A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Val Penny ♦ July 19, 2019 ♦ 4 Comments

I had A Man Called Ove by the Swedish author, Fredrik Backman, in my TBR (to be read) list for too long. However, when it became book of the month for my book group, the book suddenly became top of my list.

Ove is a quiet, practical, grumpy man who married a vivacious, outgoing woman who appreciated his qualities. Ove comes off at first as such an officious, stubborn busybody, you want to laugh at him and not with him. He is such a miserly haggler. The words “batteries not included” can put him in a rage. Anyone who doesn’t drive a Saab is an idiot. He is certainly not afraid of expressing his views on any subject, particularly people who break rules.

As the book progresses, the reader comes to see his bark has no bite, and his hunger to be needed is the grace in his core. His wife, Sonya, liked to talk, about books she loved or the delinquent kids she taught, and he liked to listen to her. He got sustenance from building her things, like bookshelves, or, when she became wheelchair bound after a tragic accident, constructing her an accessible kitchen or a ramp at her school.

Ove’s long grief over losing Sonja has recently been compounded by the feeling of uselessness he has after being forced into an early retirement. He is suicidally depressed, but life keeps intruding. He may snarl at a homeless cat ora young person or even at interruptions from his irritating neighbors, but he doesn’t resist much taking the cat in or helping these neighbours with their problems.  Ove thinks he just wants to say goodbye to life, but beginning to care about one thing leads to more and more threads that bind. I have a special place in my heart for writers who can make you laugh one moment and make you cry the next and Backman does just that. A Man Called Ove reads more like a series of short stories than a novel. I found A Man Called Ove most enjoyable and easy to read.

About the Author

Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (to be a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks), My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, and two novellas, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer and The Deal of a Lifetime. Things My Son Needs to Know About the World, his first work of non-fiction, will be released in the US in May 2019. His books are published in more than forty countries. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children. Connect with him on Twitter @BackmanLand or on Instagram @backmansk.

Val Penny