A Man Called Ove

First Swedish author, was on TBR since more than a year.
An endearing story about, well you guessed it, a man called Ove.
The book takes us through a man's journey through life, through love and loss.
Very few authors have a hold on me. Glad to add another one to the list!

I started with hating Ove. How could this man be so bitter about everything? The more I read the more I understood, and that is not to say that I felt sorry for him. It was more that I got why he was the way he was. As much as he was a gruff man to begin with it was nice to see him show his caring side. It was interesting to imagine what he would have been like had he had children. What we knew from his father was that he was just like he was even with a child, so maybe he would have been the same but we still see how he would have cared for them by the way he treated the neighbours kids.

Edit: I loved how he had an issue with his neighbour and kept bringing up the Volvo vs. Saab debate. My dad loves his Volvo but when I told him about the book he said that he can definitely appreciate a nice older Saab!

3.5

Superb.

First chapter and I was like “In uncle ki problem kya hai?! Chill maaro na life mein” Oh boy, how this story turned around. For some reason, I could only visualise him as the grumpy old guy from ‘Up'.

I had genuine positive emotion for him and others by the time I finished.

Someone told me there's a movie as well, will definitely not watch. I want to preserve my visual memory of it.

Also, thanks Maddy for the book. Hope you're enjoying the concepts of neuroplasticity.

Meh. I really enjoyed the story but the writing was too much like a picture book for me. It felt like it was all short sentences. Well developed characters but the writing style made me want to rush through it.

I hated this. I feel so betrayed by booktok! I thought this would be an amazing read but I had to force myself to finish it. It would get a two star purely because the writing is decent but I can't make myself put a second star.
UPDATE (WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS)
Okay.. I've had a few days of distance and I'm no longer too annoyed to write this. Here are my gripes:
Ove is an ahole. I know that's the point of the book. An angry old man who is in the throes of grief pushes everyone away and wants to end his life. But he was a jerk long before his wife died and we are just supposed to find it endearing? I'm sorry, no. Screaming, and literally exploding with rage at random times is frightening. I can't imagine anyone actually being in that situation and not being terrified he'd become physical. There are even a few times when he does take his anger out physically. I don't find it cute or funny to see someone have explosive anger. My next biggest issue is the animal abuse. He is violent, mean, and often dismissive of the animals in this book. He went so far as to set up a torture situation for the dog. Um.. excuse me? And we're suppose to sympathize with him? Parvaneh had to bully him into actually doing anything to help the dying cat. He pushes, shoves, and yells at the cat. This was really hard for me to handle. It made me seriously dislike him. Okay, now probably one of my biggest problems with the book... how unrealistic all the connections were. I'm sorry but if an angry man starts yelling at me, calling me names, being utterly rude and insufferable, I sure as hell am not going to befriend him. And most people wouldn't. Everyone literally pushed their way into his life and that just doesn't happen. I know it sounds jaded but seriously! Imagine someone being rude and mean to you.. would you go to them for help? And Parvaneh was terrible. When Anita first comes to Ove's door to ask for help with the radiator he says no. Parvaneh gets upset and says he WILL do it. Just no. Ove does not owe anyone his time and labor. If he said no, he said no. There's no reason she should have been shaming him into helping. Same with getting a ride to the hospital. This was a way to intervene with his suicide but it was sloppy. She could have asked literally ANYONE else in their area but she went to the one guy who is constantly saying to leave him alone? And AGAIN, he did not owe her his help. She could have gotten a cab, asked another neighbour, or even... wait for it, ASKED Ove?? Instead of demanding?? What a novel idea. There are so many different ways the author could have nurtured the connections between Ove and his neighbours but he chose ways that promote ignoring consent, bullying, and ways that felt contrived. People were made to look like imbeciles. Patrick was constantly ridiculed for not knowing how to do things; Adrian (a barista) has never encountered someone wanting black coffee before? Like, what?; The journalist was trapped in shed and passed off as an idiot as she talks calmly through the door (as if any woman getting trapped somewhere wouldn't immediately panic); Ove goes on and on about how he hates change and yet he's changed his car more times than just about anyone i've ever heard of. I didn't laugh once during this book. I never started to feel good about Ove. He was an a right until the bitter end while sprinkling in a few decent actions (which don't negate the other things he does/says). He is mean to everyone. He yells at everyone. He calls his neighbours idiots, blubberous (to which I took personal offense), hits people (the clown), cruel to animals, a nuisance to the people around him. He held a gun against two KIDS. Even after he realized who they were, he held them at gunpoint for way longer than necessary and then we're just supposed to accept that the kid he held the gun to felt comfortable staying in Ove's house??? I couldn't wait to be finished this book. It was awful.
I'm sorry to anyone who loves this book. I know it sucks when someone hates the book you love. I just couldn't find much redeeming about it. And I wish it had been done differently because I loved the premise. It was basically the old man of UP and I was super excited to read this. But I wish I could go back and never read it.

