I cannot get enough of Fredrik Backman. I’m not the kind of person who reads obsessively any adult author, because I prefer kid-lit and young adult books. But him, well. He is fantastic.
A Man Called Ove was the first of his books I read, because my book club chose it as the monthly read. It was immediately addictive in a way you wouldn’t normally consider makes a book addictive.
The story is about an old curmudgeon who cannot be convinced to deviate from his principles. He watches some new neighbors move in, and, of course, they’ll change him entirely.
It was such a sweet story and written so well that I needed to find everything Backman had written. I’m on the third book right now, and every one of them has been as good as this one.
Here are three things I enjoyed most about A Man Called Ove:
- The voice. Backman captured the voice of an old grouchy man so spectacularly that I could not put this book down, even though it wasn’t an action-packed read. But Ove was engaging, in spite of his cranky thoughts and feelings, and it made me laugh out loud many times.
- The bittersweet. Though Ove was a cranky, cheap man, he was, at his core, sweet and kind and fought with a passion for the things he believed in and loved. He lived with regrets, just like any other man, and he had a deep sadness that he did not want to show (but, of course, would). He was a perfectly, thoroughly lovable character.
- The humor. Because of Ove’s character, there were many humorous spots in the book, because he was so curmudgeonly about everything. Even the descriptions of the people he met would show his grumpy demeanor. It was fantastic.
You can see part of the personality that Backman put into the book by reading the chapter names:
A Man Called Ove Buys a Computer that is not a Computer
A Man Called Ove Makes His Neighborhood Inspection
A Man Called Ove Backs Up With a Trailer
A Man Called Ove Does Not Pay a Three-Kronor Surcharge
Here’s the opening:
“Ove is fifty-nine.
He drives a Saab. He’s the kind of man who points at people he doesn’t like the look of, as if they were burglars and his forefinger a policeman’s flashlight. He stands at the counter of a shop where owners of Japanese cars come to purchase white cables. Ove eyes the sales assistant for a long time before shaking a medium-sized white box at him.”
This is most definitely a book I will have to read again, as well as the rest of this author’s backlist.
The above is an affiliate link. I only recommend books that I personally enjoy. I actually don’t even talk about the books I don’t enjoy, because I’d rather forget I ever wasted time reading them. But if you’re ever curious whether I’ve read a book and whether I liked or disliked it, don’t hesitate to ask.
