s, as there is only one motor vehicle in the village. Yet there are also plastic containers in the fridge. The intensity of place, indoors and outdoors, and of the shift of the seasons from winter through spring, as well as of the tight focus on a few characters, means the sense of sometime-mythical-in-the-20th-century is just fine.
Thomas Teal's translations of Jansson nearly always (except, I thought, in some of the stories in A Winter Book ) don't feel like typical MFA product, they are more etheral, yet if parsed barely seem to do anything different, and I still don't understand how that works. Reading this was like staring into a deep pond of clear water: it appeared one can see quite a way in, but there's more, further in, hard to detect. I can't seem to describe it without implying there's something missing from the book that should be there, and that's not the case, but the semi-opacity felt like a conversation with the non-verbal elements not transcribed. I read this book whilst often dizzy and sometimes having splitting headaches ('splitting' being one of the most potently accurate cliches), which likely didn't help. (Also, this is a very short book which most people could read on one day unless really pushed for time; it says here it took me 6 but feels like 3). Yet the sense of mystery also comes through in reviews by others who really liked The True Deceiver. Strange, too, that it's preserved regardless of a couple of bits of very obvious symbolism: Katri Kling, owner of yellow eyes and a big dog; Anna Aemelin (different enough from her creator not to be any Mary-Sue, but still a children's illustrator lent a few aspects of Jansson's life as told in Fair Play), the painter of darling flowery bunnies.
I could visualise these bunnies vividly. Whether my basis was particular ornaments I'd seen years ago, artwork, or probably both, not sure. (I have tried to search in the hope of finding some vintage item to go "Yes, that was them!" and post links, but they haven't turned up.) Cutely loaf-shaped creatures, but also very alive and moving and silently snuffling, (the accuracy of their movement seems an addition from descriptions of Aemelin's work), the flowers I see have 60s-type designs, but are also neat and compact, not overly garish. Their background fur is either white or standard rabbit-brown, it varies from scene to scene, or perhaps the rabbits could be a mixture.
Katri's traits remind me of debates during the first series of Sherlock; eventually the title character announced himself to be "a high functioning sociopath", but alongside a certain cold deviousness, many viewers had also recognised Asperger's-like intelligence and social awkwardness. He defies one label, but there is something relatively unusual there in at least a couple of ways. Katri is a whizz at maths and organising; she is manipulative and good at understanding people, yet often says the wrong things, and carries an unsettling aura. She, like much of this book, can be rather unexpected.
A discussion of writing letters had a beautiful understanding of how slightly different choices of words can convey such different feeling. I do not often connect with descriptions of writing in novels this much - perhaps because it's about social letters rather than fiction. That careful choice must also go into Jansson's own writing and Teal's translation, yet one can't see the stitching anywhere, it's as if woven all of one piece.
A work of similar mysteriousness, but which wears its strangeness closer to the surface, is Bergman's Persona; I wondered if at some level it had inspired fellow Swedish- speaker Jansson: a meshing (which is too clumsy and emphatic a word) between two women in carer / cared-for roles (words which again have insufficient complexity), and a subtle androgyny of personalities. [Latter which reminds me, I really want to read more by lgbtq writers, not for a box-ticking exercise, but because I love finding subtle things like this: women who don't do all the conventional, alienating, straight-woman-in-litfic stuff, or, in Hollinghurst, the relationship between people who don't have any gender expectations and stereotypes barring at least one party from recognising that they are the same type of person.]
Quite unexpectedly, I found parts of this book heartbreaking, one of the saddest things I've ever read. The following includes major spoilers right to the book's end:
In another post earlier this month, I mentioned feeling drained by frequently identifying with characters. This book was a good balance: there were identifiable moments with both Katri and Anna, but I still felt as if I was outside them sufficiently that they were separate, different people I was watching. Satisfying; how I would like art-with-characters to work, and how, I suspect, many other people experience much of it.
Rounded up to 5 stars because this is one of those books I find myself liking even more now I've finished; I had doubts during and rarely thought I'd make it a 5, had particularly wanted to be sure that my head wasn't being turned by the award, but it gives that afterglow some books do, and I can even imagine wanting to re-read it.
I almost didn't read The True Deceiver, assuming that it would have a sinister unreliable narrator, a type that, although it has obvious room for literary artistry, I do get tired of. Aside from the odd paragraph, The True Deceiver is actually told in third person. I may not have picked it up if it hadn't won the 2011 Best Translated Book Award; it was intriguing that a prize leaning towards the experimental and highbrow had chosen a Tove Jansson novella.
It's a mysterious little thing. The synopsis sounds like a contemporary domestic thriller. That is sort of the storyline, but it's also quite different. Certainly more philosophical about human character, priorities and art. The writing is very clear and spacious; it doesn't feel suffocating to the reader, although it's abundantly clear that characters may feel that way.
The last few occasions I've encountered books with intentionally 'timeless' settings, I wasn't too happy: I like historical placement as atmosphere. The True Deceiver for a while I assumed to be in the 1920s or 30s, as there is only one motor vehicle in the village. Yet there are also plastic containers in the fridge. The intensity of place, indoors and outdoors, and of the shift of the seasons from winter through spring, as well as of the tight focus on a few characters, means the sense of sometime-mythical-in-the-20th-century is just fine.
Thomas Teal's translations of Jansson nearly always (except, I thought, in some of the stories in A Winter Book ) don't feel like typical MFA product, they are more etheral, yet if parsed barely seem to do anything different, and I still don't understand how that works. Reading this was like staring into a deep pond of clear water: it appeared one can see quite a way in, but there's more, further in, hard to detect. I can't seem to describe it without implying there's something missing from the book that should be there, and that's not the case, but the semi-opacity felt like a conversation with the non-verbal elements not transcribed. I read this book whilst often dizzy and sometimes having splitting headaches ('splitting' being one of the most potently accurate cliches), which likely didn't help. (Also, this is a very short book which most people could read on one day unless really pushed for time; it says here it took me 6 but feels like 3). Yet the sense of mystery also comes through in reviews by others who really liked The True Deceiver. Strange, too, that it's preserved regardless of a couple of bits of very obvious symbolism: Katri Kling, owner of yellow eyes and a big dog; Anna Aemelin (different enough from her creator not to be any Mary-Sue, but still a children's illustrator lent a few aspects of Jansson's life as told in Fair Play), the painter of darling flowery bunnies.
