Of course, this being a children's book, the order of the stories doesn't seem to have mattered all that much. Possibly because the plot doesn't really make much sense anyways. Comet in Moominland is more of a silly romp than a complex narrative. I was, however, surprised by how text-heavy the story is. For some odd reason, I'd always assumed the Moomins stories to be mostly in comic form. This being my first foray into their baffling world, I'm still not really sure.
It's always hard to review children's books as adults, but I try to read them through the eyes of childhood me. And I realized pretty quickly that childhood me would have probably rolled her eyes very early. The book didn't make me laugh enough to justify its silliness (a comparison that popped to mind was the absolute absurdity of Penguin's Progress, one of my childhood favorites), but I couldn't help but enjoy its lighthearted tone and the playful drawings. There's a reason this one's a classic of the genre.
Comet in Moominland is de facto the first, because the one about the Great Flood is not often seen. That said, I'd recommend starting with Finn Family Moomintroll, which is a little easier to deal with. Personally I'm hugely fond of the Moomins, which I think of as more strange or odd than outright silly. Snufkin lives!
ReplyDeleteTove Jansson also wrote some odd novels for adults. The Summer Book is lovely and The True Deceiver is unsettling. Jansson was good at both.