Read the New York Times bestseller that has taken the world by storm 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 … 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.
A feel-good story in the spirit of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Fredrik Backman’s novel about the angry old man next door is a thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others. “If there was an award for ‘Most Charming Book of the Year, ’ this first novel by a Swedish blogger-turned-overnight-sensation would win hands down” (Booklist, starred review).more
I know I am behind in reading this book, but I just LOVED it. It isn’t the typical sort of book I read, and I wasn’t too sure about it when I started, but once I got hooked, I just adored it. It is the sort of book that is meant to be savored–chapter by chapter. I cried a couple of times and laughed out loud as much or more. Ove is the neighbor we well need.
As I sit here with tears in my eyes at the end of this book, I realize just how much I came to care about the characters in the story. This book is filled with subtle humor and a unique view of life. Ove is a curmudgeon, but one with a true heart of gold. He has a very strict view of justice, rule-following, and how everyone should live their lives. But slowly he starts to let others see his heart, starting with a stray cat. I have known people like Ove, so his character was very real to me. I honestly did not want this story to end. The author did an excellent job of really developing the characters in such a way that they become the reader’s friends. This book has become one of my favorite books, and I will be recommending it to everyone!
Because I’m sole care-giver of my husband, who has Alz., I need to find a book that holds my attention, and is good enough that I can pick it up and put it back down as needed. I’ve always read biographies or novels with more difficult reading, so my mind doesn’t become stagnant. However, there are many books out today, such as
“A Man Called Ove” that satisfy my need to read and feel I’ve made a new friend, too.
Oh, this book, this book. I found myself literally saying out loud, “This book is killing me”, several times while reading it. The writing is so full of beautiful, insightful, heart wrenching passages that I gave up on highlighting. So very happy to have met Ove and cannot wait to read more from Backman. If you need something special to read, try this.
Everyone knows a curmudgeon. He may be the man down the street or an uncle or perhaps even your spouse. He is the one who grumbles and seems to find fault with everything and everyone. He grumbles about the idiots at the checkout who cannot make change or the incompetent young man who cannot change a tire or inconsiderate bloke who parks over the line at the supermarket.
He could be young or old; he may even have been born a curmudgeon. He is a dependable and capable employee who works hard, pays his dues, and expects everyone else to do the same. He likes houses and cars because he understands them and because they give their owners the respect they deserve – keep them well-maintained and repaired, and they will service you a long time. Do not, and they will fail you. Unlike most humans.
A curmudgeon expects others simply to obey the rules, mind their own business, and just leave him the hell alone.
In A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, we meet a curmudgeon. Ove (pronounce “oo’ vae”) is a middle-aged man who works as a night cleaner at the railroad. He drives the only practical car made, a Saab, because his father drove one and he understands it. Now recently widowed, Ove finds himself alone and lonely. He can tighten loose screws or oil the wooden table only so much, and he begins to long to join his beloved Sonja.
But it turns out that killing himself is one task at which his is not very good. Or at least the task is repeatedly interrupted by pesky neighbors or some other bloke who accidentally nearly kills himself and forces Ove to save him. So, another plan must be made – only to be interrupted again.
As the story moves back and forth between Ove’s childhood and his life with his dear Sonja and the present time, a few months after Sonja’s death, we meet their longtime friends and more often enemies (Anita and husband Rune, another curmudgeon who dares drive a Volvo), and we witness Ove’s constant battles with the neighborhood association and city council. We meet new neighbors like the Lanky One, who can’t put together IKEA furniture and the Pregnant Foreign Woman (his Iranian wife Parvaneh), who is about to give birth to her third child, and their two little girls. We meet a pimply youth Adrian, whose father is in prison and who needs to repair a bicycle to impress a would-be girlfriend, and his “bent” friend Mirsad, who is kicked out by his father, and a pudgy neighbor Jimmy, who is allergic to cats.
As Ove grumbles about the incompetency and idiocy of this motley group of neighbors and their untimely interruptions of his plans to join Sonja, their lives twist and intertwine to change their entire neighborhood in ways no one could predict.
Curmudgery (not a real word although it should be) is worldwide. Although this story is set in Sweden, we feel right at home as if we are reading about our own neighborhood. Especially at this season, it is good to reflect on the profound effect one life can have on the lives we meet.