I could visualise these bunnies vividly. Whether my basis was particular ornaments I'd seen years ago, artwork, or probably both, not sure. (I have tried to search in the hope of finding some vintage item to go "Yes, that was them!" and post links, but they haven't turned up.) Cutely loaf-shaped creatures, but also very alive and moving and silently snuffling, (the accuracy of their movement seems an addition from descriptions of Aemelin's work), the flowers I see have 60s-type designs, but are also neat and compact, not overly garish. Their background fur is either white or standard rabbit-brown, it varies from scene to scene, or perhaps the rabbits could be a mixture.
Katri's traits remind me of debates during the first series of Sherlock; eventually the title character announced himself to be "a high functioning sociopath", but alongside a certain cold deviousness, many viewers had also recognised Asperger's-like intelligence and social awkwardness. He defies one label, but there is something relatively unusual there in at least a couple of ways. Katri is a whizz at maths and organising; she is manipulative and good at understanding people, yet often says the wrong things, and carries an unsettling aura. She, like much of this book, can be rather unexpected.
A discussion of writing letters had a beautiful understanding of how slightly different choices of words can convey such different feeling. I do not often connect with descriptions of writing in novels this much - perhaps because it's about social letters rather than fiction. That careful choice must also go into Jansson's own writing and Teal's translation, yet one can't see the stitching anywhere, it's as if woven all of one piece.
A work of similar mysteriousness, but which wears its strangeness closer to the surface, is Bergman's Persona; I wondered if at some level it had inspired fellow Swedish- speaker Jansson: a meshing (which is too clumsy and emphatic a word) between two women in carer / cared-for roles (words which again have insufficient complexity), and a subtle androgyny of personalities. [Latter which reminds me, I really want to read more by lgbtq writers, not for a box-ticking exercise, but because I love finding subtle things like this: women who don't do all the conventional, alienating, straight-woman-in-litfic stuff, or, in Hollinghurst, the relationship between people who don't have any gender expectations and stereotypes barring at least one party from recognising that they are the same type of person.]
Quite unexpectedly, I found parts of this book heartbreaking, one of the saddest things I've ever read. The following includes major spoilers right to the book's end:
In another post earlier this month, I mentioned feeling drained by frequently identifying with characters. This book was a good balance: there were identifiable moments with both Katri and Anna, but I still felt as if I was outside them sufficiently that they were separate, different people I was watching. Satisfying; how I would like art-with-characters to work, and how, I suspect, many other people experience much of it.
Rounded up to 5 stars because this is one of those books I find myself liking even more now I've finished; I had doubts during and rarely thought I'd make it a 5, had particularly wanted to be sure that my head wasn't being turned by the award, but it gives that afterglow some books do, and I can even imagine wanting to re-read it.
February 23, 2011
2.5 stars. I really wanted to like this book. Instead, I just admired it. It is an incredibly subtle, well told story that explores abstract ideas. The slow progression of the story and the characters is so well done as to be barely noticeable, like a plant that moves imperceptibly towards the sun over several weeks. The simplicity of her style, which in her other books created a deceptive openness, creates the opposite effect here by making everything veiled, hidden, mysterious and ominous. So little is known and so little revealed that the reader is constantly wondering if he is the one being deceived (as well he should).
However, I could never really fall for the book. I really disliked the Katri character. I found her to be manipulative, and her over emphasis on facts and figures to be a bear. Also, the way that she tried to change Anna was so annoying. She was pushy and wouldn’t leave her alone.
Anna���s character wasn’t any better in terms of faults and flaws. She had the opposite flaws. She was overly naive. I’m sure this would’ve irked some people the way Katri irked me, but I found her pleasant at the beginning of the novel. I guess I really don’t mind overly naive people. And in fact, I found it a pity that she slowly lost her charm as Katri’s cynicism moved into her house.
Although, about that last point, Katri would say that she lost her naivete a long time ago, and that now she was just lying to herself. Self deception. Perhaps. I don’t know if I buy that.
One thing about Katri, though, was that she was supposed to be honest, honest to the point of being unpleasant, frowning upon social niceties. And yet she lied. She lied about her intentions when carrying out her plan to move into Anna’s house. Her whole plan was deceptive from the start. Does she really think her type of deception is better than Anna’s self deception?
And at the end of the novel, when Katri said she lied about the people who she claimed had cheated on Anna, was it because she really did lie about it? Or was it because her conscience felt bad because she had made Anna distrust everybody in town? Or was it because she realized that the truth (of the objective sort) wasn’t the most important thing in the world.
The changes in the characters as the novel went on were impressive in their believability and in the way they took effect in slow shifts. The characters are still who they were, but were somehow affected by the other ones. I feel like this is how people really are. They don't change entirely, the way they do in some movies and novels (with revelations! tada!) but are... contaminated. Their core being gets muddied up with what they realize they aren’t, or can’t be. They realize their shortcomings and they are sad and concede a little, but really they are still the same. Just less sure of themselves.
This book made me think, and it is truly a stellar book. But I can’t lie to myself and say I enjoyed reading it; I would be the true deceiver if I did. It was a little too dark for me, and I needed a little more light. I was just in the wrong mood for it. In other words: great book, stubborn reader.
However, I could never really fall for the book. I really disliked the Katri character. I found her to be manipulative, and her over emphasis on facts and figures to be a bear. Also, the way that she tried to change Anna was so annoying. She was pushy and wouldn’t leave her alone.
Anna���s character wasn’t any better in terms of faults and flaws. She had the opposite flaws. She was overly naive. I’m sure this would’ve irked some people the way Katri irked me, but I found her pleasant at the beginning of the novel. I guess I really don’t mind overly naive people. And in fact, I found it a pity that she slowly lost her charm as Katri’s cynicism moved into her house.
Although, about that last point, Katri would say that she lost her naivete a long time ago, and that now she was just lying to herself. Self deception. Perhaps. I don’t know if I buy that.
