A Man Called Ove: A Novel

The man called Ove is fifty-nine years old and all he wants in life is to die. His sole purpose for living, the only thing he truly loved, left his world six months before when his wife of almost forty years, Sonja, died.Ove is a man for whom life is black or white. There is a right way and a wrong way of doing things. Ove adheres to the right way, the way his father taught him. His ambition is to be as little different from his father as is possible. Most of the rest of the world does things the wrong way and this makes Ove the irascible man that people see him to be.Sonja saw the world in bright hues. She was interested in the people around her and lived to make their lives better. She was a teacher who was assigned to teach ADHD children "before ADHD was invented." She took to her job with passion and belief in the children's ability to learn. She got them to read Shakespeare.Sonja loved cats. Ove didn't.Ove and Sonja had lived in the same neighborhood, the same house, since their marriage. Ove was known as the curmudgeonly neighbor who everyone saw as a bitter man. Sonja was the loving woman who everyone loved in return. And Ove loved her, too. He lived for her.And then she died.We get to know Ove in a series of vignettes from his life. Each chapter of the book is a separate vignette. They might almost be a series of short stories, but, taken together, they give us the full picture of a man called Ove. We learn that tragedies in his and Sonja's lives gave him every excuse for being bitter.As we meet him, Ove has made the decision to end it all and join his beloved Sonja underground. He makes repeated attempts to fulfill his aim, but inconvenient life keeps interrupting him.His most inconvenient interruption comes when a new family moves in next door; the "Lanky One," a Swedish man, and his very pregnant Iranian wife and their two young daughters. They accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox in the process of moving in and, from then on, their lives are inextricably intertwined as Ove grudgingly shows the Lanky One the right way to back up a trailer and the right way to do other things around the house. Even as he struggles to evade their clutches, the wife, Parvaneh, continues to seek him out and treat him as a friend and the children see him, and draw him, as a man of many bright colors.This quirky novel, the debut of Fredrik Backman, was first published in Sweden in 2012, to very little notice, but it became a sleeper hit, and since then it has been translated into 38 languages (one of which, fortunately, was English) and it has become something of an international sensation. The New York Times called it one of the most popular literary exports since Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It could not be more different from than dark thriller.This is a sunny and hopeful book. It was a wonderful choice for my Thanksgiving week reading. Is it great literature? Probably not, but I loved it! I often found myself laughing out loud and then a few minutes later my cheeks would be wet with tears. It combines hilarity and poignancy in a marvelous cocktail of emotional reading.Of many favorite moments in the book, one that resonated deeply with me was Sonja's explanation of the evolution of a long relationship."Loving someone is like moving into a house," Sonja used to say. "At first you fall in love with all the new things, amazed every morning that all this belongs to you, as if fearing that someone would suddenly come rushing in through the door to explain that a terrible mistake had been made, you weren't actually supposed to live in a wonderful place like this. Then over the years the walls become weathered, the wood splinters here and there, and you start to love that house not so much because of all its perfection, but rather for its imperfections. You get to know all the nooks and crannies. How to avoid getting the key caught in the lock when it's cold outside. Which of the floorboards flex slightly when one steps on them or exactly how to open the wardrobe doors without them creaking. These are the little secrets that make it your home."Yes, exactly. How could I not love this book?

This book is one of my favorite books that I’ve read in a long time. It’s heart wrenching at times, heartwarming at others. The writing was beautiful and easily digestible. The characters all started to feel like family, and I laughed and cried alongside them. A Man Called Ove allowed me to reminisce about days gone by with that bittersweet ache, all while reminding me that I’m not alone. I can’t recommend this book enough.

I love to watch and re-watch all eight seasons of the 1970s sitcom 'Three's Company'. If I could characterize and compare the character Ove into another fictional character, it would be that of Stanley Roper, the landlord. Both are good men, but are misunderstood due to their layer of grouchiness. 'A Man Called Ove' is one of the funniest, charming, poignant, and saddest books I've read in a long time, with all four of these descriptors having equal measure and affect on me throughout the entire book.Within two pages into 'A Man Called Ove' and throughout the entire book, I was in stitches, laughing out loud heartily in a manner that had my whole body heaving, with laughing tears in my eyes. Within 35 pages, I was in love with Ove, charmed by him, despite his curmudgeon ways. Within 75 pages, with Ove's past further illuminated, the scope of Ove's life and his behavior comes through heart-breakingly in a way that made me at times forget that he is an ill-tempered, disputatious, and snappish man who never lets anything get by him.Ove is 59 years old, lives in a row house in Sweden and drives a Saab. Due to two recent life-altering change to his life and his routine, Ove plans for a major decision. As Ove does his best to navigate the unfairness that is life and the unforgiving nature of getting older, his plans are stalled and inadvertently thwarted by an array of offbeat neighbors and oddball characters who Ove thinks are all "good-for-nothing idiots." Ove just wants to be left alone to go about with his decision. As luck or lack of it would have it, nothing goes according to Ove's plan, throwing Ove into an uproarious spin of irritability, threats of bodily harm and colorful choice words of disdain for his foes and prying neighbors. Just typing this makes me laugh out loud and smile as I relive the scenes in my head.As previously mentioned, while reading 'A Man Called Ove', I kept thinking how much Ove reminded me of the miserly, cranky, parsimonious, but ultimately lovable Mr. Roper of 'Three's Company'. Like Stanley Roper, Ove is set in his ways and gets upset when anyone throws a wrench in his schemes or his plans. But also like Stanley Roper, through patience, kindness, and time exercised by those around him, you get to love Ove, warts and all. And oh how much I love and adore Ove.The book is hysterically funny, lighthearted, and at times farcical. Yet, it equally has very serious and dark themes that will not only break your heart, but perhaps might make some readers uncomfortable. More important than anything though, is that the book brings up subject matter that affects many individuals. Illness at old age, the bureaucracy of medical care, the kindness and heart of foreigners, and the benefits gained when people choose not to judge by first impressions alone. All these are explored in an equally compelling, funny, but respectful way by the author.There are many lessons, both hilarious and cogent ones, to be learned from 'A Man Called Ove'. One of the simplest but most profound is what it means to reach across and be kind - to strangers, to your neighbors, to those who have been cast aside, to misfits, to underdogs, and even to a smug cat that has shed most of its fur and hisses at you. Yes, be kind to all of them. You never really know what people are going through, and you never really know who people truly are until you give them a chance and see what goodness their hearts hold.I highly recommend 'A Man Called Ove'. The reason I've rated it 4.25 stars is because several scenes, especially towards the later end of the book, were rushed and too convenient, for what seemed to be the sake of pacing or perhaps the sake of length. They were written in a too simplified, glossed-over manner. Whereas they would have benefited the book more if they had been fleshed out with more details. In the instance of this book in particular, it's fine, since I don't believe the author's intention was to write a literary masterpiece.Regardless, I LOVED the entire book. I adored all the characters, especially Ove. Sonja, Parvaneh, Nasanin, and even the unnamed cat, were all wonderful too. Like the back of the book says "All you need is Ove." Indeed. All you need is Ove.