I’m reading a book by Merete Mazzarella; a Finnish author and professor at The Department of Scandinavian Languages And Literature of Helsinki University. The original Swedish title is “När vi spelade Afrikas stjärna”. It’s a book about being a grandmother.
You might be wondering why the hell I’m reading a book like this when I don’t even have any kids of my own. And even if I someday would have kids, and my kids would have kids, it is physically impossible for me to be a grandmother. Anywhoo, I just picked up this book by an act of total randomness and when I started reading it I could not put it down; it is full of insight about a lot of the mysteries of life, about being a parent, a grandparent and not only that; the book is very funny. I love reading this book, and especially the parts about the children, the author’s grandchildren. Kids are just the greatest.
Mazzarella describes one evening when she, her son, her grandkids and her ex-husband had dinner at her home in Helsinki. The ex-husband was talking about complicated family history and how you’re supposed to be Finnish but yet you have a British mother and a Sicilian father, and he goes on and describes his ex-wife’s family history and how they too came from different parts of the world.
(Mazzarella had earlier on in the book said that the mother of her grandkids is Jewish)
Suddenly the little boy, confused about tricky family history blurts out: “I guess I’m stuck with being a Jew”.
Isn’t that so funny, insightful, brutally honest and exactly what a child would say? I had tears in my eyes from laughing, because… well, kids say the best things! I don’t think there is a wiser, more honest, and funnier person that a child.