One thing about Katri, though, was that she was supposed to be honest, honest to the point of being unpleasant, frowning upon social niceties. And yet she lied. She lied about her intentions when carrying out her plan to move into Anna’s house. Her whole plan was deceptive from the start. Does she really think her type of deception is better than Anna’s self deception?
And at the end of the novel, when Katri said she lied about the people who she claimed had cheated on Anna, was it because she really did lie about it? Or was it because her conscience felt bad because she had made Anna distrust everybody in town? Or was it because she realized that the truth (of the objective sort) wasn’t the most important thing in the world.
The changes in the characters as the novel went on were impressive in their believability and in the way they took effect in slow shifts. The characters are still who they were, but were somehow affected by the other ones. I feel like this is how people really are. They don't change entirely, the way they do in some movies and novels (with revelations! tada!) but are... contaminated. Their core being gets muddied up with what they realize they aren’t, or can’t be. They realize their shortcomings and they are sad and concede a little, but really they are still the same. Just less sure of themselves.
This book made me think, and it is truly a stellar book. But I can’t lie to myself and say I enjoyed reading it; I would be the true deceiver if I did. It was a little too dark for me, and I needed a little more light. I was just in the wrong mood for it. In other words: great book, stubborn reader.
March 7, 2021
"Gel de kitaplarıma bir göz at. Forester'ın deniz hikayelerini okudun mu?"
"Hayır."
"Ya Jack London?"
"Sevgili genç arkadaşım," diye çıkıştı Anna. "Onları okumadan bana maceradan bahsetme. Macera hakkında tek kelime bilmiyorsun henüz!"
\\
Arka kapak yazısı hakkını veriyor, gerçekten minimalist ve soğuğu epey hissettiriyor kitap. Ben beklediğim kadar etkileyici bulamadım orası ayrı.
"Hayır."
"Ya Jack London?"
"Sevgili genç arkadaşım," diye çıkıştı Anna. "Onları okumadan bana maceradan bahsetme. Macera hakkında tek kelime bilmiyorsun henüz!"
\\
Arka kapak yazısı hakkını veriyor, gerçekten minimalist ve soğuğu epey hissettiriyor kitap. Ben beklediğim kadar etkileyici bulamadım orası ayrı.
January 11, 2024
Uživala sam do kraja, i još uvek mozgam šta se tu tačno desilo. Traži koncentraciju, razumevanje ljudske prirode, kritično mišljenje, empatiju, sve. Mnogo toga se odvija na skrivenim nivoima - uzrast čitaoca, dosadašnje životno iskustvo i temperament presudno, igraju veliku ulogu čiju perspektivu, Kantrinu ili Aninu ćete bolje razumeti.
Možda napišem nešto pametnije i manje kriptično ovde posle drugog čitanja, jer sada ne znam kako sažeti najbitnije i ne odati ništa. Sve preporuke.
Možda napišem nešto pametnije i manje kriptično ovde posle drugog čitanja, jer sada ne znam kako sažeti najbitnije i ne odati ništa. Sve preporuke.
January 7, 2018
I’ve got mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand I found it compelling to read and stayed up late to finish it, because I couldn’t put it down. I especially liked the spare style of writing; nothing was overblown. On the other hand the main characters weren’t realistic; they were sort of fairytale symbols. The theme of the book seems to be to explore how much truth/ honesty we want and whether people are actually happier with some level of kindly deception.
April 13, 2022
2014 is the 100th anniversary since the birth of Tove Jansson, so I'm reading more of her work in recognition of this.
This is the first of Tove Jansson’s novels I have read that flows like a single story, her A Winter Book and The Summer Book chapters read like vignettes, not driven so much by plot, more focused on the characters that inhabited their pages, their environment and various encounters that carried them through the two seasons.
The seasons are ever present in her work and in The True Deceiver, we meet characters snow-bound during winter, waiting for the thaw of spring. This passage of time will soften the surroundings and to a certain degree the characters as they undergo a transformation due to the events that follow.
Anna keeps to herself and is content that way, her post and necessary supplies are delivered, there is minimal disruption to her way of life and the inspiration that feeds her artistic leanings, which awaken with the Spring and her venturing into the woodland beyond her home.
She often receives correspondence from fans, her art depicts realistic portrayals of the forest floor, disturbed only by the presence of her not so life-like animated rabbits, for which she is world-renowned, especially among the younger generation.
As Boel Westin noted in Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words: The Authorised Biography, Jansson often writes herself into her fiction:
One of the villagers, Katri Krill, known to all as being good with numbers, one who can sniff out the slightest hint of corruption or exploitation, dreams of financial security for herself and her brother Mats.
Despite her trustworthiness, her sudden interest in the artist sets tongues wagging in the village, as she takes over more and more of Anna's business affairs, bringing her out of an oblivious state of denial regarding her situation, an interference that is both appreciated and resented equally.
When Katri takes over the letter writing activity to Anna’s child fans, the artist is appalled to learn how business like and impersonal her responses are, it might take less time, but it is not her style at all and she lets her know exactly how it should be:
It is as though Tove Jansson is arguing with herself, Katri is her alter ego and Anna resists embracing what she knows should be done. It undermines her integrity as an artist, she resents all the questions relating to the ugly business of merchandising that has grown like a malignant tumour out of her artwork; people take these things on, come up with ideas that have nothing to do with her work or her characters and their inclinations and want to do things with them, that in her imagination she knows they would never do.
Katri tries to get her to detach from them, trying to convince her that she will never see these manifestations of her work, she should see them purely as a source of income, but Anna will not compromise, the artist’s integrity is not for sale.
Who is the true deceiver? Perhaps everyone has something of the deceiver in them, the truth can be brutal, kindness can be deceptive, secondary agendas can lie behind them both.
The True Deceiver is Tove Jansson at her best, struggling and yet persevering to put into story form, the battle of those two states of mind, objectivity and aesthetic sensibility, constantly at war with each other, unlikely companions just as Anna and Katri, the rabbits and the dog.
Brilliantly evocative of the artistic struggle, it is a story that invites discussion and keeps the reader thinking long after that last page is turned. And wondering what those rabbits might have looked like, Moomins perhaps?
Highly Recommended.