I was always a fan of Backman's style, heartwarming stories with charming characters, so I see it fit for his magnum opus (from what I've read) to be among my favorites.

[His wife] often said that "all roads lead to something you were always predestined to do." And for her, perhaps, it was something.

But for Ove it was someone.

I've been fully intending to read all of Fredrik Backman's books after I read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry (3 years ago), but there were a couple of things holding me back. 1. I loved My Grandmother so much that I didn't want something to eclipse it; 2. I didn't want to be so disappointed in one of his other books that it tainted my memory of My Grandmother. I finally told myself to get over it and just read him – what did I really have to lose?

That was obviously the right call – this was just fantastic.

If at this point, you haven't heard of this book and decided if you're going to read it or not, I'm not likely to persuade you. It's sold about as many books as a person not named James Patterson, J. K. Rowling or Steven King should be able to expect. There's been a movie made of it in Sweden and Tom Hanks is working on a version, too. This book is practically a phenomenon, and in the years since it's publication, the author, Fredrik Backman has practically become an industry. So, if you haven't read it by this point, there's probably a reason, I'm not going to convince you otherwise. Nor do I think I can contribute much to the discussion about the book beyond what's already been said. But I'm still driven to talk about it a bit.

Ove is a recent widower who has decided that it's time to join his wife, and attempts to kill himself by various means in order to do that. But like an aged (and more dedicated) Lane Meyer, he can't complete the deed. Something always interrupts him – generally, it's the fools and incompetents that are his neighbors needing his help. Somehow these people have reached adulthood without learning how to back up a vehicle towing a trailer. bleeding a radiator or any number of things. So he stops what he was doing, helps his whatever neighbor needs it (complaining about it and insulting them all the time) and tries again the next day.

Ove's struggles with the neighbors and his botched attempts to end his life are interspersed with his life story – his troubled childhood, career, early years of his marriage and the tragic end of it. The writing here is incredibly effective – and Backman doesn't even try to hide his emotional manipulation – he essentially calls his shots sometimes – and it works. He plays whatever tune he wants and the reader dances to it. Try to get through the paragraph where Ove thinks about missing holding his wife's hand unmoved, I dare you. I was teary at least once before the midpoint of the work – and about a half hour after finishing the book, I had to go back and re-read the last few pages with dry eyes so I could be certain I read what I thought I read.

Ove in his cantankerousness, his particular and peculiar way of approaching life – and in his grief – is a fantastic character. But I think that his neighbor, a Muslim immigrant mother of three, who deices that her angry old neighbor needs a friend (whether he wants one or not) and then becomes that friend (which he definitely doesn't want) is an even better character. Parvaneh is smart, kind, fun and loving – and as stubborn as Ove. Next to his wife, she's the best thing to happen to him. There are plenty of other great characters (the overweight computer tech who lives on the other side of Ove is a fine example).

I laughed, I cried, it moved me, Bob.

One of the easiest 5-Stars I've ever given. If you keep putting off reading this – knock it off, read the book.

😭😭😭😭

No one does sentimentality like Backman. He just toes the line of twee, has a lot to say about good people stuck in bad systems and just makes the most likeable characters ever.

It's the kind of book you need in times like these. A reminder of the soul and kindness that exists. Thanks Ove, for that light - and the laughter.

“People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had.”

Beautiful, heart wrenching, heart warming and very funny at the same time.

New favorite author. Backman captures the essence of the grouchy old man in a beautiful way. The blend of first person understanding, compassion, cynical rigidity and yet so loveable.

And .. I envy the community he lives in, his neighbors coming together.

4.5 stars

I got teary-eyed multiple times throughout this book. It was a wonderful exploration of grief but it was also somehow managed to be fun and lighthearted at the same time. It's a very difficult needle to thread but Backman somehow managed it. I can't wait to read more of his books.

Headline: Grumpy Late-Fifties Male Grouses About Novel Depicting Grumpy Late-Fifties Male.

