Monday, February 8, 2016

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

A Man Called Ove  by Fredrik Backman
Published  July 2014 by Atria Books
Source: bought this for my Nook

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

My Thoughts:
When one of my book club members pitched this book, she did so because it was recommended to her by a friend in another book club who compared it to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Not necessarily a selling point for at least one of our members, who found herself constantly wanting to slap Harold Fry.

Ove is not Harold Fry. Ove is a man lost without the love of his life, a woman who may have been the only person who ever really understood him. He is the very definition of "curmudgeon." He is a slave to routine, a stickler for the rules, and buried by his own opinions. "Ove was so weighed down with anger." He has no tolerance for other people and makes no bones about it. He is, frankly, a pain in the ass as a neighbor. Not the kind of guy you would want to befriend, even if you could.

But...

As Backman moves back and forth between Ove's past and the present, we begin to understand what has made Ove so bitter but also how it is that a wonderful woman could fall in love with him.
"...everywhere, sooner or later, he was stopped by men in white shirts with strict, smug expressions on their faces."
"He was a man of black and white. And she was color. All the color he had."
When a new woman comes into his life, she pushes every button he has. Then along comes another person that cracks Ove's hard shell. And another. We begin to see that, underneath that shell, there is a man with a heart.

I loved the way that phrases come back again and again in the book. "People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had" just pages after the above quote. Again and again Backman uses some version of the phrase "chooses what sort of man he wants to be" to highlight the events that caused Ove to become who he would become. And this:
"Ove had never been asked how he lived before he met her. But if anyone had asked him, he would have answered that he didn't."
I didn't expect to love this book. I'd heard enough good things to assume that I would like it. But a book with a crabby widower at it's center? Not something I assumed I would be able to relate to...just goes to show that you don't have to be able to relate to a book to find the common humanity in it. This book spoke to me.
"...time is a curious thing. Most of us only live for the time that lies right ahead of us. A few days, weeks, years. One of the most painful moments in a person's life probably comes with the insight that an age has been reached when there is more to look back on than ahead. And when time no longer lies ahead of one, other things have to be lived for. Memories, perhaps."
Because no one warned me, I'm warning you. This is obviously a book meant to pull at your heartstrings. I knew that from the beginning. I did not see that it was a book that was going to make me cry for the last 25 pages. But then I'm a sucker for a sweet moment, a touching gesture. So be warned. And if you don't feel just a little bit sappy by the end of this book, I'm going to call you Ove.

17 comments:

  1. I found the mix of magic and story telling in another book of his a bit too much to handle. I doubt whether this is for me either.

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    1. I'm going to read another of his books soon. I hope it doesn't have magic in it - I wouldn't care for that either!

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  2. I picked this up a month or so ago on a kindle daily deal... really need to read it soon!

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    1. Good thing about those daily deals is that they work a lot like movie rentals - I have much lower expectations for a book that I haven't paid full price for!

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  3. I'm so glad you enjoyed this one, Lisa! I hadn't expected to love it either, and yet I did.

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    1. Even thought Ove was so cranky in the beginning, you couldn't help but feel sorry for him that he was so saddened by the loss of his wife and know that there was a good person inside that shell.

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  4. Whoa - a whole bottle of wine?!?! ( you don't have to post this comment...) hA! and you still went to work AND POSTED A REVIEW TODAY?!!??!

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  5. This has been on my radar but hasn't really tempted me either. A book about a curmudgeon just didn't seem like a book I would enjoy. Now it's going firmly on my TBR and I will be prepared with box of tissues when I start reading!

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    1. Jackman does help you see that there's a soft side to Ove pretty early on and as you keep going back to read about his early life you can see why he got so crusty. Much easier to handle that in a person, book or real life, when you know the background.

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  6. I'm glad you liked this book. I haven't read it yet. It's kind of like a book I set my heels dragging in the dirt to read but I know once I read it, I will be glad I did.

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    1. Isn't that funny how we do that with some books, just determine that we are NOT going to read them?!

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  7. I had planned to read this one very soon but now my book club is reading it in December. December!! It will be a while before I get to it. Who am I kidding? I am sure the year will fly by like last year. Hahaha! No.

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    1. Golly yes! I thought my years would slow down when the kids were out of high school and there wasn't so much on the calendar but that doesn't seem to be the case at all!

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  8. I loved this one as well but his 2nd book not as much. I'm anxious to try his 2016 releases though.

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    1. I've got Britt-Marie Was Here downloaded from Netgalley and I'm looking forward to reading it but I'm also a little nervous about it. Hoping it's enough different that it doesn't just feel like a rehash.

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  9. Glad you loved this book! This was one of my favorites last year - Ove was a character hard not to love, he was such a grouchy darling. And true about the last 25 pages.

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    1. He reminded me a little of my grandpa - a guy that had had a tough life and for a while his somewhat gruff exterior scared me when I was young. But absolutely adored his wife. Although no one would ever have called my grandpa "the neighbor from hell." He was a guy who helped everyone and who never met a person he didn't like.

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