This is the first of Tove Jansson’s novels I have read that flows like a single story, her A Winter Book and The Summer Book chapters read like vignettes, not driven so much by plot, more focused on the characters that inhabited their pages, their environment and various encounters that carried them through the two seasons.
The seasons are ever present in her work and in The True Deceiver, we meet characters snow-bound during winter, waiting for the thaw of spring. This passage of time will soften the surroundings and to a certain degree the characters as they undergo a transformation due to the events that follow.
“It was an ordinary dark winter morning, and snow was still falling. No window in the village showed a light.”
Anna keeps to herself and is content that way, her post and necessary supplies are delivered, there is minimal disruption to her way of life and the inspiration that feeds her artistic leanings, which awaken with the Spring and her venturing into the woodland beyond her home.
She often receives correspondence from fans, her art depicts realistic portrayals of the forest floor, disturbed only by the presence of her not so life-like animated rabbits, for which she is world-renowned, especially among the younger generation.
As Boel Westin noted in Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words: The Authorised Biography, Jansson often writes herself into her fiction:
“Sometimes unconcealed, freely, openly, sometimes hidden behind various names and disguises…traces of Tove Jansson run hither and thither in all her texts and pictures, and the patterns they form are constantly new” Boel Westin
One of the villagers, Katri Krill, known to all as being good with numbers, one who can sniff out the slightest hint of corruption or exploitation, dreams of financial security for herself and her brother Mats.
Despite her trustworthiness, her sudden interest in the artist sets tongues wagging in the village, as she takes over more and more of Anna's business affairs, bringing her out of an oblivious state of denial regarding her situation, an interference that is both appreciated and resented equally.
“Now don’t take this the wrong way, Miss Kling, but I find your way of never saying what a person expects you to say, I find it somehow appealing. In you, there’s no, if you’ll pardon my saying so, no trace of what people call politeness… And politeness can sometimes be almost a kind of deceit, can it not? Do you know what I mean?”
When Katri takes over the letter writing activity to Anna’s child fans, the artist is appalled to learn how business like and impersonal her responses are, it might take less time, but it is not her style at all and she lets her know exactly how it should be:
And what about this one? Anna went on. “Where’s the chitchat? He’s tried to draw a rabbit – obviously no talent at all – so here you could write something like ‘I’ve hung your picture above my desk’… This one’s learning to skate, and her cat’s name is Topsy. You can fill nearly a whole page with the skating and the cat if you write big enough. You’re not using the material.”
It is as though Tove Jansson is arguing with herself, Katri is her alter ego and Anna resists embracing what she knows should be done. It undermines her integrity as an artist, she resents all the questions relating to the ugly business of merchandising that has grown like a malignant tumour out of her artwork; people take these things on, come up with ideas that have nothing to do with her work or her characters and their inclinations and want to do things with them, that in her imagination she knows they would never do.
Katri tries to get her to detach from them, trying to convince her that she will never see these manifestations of her work, she should see them purely as a source of income, but Anna will not compromise, the artist’s integrity is not for sale.
Who is the true deceiver? Perhaps everyone has something of the deceiver in them, the truth can be brutal, kindness can be deceptive, secondary agendas can lie behind them both.
The True Deceiver is Tove Jansson at her best, struggling and yet persevering to put into story form, the battle of those two states of mind, objectivity and aesthetic sensibility, constantly at war with each other, unlikely companions just as Anna and Katri, the rabbits and the dog.
Brilliantly evocative of the artistic struggle, it is a story that invites discussion and keeps the reader thinking long after that last page is turned. And wondering what those rabbits might have looked like, Moomins perhaps?
Highly Recommended.
May 13, 2017
This is a disturbing novel in an unfamiliar way. Jansson is highly adept here at exposing the mundane darknesses beneath small town life and everyday interactions. This is distinguished from, say, Lynchian darknesses behind the mundane in that there are no shocks or secrets to be exposed. Everything is intensely normal, just fraught with minor hypocrisies and polite ill-will, the kinds which most people must, presumably, ignore unthinkingly every day. And to have these things exposed so cynically and in such stark, crisp terms really does unsettle. In fact, it's more disturbing for its intense normalness. Impressive.
November 30, 2015
С всяка изчетена книга все повече се влюбвам в Туве - как умее да пише толкова пестеливо и магично за сложността на човешкото.
"Честна измама" противопоставя две коренно различни жени - мечтателната и отнесена Анна и пресметливата и сурова Катри. На пръв поглед съюзници, те водят безмълвна борба за надмощие, в която залогът е опазването на собствената същност.
Помагат ли тежкия характер и непоклатимите принципи на Катри да напредне в живота? Можем ли да общуваме с другите, подчинени единствено на взаимно-изгодни делови взаимоотношения, без да се обвързваме с очаквания? Добродетел ли е абсолютната честност?
Финалът оставя тези въпроси без отговор. Не ни казва и каква ще е съдбата на двете героини. Знаем само, че след срещата си - за добро или зло - те няма как да останат същите както перди.
"Честна измама" противопоставя две коренно различни жени - мечтателната и отнесена Анна и пресметливата и сурова Катри. На пръв поглед съюзници, те водят безмълвна борба за надмощие, в която залогът е опазването на собствената същност.
Помагат ли тежкия характер и непоклатимите принципи на Катри да напредне в живота? Можем ли да общуваме с другите, подчинени единствено на взаимно-изгодни делови взаимоотношения, без да се обвързваме с очаквания? Добродетел ли е абсолютната честност?
Финалът оставя тези въпроси без отговор. Не ни казва и каква ще е съдбата на двете героини. Знаем само, че след срещата си - за добро или зло - те няма как да останат същите както перди.
December 10, 2020
Kitaplarını İsveççe yazan Finlandiyalı yazar Tove Jansson’un ‘Dürüst Yalancı’sı ağır tempoda ilerleyen, son sayfasına kadar okuyucudaki merak duygusunu diri tutan bir kitaptı. Karakterleri güçlü, yarattığı atmosfer akılda kalıcıydı. Sonu aceleye gelmiş gibi bitmeseydi ve baş karakterlerin çatışmasını daha güçlü işleseydi çok daha fazla sevebilirdim. Yine de kış aylarına yakışan bir kitap olduğunu söyleyebilirim...
