Travelling light

The thing about travelling, of course, is that no matter how far you go you bring yourself along whether you want to or not. That sounds trite, I know. After reading these 12 short stories I'm not sure it's entirely true, though. Most of the stories here are based around travelling - whether it's people abandoning their lives, looking to leave everything behind as in the title story, people returning home after a long absence as in the darkly funny "The Woman Who Borrowed Memories", or just going for a walk with your son behind your house as in the heartrending "The Woods". She even takes a successful stab at post-apocalyptic science fiction in "Shopping".

There's a great passage in Steve Earle's I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive on the subject of being alone as opposed to being lonesome. Lonesome's a whole other thing. Incurable. Terminal. A hole in your heart you could drive a semi truck through. I think Jansson would have understood it, but not necessarily agreed; hell, Jansson was in a relationship with the woman who inspired Too-Ticky (and to whom the book is dedicated) for almost 50 years, she doesn't have a problem with self-sufficience.



So while her characters tend to fall more on the "lonesome" end of the scale - whether they're life-long loners, or in tight-knit groups or committed relationships where they suddenly see the limits of what you can share with someone ("The Gulls", dear god, "The Gulls") - and many of them are clearly hurting from it, there's also a sense of strength, of unexpected companionship, of of understated realisation. Travelling makes them see who they are more clearly, be more aware of what they've got in their knapsack. Wenn jemand eine Reise tut, da kann er was erzählen, even if you only tell yourself (or lie to yourself). Some of them, most likely, won't survive this realisation unharmed. Others will be stronger for it. Others will find a brand new set of self-delusions to lean on. Like all of Jansson's best works, the best stories here don't have a simple lesson or twist at the end; they just are, with a warmth and subtle humour that still knows when to be cruel.