Well . . . when I was searching for a photo of the cover to accompany this review, I find out that A Man Called Ove has been made into a movie. I suppose it’s time to check out Netflix. I hope it’s as good as the book.
Ove is a deceptively complex character.
At first, he seems almost caricature-like in his crankiness. He wants things in order…if there is a sign that has rules on it, one should pay attention to it and follow it to the letter. He is set in his old ways and when those ways are changed by anything new, he gets upset…very upset.
But as his history is skillfully revealed, layer by layer, it’s clear that he’s a lonely soul longing for connection. He’s an innately good person, and his peculiar outlook on life is often laugh-out-loud funny. But to him it’s a way of life. One that should be followed by everyone.
But there are things about Ove that will upset you. Well, they certainly upset me. When you delve more into his back story you see a whole other side of Ove that you just want to reach into the book and hug him. Of course, he would shrug you off the moment you try, but the feeling will always be there. The love and devotion that this angry man had will cut you to the quick.
When Ove meets his new neighbors things start to change in his life. He thinks it’s for the worst, but as he starts to see things from another perspective, you start to see a change. In Ove yes, but in you as well.
There are a couple of quotes I would like to share with you that really got to me:
“People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had.”
“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.”
“We always think there’s enough time to do things with other people. Time to say things to them. And then something happens and then we stand there holding on to words like “if”.”
I loved this book. About an irascible man who, as it turned out, everyone loved. A very sweet story.
I dare you to read this book and not cry. Loved it. A feel good book that also made me want to be nicer to everyone.
BEST BOOK EVER. I LOVED this book more than I can say. Ove’s character was brilliant. Lifelike, vivid, blunt, unapologetic, and beautiful at its core. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading a well-developed, well-rounded, unexpected, three-dimensional, beautiful, heart-touching story.
Fredrik Backman’s voice is a voice to be heard. His characters are some of the best I have ever read. I can’t praise this book enough. Do yourself a favor and read it. Love it. Share it. You won’t regret it!!! 🙂
This book made me love an old curmudgeon! Ove is a great character. His story unfolds in such a way that the reader can’t help but star rooting for him. This book was both touching and laugh-out-loud funny.
Why This Book
I run a monthly poll on the ThisIsMyTruthNow blog via my Book Bucket List. Followers get to choose from a list of the twelve books I own and want to read in the near future. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman was selected as the book I should read in March 2018. I added it to the list because I really enjoyed his novel, Beartown, and thought this was the next logical step. A good friend of mine was interested in reading the novel, too, so we made this a buddy read. I’m so excited to discuss the book as if it’s our own book club.
Approach & Style
I was going to order the book online, but I found it sitting on the shelf in my apartment building’s library room; how lucky am i? The paperback is 337 pages long and broken into ~40 chapters (not numbered). Each has a title which explains what might happen in the chapter, and they mostly alternate between what is happening today in Ove’s life in comparison to something connected that occurred in the past. It took me 4 hours to read over a three-day weekend getaway to New Hampshire, but I forced myself to stop at 110 pages each day so it would last longer. It could easily be read in one sitting as it’s that good! The novel’s perspective is focused on Ove, and it is told in third-person omniscient POV. It was published in 2014 but as a Swedish novel, then brilliantly translated into English.
Plot, Characters & Setting
Ove is a 59-year old man who is cantankerous, ornery, difficult, mean and everything else that comes along with the type of men you’d see in the movie “Grumpy Old Men.” It opens with a bit about an iPad that is basically someone we all know (or are — I see my own future in a good 20+ years). But he of course has a heart somewhere, and we spend the entirety of the book seeing little pieces of it as we watch his journey to try to complete a final goal. We meet several of his neighbors and former friends, a few citizens of his community, and some strangers who all have an impact on Ove’s life, but are also touched by the time they spend with Ove.
It’s difficult to summarize more about the book without giving away big pieces of the plot, but it is a story that will make you cry and laugh at the same time on several occasions. Imagine a man you would not want to meet in person slowly tugging at your heart strings because you see and understand all he’s been through that’s turned him into the person we read about today. When you learn what his actual goal is, you’ll be shocked and struggle to accept that you want to support him in it. And when the things he’s always wanted but could never quite have suddenly start appearing in his life, you’ll know you can’t help but love the grumpy old man.