January 9, 2021
Sonuna kadar kime güveneceğinizi bilemiyorsunuz.
⭐
⭐
July 23, 2015
Някои истини:
„…различен ли си, приготви се да те отлъчат.“
„Хората просто искат да получават.“
И някои въпроси за мислене:
1) Манипулирането – сега се замислих, че е доста често с��ед нас (и всички го „упражняваме“)
„… да предразполагаш към себе си, да си пробиваш път...“
2) Онова леко изнервящо непоискано „добро“:
„- Госпожице Клинг, благодаря Ви за голямото старание – отваряте дори пощата ми. Аз обаче съм малко своенравна – може да Ви се стори детинска прищявка, но държа да разрязвам писмата си сама. […]
- Разбирам. – отсече тя. – Само че аз ги отварям не за друго, а за да преценя какво може да се изхвърли. […] Има неща, с които не е необходимо да се занимавате…“
3) Кой ни е крив, като не си казваме направо и очакваме някой друг да разгадае мислите ни.
„Щом карантиите Ви отвращават, кажете го направо.“
4) Излишната любезност „защото така се прави“ (особено ми е смешно „да не се обиди домакинята“). Да изглеждаш като мълчалив темерут или да изричаш неискрено общоприети фрази.
„- Приготвила съм кафе, нали ще пийнете?
- Не, отказа Катри любезно, - не пия кафе.
Анна се учуди, остана по-скоро изненадана, отколкото оскърбена. Та кой не пие кафе, когато го канят – това е в реда на нещата, просто от уважение към домакинята“.
„Катри можеше спокойно да подхвърли: „наистина, какво неприятно време за ски!“ или „Виждаше ли се поне къде минава пътят?“, или: „ Тия от града няма ли да изринат най-сетне снега?“ – да каже каквото и да е, с което да засвидетелства интерес, най-малкото привидно, тъй като хората разговарят помежду си, за да им е по-леко: но не – не и Катри Клинг!“
„…струваше ѝ се някак нелепо да нарушава спокойствието на Матс с тривиални реплики, каквито хората си разменят мимоходом при среща на стълбите само така, колкото да не мълчат.“
5) Съвест, искреност, честност. Ако имаше метър или кантар за честността…
„Не съм действала користно, нито пък нечестно. Ала знаеш ли, можеш ли да бъдеш напълно сигурен, спокоен, че все пак не си прибягнал до някаква форма на жалко ласкателство, до подлизурство, до епитети без покритие, че не си се поддал на целия този отвратителен шаблонен механизъм, който се пуска в действие лекомислено и безнаказано, непрекъснато, навред, щом, някой се стреми към нещо – надмощие може би, а дори и без определена цел – обикновено защото така трябва…“
6) Да казваш „не“ – трудният лукс.
„…някой ден ще стане невъзможно да се измъкнеш по лесния, изпитан начин – като не се осмеляваш да казваш не…“
7) Съмнения или доверие?
„- Слушайте, Катри – прекъсна в Анна, - честно казано, сто пъти предпочитам да ме лъжат, отколкото непрекъснато да живея с подозрения.“
8) (Само)заблуждаване или болящата истина? (подвъпрос – децата)
„- Aко едно дете е огорчено от родителите си, каква утеха е за него да му се каже, че родителите навярно също си имат трудности![…]Родителите трябва да бъдат силни и съвършени, как иначе ще вярват в тях децата! […]
Катри не може да овладее спонтанния си гняв:
- Докога ще ги учим да се осланят на нещо, което не може да им бъде опора. Колко години тези децата трябва да живеят с измамната вяра в нещо, което не може да служи за опора?“
9) Активност или чакане?
„- Не гледай толкова сериозно на живота. Обикновено нещата се нареждат от само себе си, стига… стига да умееш да изчакваш.
- Не е така. Нищо не се нарежда от само себе си. А понякога от много чакане току-виж пропуснеш момента.“
„По това време у Анна се загнезди нова и тревожна мисъл: как оползотворяваше времето си, какво пропускаше? Докато живееше сам-самичка, Анна не бе обръщала внимание колко често денем часовете ѝ отлитат в дрямка.“
10) Начини на общуване.
„Но когато Катри слезе по стълбата, той се обърна и брат и сестра си кимнаха едва забележимо в знак на сплотяващо ги негласно разбирателство.“
„Двамата разговаряха рядко помежду си. Свързваше ги някакво общо мълчание, улегнало и непринудено.“
11) Зима – не е за мене тази работа, колкото и да е красива. Сигурно тези условия са родили малко по-особените характери и отношения в тази книга (и в други скандинавски). Безспорно – атмосферата се усеща идеално, още от първата страница. Разбира се хората си живеят почти нормално при тези обичайни за тях условия.
„Сред непрестанно сипещия се сняг всичко тънеше в неопределен мрак, нещо средно между тъмнината на вечерния здрач и на утринното развиделяване, а това потискаше хората. Дори заниманията, вършени иначе с удоволствие, сега се превръщаха в неприятни задължения.“
„Беше мрачно зимно утро, утро като всяко друго, и снегът есе тъй се трупаше. […] По крайбрежието валеше от месец насам. Незапомнен сняг, сипеше се непрестанно, навяваше пред врати и по первази, смазваше с тежестта си покривите и не спираше нито за час. […] Хората се будеха късно, защото вече нямаше сутрини…“
„Снегът продължаваше да се сипе. Дебели снежни пелени тегнеха над покривите, отъпканите през деня пъртини отново побеляваха, а изринатите край тях купчини сняг се издигаха все по-нависоко. Снежните могили бяха прорязани от дълбоки, тесни проходи и пещери, прокопавани постепенно от децата при всяко омекване на времето. На открито стърчаха снежни човеци, безформени фигури с тенекиени зъби и въглени очи – също дело на децата. Когато настанеше голям студ, те обливаха фигурите с вода и така ги превръщаха в ледени истукани.“
12) Земята - гората
„…Анна вярваше, че тази напращяла от живот и растеж земя никога не би могла да ѝ изневери.“
13) Литературата
„- Сестра ти чете ли нашите книги?
