Tales from Moominvalley - Tove Jansson

This next addition to the series takes a departure somewhat in that is a collection of nine short stories set within the Moomin universe. They typically deal with darker, more philosophical content than the scatterbrained earlier books, such as anti-socialism, anxiety, jealousy, child abuse, materialism, depression, and the weird ways of the hattifatteners. Those hattifatteners are creepy and crazy to boot! Moominpappa reveals himself to be an irresponsible husband and father when he has a midlife crisis and walks out on his family one day with no word to anybody. The desire to be alone and retreat from society is revisited again and again, no doubt reflected by Jansson's personal solitude on the island where she wrote most of the books. I enjoyed these stories immensely, although the last one about the Moomins accidentally celebrating Christmas was a bit twee. Overall, the short stories seem to work better than Jansson's normal books because she's proven that she can't hold an idea in her head for very long. The nomadic Snufkin remains my favourite character.

Rating: 4/5