Key Thoughts
Fredrik Backman is hands-down one of my favorite character-building authors. Ove has so many levels to him you will lose count trying to guess what he might do in any given situation. His first reaction will almost always annoy you. His second will irritate you beyond belief… could he really have lost all humanity? But by the third or fourth time he encounters a situation, you see the tides turning. That’s where Backman excels. No matter how harsh he makes someone, the character teeters on the edge until they fall sweepingly into your arms as someone you now love and root for.
Despite reading the reviews and guessing enough of the high-level plot from the descriptions, I was not prepared for all the emotions in this book. The story captures different aspects of life and tries to make sense of them in reverse order. We aren’t reading Ove’s past in any logical format or order. It’s bits and pieces, re-told at appropriate points in his current life. In the opening scenes, he’s yelling at an iPad sales clerk… and we think he’s just an irate older man who can’t ‘get with the times.’ But when you learn everything that led up to it, you’ll find so many new connections. The order of the chapters is brilliant. You know people dislike one another, but not why. You find out way after you think you will, and it makes total sense. An author who can keep that going for 300+ pages is phenomenal.
I kept thinking ‘What if Ove meets the main character from The Five People You Meet in Heaven?’ Would they get along? They’re basically the same person, but completely different. From the plot to the story, the dialogue to the narrative, this book will capture your attention, enthrall your senses, tease you, torture you, and in the end, make you wish there were more. I can’t recommend it enough! You’ll even laugh out loud so often, people will look at you quite funny.
Summary
I am so thrilled with my second Fredrik Backman book that I plan to read all of his remaining works this summer. I have a copy of Beartown 2 which I will read next month, but then it will be My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry and Britt-Marie Was Here. There are others, but those are up next on the spring and summer reading lists. I don’t think I could be disappointed as I am addicted to his writing style and storytelling abilities. He’s definitely in my top 10 favorite authors thus far in my reading lifetime.
A very smart, witty read about a cranky old man who believes he has nothing to live for after his wife dies — but he finds happiness where he least expects it.
A bunch of people had recommended this to me yet I was reluctant to pick it up. When I finally did, I was like “WHY DIDN’T I READ THIS SOONER??” I would also recommend the audiobook, as the narrator was great.
Truly moving and will warm your heart.
I was asked when I last laughed out loud reading a book. A Man Called Ove is stupendous on so many levels, but to persuade my husband to read it, I told him how much it at times reminded me of a Road Runner cartoon. No matter how hard OVE tried . . . .BEEP BEEP! – his plans were thwarted. And how I laughed.
So many feelings in one book!
Few books made me weep at its end, while this is one of them!
We all know at least some parts of Ova in all kinds of people in our lives. On a daily basis, we don’t always think positive about such types of people and they often even annoy us, but this book comes to show their point of view on life.
Ove is a grumpy old man who is sick of life, but his obsession is stronger than anything else, even death itself, and he clings to life as only he knows. Ove has annoying habits; he has opinions about every area of life: Ove hates people and animals, he is stubborn as a mule, yet charming in his way.
There is no way to love Ova without reading the whole book and going through all his experiences.
The book contains stories both in the present tense and memories from all of his life. It was written excellently. The division into chapters is clear and the transition between times is contributing.
I enjoyed every moment of reading. I laughed and cried at the same time.
recommended!
This book was a wonderful journey! The characters were great, and the story-line was very realistic from a an elderly’s perspective (I read this to my seniors for book club). The only thing I will say from the downside is that it can be very difficult to read at first due to the author’s over use of peoples names. It was difficult for me as a fellow author. However, I encourage you to push through it because it is a beautiful story!
It took me a while to get into this book. Not enough action for me. But once I got interested in what was going to happen to Ove, I really became involved in the characters. There was great humor and some sadness, but a very good read once I got to “know” the characters and understand them.
This one took me a little while to get into. But once you got past that certain point, it was a wonderful book! I understood why people gave it such rave reviews.
Such a book that pulls at your emotions – for a long time I fought reading this as I was afraid it would be soppy/trite/boring. How wrong I was and I am so glad I followed recommendations of friends and read about Ove! Loved it!
The recent film version was also quite good with subtitles which faded into the background as I re-lived the book. Please read the book first though!
This is one of my all time favorite books. I have read it twice now and found new things to love on the second reading. I found myself really drawn into the characters and loved the subtle ways that the story unfolds, like peeling back layers that slowly reveal a rich and touching story. Highly recommend.
Have listened to this book TWICE!! Love it and I totally didn’t expect to!