- Не. Тя предпочита сериозна литература.“
14 ) Героите (всъщност номер едно)
Анна
„Навярно Анна Емелин можеше да се нарече добра, защото нищо в живота ѝ не я бе принуждавало да проявява лошотия; освен това тя притежаваше изключителното качество да забравя всичко неприятно – просто тръсваше глава и продължаваше по своему, нерешителна и същевременно упорита.“
„Анна изключи външния свят и с облекчение хвана отново книгата.“
Катри
„Въпросът е да се добера до това, което ще взема, съвсем открито и да се боря колкото се може по-честно.“
„Цял живот тя се бе стремила към яснота, към колкото се може по-голям ред, затова сега работата с кореспонденцията на Анна Емелин ѝ носеше голямо вътрешно удовлетворение.“
„Госпожице Емелин, нека се опитаме да погледнем на нещата така: сключихме споразумение, без да се ръководим от каквито и да е чувства.”
двете
„… изчисляваше загубите на Анна Емелин, причинени от нейното едва ли не престъпно лековерие или просто от немарливост и мудност. В някои случаи Анна бе плащала дан на неохотата си да отказва или пък на чувството си за социален дълг, но всъщност много по-рядко, отколкото би предположил човек – най-често тя просто бе проявявала незаинтересованост.“
Матс
„Тук, както и в дока, Матс работеше без да привлича внимание върху себе си и без да показва какво е направил. Просто обикаляше, оглеждаше къде има нещо за поправка и свършваше необходимото.“
Хладничко ми беше през цялото време. Не заради зимата. А заради отношенията „на тръни“. Тъкмо да ми хареса някой герой, и си казвам – „имай едно наум“, поддадох се и аз на съмненията. На момчето Матс ли може да се довери най-спокойно човек (подценяван и считан за безполезен и глуповат в селото)? Все пак от всичко най-ценно ми беше това, което видях и в „Пътуване с лек багаж“ и към което рисковано се стремя: освобождаване от излишно неискрено бърборене, от действането по навика „така се е правело винаги“.
Пропускам и още въпроси: парите; животните, децата, самотата; имаше и интересни съседи.
Нормални хора – всеки вярва, че той е правият, във всеки от нас има по нещо от тях. Но не ми се искаше да съм като някой от тримата, нито пък да съм там. Дали най-чисти остават единствено децата, животните и земята и те могат да ни служат за лакмус?
„… всички деца рано или късно изпитват огорчение от родителите си…“
„Кучето не мърдаше от пътя, който водеше към фара и само ръмжеше – приглушеният предупредителен звук идеше право от дълбините на гърлото му.“
„Анна Емелин отваряше очите на хората, разкриваше им тайнството на гората и така събуждаше техните спомени – за миг те се отдаваха на смирен копнеж, изпълващ ги с приятни чувства и надежди.“
„…различен ли си, приготви се да те отлъчат.“
„Хората просто искат да получават.“
И някои въпроси за мислене:
1) Манипулирането – сега се замислих, че е доста често с��ед нас (и всички го „упражняваме“)
„… да предразполагаш към себе си, да си пробиваш път...“
2) Онова леко изнервящо непоискано „добро“:
„- Госпожице Клинг, благодаря Ви за голямото старание – отваряте дори пощата ми. Аз обаче съм малко своенравна – може да Ви се стори детинска прищявка, но държа да разрязвам писмата си сама. […]
- Разбирам. – отсече тя. – Само че аз ги отварям не за друго, а за да преценя какво може да се изхвърли. […] Има неща, с които не е необходимо да се занимавате…“
3) Кой ни е крив, като не си казваме направо и очакваме някой друг да разгадае мислите ни.
„Щом карантиите Ви отвращават, кажете го направо.“
4) Излишната любезност „защото така се прави“ (особено ми е смешно „да не се обиди домакинята“). Да изглеждаш като мълчалив темерут или да изричаш неискрено общоприети фрази.
„- Приготвила съм кафе, нали ще пийнете?
- Не, отказа Катри любезно, - не пия кафе.
Анна се учуди, остана по-скоро изненадана, отколкото оскърбена. Та кой не пие кафе, когато го канят – това е в реда на нещата, просто от уважение към домакинята“.
„Катри можеше спокойно да подхвърли: „наистина, какво неприятно време за ски!“ или „Виждаше ли се поне къде минава пътят?“, или: „ Тия от града няма ли да изринат най-сетне снега?“ – да каже каквото и да е, с което да засвидетелства интерес, най-малкото привидно, тъй като хората разговарят помежду си, за да им е по-леко: но не – не и Катри Клинг!“
„…струваше ѝ се някак нелепо да нарушава спокойствието на Матс с тривиални реплики, каквито хората си разменят мимоходом при среща на стълбите само така, колкото да не мълчат.“
5) Съвест, искреност, честност. Ако имаше метър или кантар за честността…
„Не съм действала користно, нито пък нечестно. Ала знаеш ли, можеш ли да бъдеш напълно сигурен, спокоен, че все пак не си прибягнал до някаква форма на жалко ласкателство, до подлизурство, до епитети без покритие, че не си се поддал на целия този отвратителен шаблонен механизъм, който се пуска в действие лекомислено и безнаказано, непрекъснато, навред, щом, някой се стреми към нещо – надмощие може би, а дори и без определена цел – обикновено защото така трябва…“
6) Да казваш „не“ – трудният лукс.
„…някой ден ще стане невъзможно да се измъкнеш по лесния, изпитан начин – като не се осмеляваш да казваш не…“
7) Съмнения или доверие?
„- Слушайте, Катри – прекъсна в Анна, - честно казано, сто пъти предпочитам да ме лъжат, отколкото непрекъснато да живея с подозрения.“
8) (Само)заблуждаване или болящата истина? (подвъпрос – децата)
„- Aко едно дете е огорчено от родителите си, каква утеха е за него да му се каже, че родителите навярно също си имат трудности![…]Родителите трябва да бъдат силни и съвършени, как иначе ще вярват в тях децата! […]
Катри не може да овладее спонтанния си гняв:
- Докога ще ги учим да се осланят на нещо, което не може да им бъде опора. Колко години тези децата трябва да живеят с измамната вяра в нещо, което не може да служи за опора?“
9) Активност или чакане?