No, I didn't like it. Serious cognitive disconnect. Nothing makes sense: not the timelines, nor the relationships, nor the motivations. Ove is not a Grouchy Old Man With A Secret Heart Of Gold; he is, I think, a not-very-kind person's idea of what one would look like. Nasty, spiteful, shallow, with serious anger issues. His barbs and petty acts of revenge aren't funny, they're just mean. OK, so he's just a fictional character, but the more I read, the more I felt that his words and actions were a reflection of the author, like those people who blurt out “you're fat, ha ha, j/k.” I hope I'm wrong. I know nothing about Backman, and dearly hope I'm mistaken, but this first impression was a sour one. I have no desire to read his work again.

The relationships make no sense either; they come off more as wishful thinking than real human interactions. (I'm speaking solely of humans here. The cat, that's completely off-the-wall bizarre, let's just ignore that.) I have to assume that Backman was going for heartwarming, but for me it went straight into bathetic. Then again I'm just a grumpy, often-unkind, late-fifties male.

Could not get into this one. I don't get the hype.
Just not for me I suppose.

Fantastic book and quite a good movie as well. It's a great lesson to never assume anything about anyone. Wonderful; and a satisfying ending.

Loved this book! Rare to find something so focused on death that feels uplifting and charming instead of morose. Will certainly make you feel for the curmudgeons in your life

I don't think a book could make me hurt this much. Crying yes but actually hurt? Not until I read this one. 

I laughed and cried. Often both at the same time. And felt the loss and grief of the characters as my own. 

As Ove spent time with Parvaneh and Patrick's family, their daughters and his other neighbours, I kept thinking, ‘Sonja would have loved this.'I wished for her to be alive like Ove. And I fell in love with her glimpses in the books.

I doubt I would ever have an experience like this again. 

My only regret is that I couldn't spend more time with the characters. The ending felt too detached from the chapter before even if I didn't mind reading. 

But all in all, this book truly is amazing and I'm so thankful for the experience.

This book was a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed the main character and laughed out loud a few times while reading. There were other times, however, where I found myself bored and wishing that the story was less predictable and would move at a faster pace. If you like humorous, light-hearted contemporary fiction, give this one a try.

This book is even better the second time. The first time I spent the first half being like, “why is this man so mean?” and this time I spent the first half being like, “why is everyone so mean to this man?”.

With a reread I feel confident calling this one of my favorite books. Just thinking about it gets me emotional. Also, JK Simmons narration was excellent, I'm not sure why it's so hard to track down.

Ooof, my heart.

In this book, we follow Ove, an older, cranky man who's wife has recently passed. Without her, he isn't completely sure what to do with himself. He has lived his whole life very cut and dry, with strict self-imposed rules and a no-nonsense attitude, but after Sonia's passing, he's lost. He decides he wants to join her. However, when a new family moves in next door, a series of hilarious events unfolds that keeps him from being able to join his wife.

This book was so funny, and heartfelt, and full of grief. The dichotomy between these feelings was expertly shown by Backman. He took what could be a depressing, sad story, and made it so heartfelt and fun. This is not to say he glossed over the grief or made it trivial; he just found a way to make it accessible. The characters in this book are so expertly crafted. They are all so different and so unique, and the way they all come together to help each other is beautiful. I loved all of them so, so much. Also, getting to see the little moments here and there where you see Ove really open up or shift his perspective made my heart jump every time. Probably the most poignant for me was when he was teaching Parvaneh to drive. It was this amalgamation of small moments that made the reader really see that Ove may have a brusque exterior, but he really cared for the people around him.

As I was finishing this audiobook, I had just pulled into a Walgreens parking lot to pick up a prescription. However, I ended up sitting in my car to finish the book, and found myself sobbing. The ending was so perfectly executed. I loved everything about this book. I honestly can't think of a single fault. Backman's prose makes the reader never want to stop, and the story was so wonderful. Everyone should read this book.

TW: assault, suicide attempts (multiple)

Listened to this on audiobook, and I'm gonna run out and buy a physical copy. This was so heartwarming

When I first started this book I wasn't sure I would like it. The main character was so grumpy and negative, but as the story unfolded, I realized there was more to Ove than meets the eye. His relationship with his father, his wife and his neighbours all shaped who he was and how he lived his life.

By the time I finished the book, I was sorry to see it end and consider it one of the best books I've read this year.