Review for "A Man Called Ove" by Fredrik Backman

He'd discovered that he liked houses. Maybe mostly because they were understandable. They could be calculated and drawn on paper. They did not leak if they were made watertight; they did not collapse if they were properly supported. Houses were fair, they gave you what you deserved. Which, unfortunately, was more than one could say about people.

Rating: 7.86/10 

★★★★☆

All I knew about this book going into it was that it was about a grumpy old man whose life is changed by some people so that he becomes a less grumpy old man. This is, honestly, a pretty good representation of the plot of the book. However, I did not realize that this would have so much of the grumpy old man's past in it, nor was I aware that this was a tragic love story. And it was wonderful.

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

I was predisposed to like this book because 1) I loved Beartown and Us Against You and 2) grumpy old man! This book was definitely different than most of the adult contemporaries I have been reading lately. It was refreshing, heartwarming, and hilarious. I loved Ove's development throughout the story -- shown most obviously through his shifting relationship with the cat. Obviously his relationship with all the neighborhood people, especially Parvaneh's family, also showed this, but the way he goes from not killing the cat for his wife's sake to actually caring about its well-being was beautiful.

I really liked the cast of characters in this book with few exceptions. I thought the addition of Adrian and Mirsad into the story really added to it, and I liked how everyone comes together at the end. I generally enjoyed the flashback chapters more than the present chapters (for reasons I will get into later), and I really loved Sonja's character. Towards the end of the book, reading about Sonja and Ove was what really caused this book to tug at the heartstrings and the tear ducts.

I have three major complaints about the book, AKA the reason this is only 4 stars and not 5. First of all: Parvaneh. She was so pushy. I understand that part of the plot was that Ove had to get out into the world and Parvaneh was helping him do that, but for most of the book I was thinking what Ove was thinking, which was "giiiiirrrrl, mind your own dang business!". If Parvaneh had been less pushy/whiny, and more kind, as a way to get Ove to open up and be active again, I would have liked the present-day chapters much more.

Another issue with this book that made me roll my eyes on more than one occasion was the fat-shaming. Ove is a judgmental old guy, so of course you'd think he'd be judgy about people who are overweight, but that's not what I'm talking about. It was about the physical actions that Jimmy (the overweight character in question) took that were such stereotypes it was gross to read. The way that Jimmy is always asking for food (literally more than 3 times in the book), or has food on his shirt, or has to squeeze out of car doors, was so annoying. Jimmy's only point to the story was to have a fat character in the story, and I found that hard to sit with.

Some of the timeline of the story did not exactly make sense. Early in the book we're told that Ove and Rune are friends for several years before they fall out, but the two couples meet when Sonja and Anita are both pregnant, and then the fallout happens right after Sonja loses the baby, so the time between couldn't be more than 5-6 months. There were other confusing time issues in the book, the specifics of which I'm not going to get into. It just would've been nice if the times were explained more clearly and weren't contradictory.

I know I said 3 things but this one is very minor, I just want to touch on it. The last thing I would mention, which is not as big of a issue to me as the others, is the constant monologues about the meaning of life. As a book about an older gentleman, you'd expect some life-reflecting, but when every chapter opens up with Sonja saying something wise about life (which is also something that a real person in real life would never just say) it gets repetitive.

I always have so many negative comments, but that's only because the negatives are easier to get specific about. The positives are mainly how the book made me feel, how it moved me, and that is honestly a lot more important the nit-picky details about the plot/characters. Overall, I thought this was fun and sad, beautiful and tragic, and I recommend.