„- Не гледай толкова сериозно на живота. Обикновено нещата се нареждат от само себе си, стига… стига да умееш да изчакваш.
- Не е така. Нищо не се нарежда от само себе си. А понякога от много чакане току-виж пропуснеш момента.“
„По това време у Анна се загнезди нова и тревожна мисъл: как оползотворяваше времето си, какво пропускаше? Докато живееше сам-самичка, Анна не бе обръщала внимание колко често денем часовете ѝ отлитат в дрямка.“
10) Начини на общуване.
„Но когато Катри слезе по стълбата, той се обърна и брат и сестра си кимнаха едва забележимо в знак на сплотяващо ги негласно разбирателство.“
„Двамата разговаряха рядко помежду си. Свързваше ги някакво общо мълчание, улегнало и непринудено.“
11) Зима – не е за мене тази работа, колкото и да е красива. Сигурно тези условия са родили малко по-особените характери и отношения в тази книга (и в други скандинавски). Безспорно – атмосферата се усеща идеално, още от първата страница. Разбира се хората си живеят почти нормално при тези обичайни за тях условия.
„Сред непрестанно сипещия се сняг всичко тънеше в неопределен мрак, нещо средно между тъмнината на вечерния здрач и на утринното развиделяване, а това потискаше хората. Дори заниманията, вършени иначе с удоволствие, сега се превръщаха в неприятни задължения.“
„Беше мрачно зимно утро, утро като всяко друго, и снегът есе тъй се трупаше. […] По крайбрежието валеше от месец насам. Незапомнен сняг, сипеше се непрестанно, навяваше пред врати и по первази, смазваше с тежестта си покривите и не спираше нито за час. […] Хората се будеха късно, защото вече нямаше сутрини…“
„Снегът продължаваше да се сипе. Дебели снежни пелени тегнеха над покривите, отъпканите през деня пъртини отново побеляваха, а изринатите край тях купчини сняг се издигаха все по-нависоко. Снежните могили бяха прорязани от дълбоки, тесни проходи и пещери, прокопавани постепенно от децата при всяко омекване на времето. На открито стърчаха снежни човеци, безформени фигури с тенекиени зъби и въглени очи – също дело на децата. Когато настанеше голям студ, те обливаха фигурите с вода и така ги превръщаха в ледени истукани.“
12) Земята - гората
„…Анна вярваше, че тази напращяла от живот и растеж земя никога не би могла да ѝ изневери.“
13) Литературата
„- Сестра ти чете ли нашите книги?
- Не. Тя предпочита сериозна литература.“
14 ) Героите (всъщност номер едно)
Анна
„Навярно Анна Емелин можеше да се нарече добра, защото нищо в живота ѝ не я бе принуждавало да проявява лошотия; освен това тя притежаваше изключителното качество да забравя всичко неприятно – просто тръсваше глава и продължаваше по своему, нерешителна и същевременно упорита.“
„Анна изключи външния свят и с облекчение хвана отново книгата.“
Катри
„Въпросът е да се добера до това, което ще взема, съвсем открито и да се боря колкото се може по-честно.“
„Цял живот тя се бе стремила към яснота, към колкото се може по-голям ред, затова сега работата с кореспонденцията на Анна Емелин ѝ носеше голямо вътрешно удовлетворение.“
„Госпожице Емелин, нека се опитаме да погледнем на нещата така: сключихме споразумение, без да се ръководим от каквито и да е чувства.”
двете
„… изчисляваше загубите на Анна Емелин, причинени от нейното едва ли не престъпно лековерие или просто от немарливост и мудност. В някои случаи Анна бе плащала дан на неохотата си да отказва или пък на чувството си за социален дълг, но всъщност много по-рядко, отколкото би предположил човек – най-често тя просто бе проявявала незаинтересованост.“
Матс
„Тук, както и в дока, Матс работеше без да привлича внимание върху себе си и без да показва какво е направил. Просто обикаляше, оглеждаше къде има нещо за поправка и свършваше необходимото.“
Хладничко ми беше през цялото време. Не заради зимата. А заради отношенията „на тръни“. Тъкмо да ми хареса някой герой, и си казвам – „имай едно наум“, поддадох се и аз на съмненията. На момчето Матс ли може да се довери най-спокойно човек (подценяван и считан за безполезен и глуповат в селото)? Все пак от всичко най-ценно ми беше това, което видях и в „Пътуване с лек багаж“ и към което рисковано се стремя: освобождаване от излишно неискрено бърборене, от действането по навика „така се е правело винаги“.
Пропускам и още въпроси: парите; животните, децата, самотата; имаше и интересни съседи.
Нормални хора – всеки вярва, че той е правият, във всеки от нас има по нещо от тях. Но не ми се искаше да съм като някой от тримата, нито пък да съм там. Дали най-чисти остават единствено децата, животните и земята и те могат да ни служат за лакмус?
„… всички деца рано или късно изпитват огорчение от родителите си…“
„Кучето не мърдаше от пътя, който водеше към фара и само ръмжеше – приглушеният предупредителен звук идеше право от дълбините на гърлото му.“
„Анна Емелин отваряше очите на хората, разкриваше им тайнството на гората и така събуждаше техните спомени – за миг те се отдаваха на смирен копнеж, изпълващ ги с приятни чувства и надежди.“
November 25, 2010
Remember STAR TREK and the back-and-forth arguments between Spock and Captain Kirk? Spock was icy logic and objectivity; Kirk was fiery emotion and subjectivity. They were friends, but at times, you'd never know it.
THE TRUE DECEIVER has a dynamic similar to that, only it's set in Sweden and casts two women as personified fire and ice. Anna Aemelin is an eccentric children's book illustrator who specializes in drawings of the forest floor and... rabbits. She lives alone in a haphazard way and is easy pickings for scoundrels and cheats. Or is she?
Katri Kling is good at "maths" as it is called in the book. Along with her simple-minded brother, Mats, she sweeps into the "rabbit house" (as Anna's house is called by the small-minded locals) to set things right financially and to set her own "plan" in motion. Yes, a plan is alluded to, but never identified, but this is about the only forward motion the plot offers in the way of suspense. The rest is all psychological study. Chess. Dialogue and thoughts, seemingly simple, but with a rich undertow of emotion, intrigue, and struggle between the two women.
The end culminates, if you can call it that, with plot developments surrounding the minor players, Mats and the dog with no name that Katri owns and Anna commandeers. In fact, the dog becomes a symbol of sorts, and its howl is about the loudest thing you'll hear in a book smothered in snow, winter, and cool calculations.
Think Swedish minimalist. Think nothing's happening yet everything's happening. Then, if that sounds like you're kind of book and you're up for a quick 180-page "tweener" book, think of reading THE TRUE DECEIVER. When you finish, you tell ME which character's the deceiver. When what's simple is complex, such answers don't come easily.
THE TRUE DECEIVER has a dynamic similar to that, only it's set in Sweden and casts two women as personified fire and ice. Anna Aemelin is an eccentric children's book illustrator who specializes in drawings of the forest floor and... rabbits. She lives alone in a haphazard way and is easy pickings for scoundrels and cheats. Or is she?
Katri Kling is good at "maths" as it is called in the book. Along with her simple-minded brother, Mats, she sweeps into the "rabbit house" (as Anna's house is called by the small-minded locals) to set things right financially and to set her own "plan" in motion. Yes, a plan is alluded to, but never identified, but this is about the only forward motion the plot offers in the way of suspense. The rest is all psychological study. Chess. Dialogue and thoughts, seemingly simple, but with a rich undertow of emotion, intrigue, and struggle between the two women.
The end culminates, if you can call it that, with plot developments surrounding the minor players, Mats and the dog with no name that Katri owns and Anna commandeers. In fact, the dog becomes a symbol of sorts, and its howl is about the loudest thing you'll hear in a book smothered in snow, winter, and cool calculations.
Think Swedish minimalist. Think nothing's happening yet everything's happening. Then, if that sounds like you're kind of book and you're up for a quick 180-page "tweener" book, think of reading THE TRUE DECEIVER. When you finish, you tell ME which character's the deceiver. When what's simple is complex, such answers don't come easily.
March 15, 2025
Kuzeyin soğuğu insan doğasına karışınca harika bir tablo çıkmış ortaya.
May 30, 2021
My first thought after I completed this was, 'how do I describe this book?' I found it a bit of a struggle to pinpoint the exact plot of the book. After a first few attempts, I realized the whole point of the book was to leave the reader with very few answers and more questions.
This was my introduction to Tove Jansson's books. The True Deceiver is about two women, both outcasts from the society. There's Katri Kling, who stays with her brother, Mat, above the grocery store. She is brutally honest, with no attempt to sugar-coat her words or behavior to meet the social norms. This, along with a head for Maths, makes her the go-to person for all advise seeking - regarding laws, numbers, disputes with neighbors. Yet, the very same nature, leads her to being shunned by everyone (not that she minds) and sometimes the subject of ridicule (referred to as the 'witch' by kids). The only matter of significance to Katri is securing her beloved little brother's future.
Then there's Anna Aemlin, a rich, reclusive and eccentric illustrator of children's books. Like Katri, she is an outcast and a mystery to the rest of the villagers. The setting is a Finnish village in the middle of winter. The story really begins as Katri fakes a break-in into Anna's house, which convinces Anna to take Katri and her brother in, to take care of the house.
The first thing that struck me was the author's description of winter. Living in Dubai, with the weather moving from very hot to hot, I could still feel the cold described in the book. It also, like all good books do, made me yearn for this Finnish village I had never heard of before.
The other thing that struck me was the quietness of the book. There are no big moments, no big shockers. The silence of the book is almost disquieting because I kept on waiting for something big to happen.
As the relationship between the two women develops, often fraught with tension, as each tries to control the other unsuccessfully, you are left wondering if either of them actually wins - you are not sure who is 'The True Deceiver' of the two.
Another theme is that of trust and paranoia. As Katri brings comfortably oblivious Anna's attention to how the various villagers have been cheating her, we see Anna change to an increasingly distrustful person. Katri sees to loom large over Anna, taking over her personal life, arranging documents, and giving unwanted advise on finance and 'fan' letters. At first, one may see Anna as the 'victim', but is she?
So, what is this book about then? I am still not sure. I believe that there are layers that I haven't yet unraveled.
Visit my Bookstagram for more book reviews:
Literarianism
This was my introduction to Tove Jansson's books. The True Deceiver is about two women, both outcasts from the society. There's Katri Kling, who stays with her brother, Mat, above the grocery store. She is brutally honest, with no attempt to sugar-coat her words or behavior to meet the social norms. This, along with a head for Maths, makes her the go-to person for all advise seeking - regarding laws, numbers, disputes with neighbors. Yet, the very same nature, leads her to being shunned by everyone (not that she minds) and sometimes the subject of ridicule (referred to as the 'witch' by kids). The only matter of significance to Katri is securing her beloved little brother's future.
Then there's Anna Aemlin, a rich, reclusive and eccentric illustrator of children's books. Like Katri, she is an outcast and a mystery to the rest of the villagers. The setting is a Finnish village in the middle of winter. The story really begins as Katri fakes a break-in into Anna's house, which convinces Anna to take Katri and her brother in, to take care of the house.
The first thing that struck me was the author's description of winter. Living in Dubai, with the weather moving from very hot to hot, I could still feel the cold described in the book. It also, like all good books do, made me yearn for this Finnish village I had never heard of before.
The other thing that struck me was the quietness of the book. There are no big moments, no big shockers. The silence of the book is almost disquieting because I kept on waiting for something big to happen.
As the relationship between the two women develops, often fraught with tension, as each tries to control the other unsuccessfully, you are left wondering if either of them actually wins - you are not sure who is 'The True Deceiver' of the two.
Another theme is that of trust and paranoia. As Katri brings comfortably oblivious Anna's attention to how the various villagers have been cheating her, we see Anna change to an increasingly distrustful person. Katri sees to loom large over Anna, taking over her personal life, arranging documents, and giving unwanted advise on finance and 'fan' letters. At first, one may see Anna as the 'victim', but is she?
So, what is this book about then? I am still not sure. I believe that there are layers that I haven't yet unraveled.
Visit my Bookstagram for more book reviews:
Literarianism
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