Review: Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove book by Fourth Dimension Club

The heartwarming story of a grumpy little old man called Ove and how his life changed instantly when a new family moved into his neighborhood.

Author

Fredrik Backman is a Swedish columnist, blogger and writer. He grew up in Helsingborg and has been writing for Helsingborgs Dagblad and Moore Magazine. A man called Ove is his debut novel which was published in 2012.

His notable other works are : My grandmother asked me to tell you she's sorry, Britt-Marie was here, Beartown and Us Against You.

They were number one bestsellers in his native Sweden. They have been published around the world in more than twenty-five languages.

Review

This book is all about Ove. Ove is a rude and straightforward person who is very particular about his daily routines and especially cars. He is a kind of a man who points a finger at you as you were some weird creature when he doesn't likes you.He hates you to core if you are using the cars which he doesn't like. He lives alone in his home enjoying his solitude and occasionally bothered by a stray cat who keeps on showing up in his front yard even after shutting the front door on its face numerous times.

Ove has a strict daily routine, everyday he wakes up early morning, makes coffee and walks around his neighborhood and inspects everything. He maintain a notes where he writes down any changes he found from the previous day observations. He enjoys his fresh coffee when he comes back home after inspection. I mean who does that? Ove is particular about his coffee, very particular. Ove is strict about rules and he despises if anyone doesn't follow or acts against it.

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

The story takes place in Sweden juggling back and forth between past and present of Ove.

Writing is eloquent, smooth and entertaining. I never felt bored while reading this book. Ove curses a lot, some people may not like it while other may enjoy it totally. Well, it depends with individual tastes and choices. I thoroughly enjoyed his writing style and keep on reading and finishing the book in less than 2 days and even still remember few scenes and dialogues. It's kind of a slow poison, even if you really didn't liked it, you may still remember it for a while after reading this book. That's for sure.

While started reading and slowly getting to know about Ove, there is a sudden shocker after 4 chapters. I learnt about the death of his wife and kept on reading with wet eyes for a few seconds. After his wife dies, Ove keeps himself busy with house work and inspecting the neighborhoods. He doesn't like the world anymore without her and he eventually decides to kill himself. He couldn't live in the world without her.

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'.

It's a well crafted heartwarming and humorous book. There are many instances when the situation is serious and tense ending up in humor. That's seriously an entertaining way of writing a novel. Ove's arrangements of killing himself was ruined numerous times by his new neighbors.

How his neighbors brought huge changes in his behavior and eventually helped him in transforming into a better person?

How he met his wife?

These things are the backbone of this book. You must read this book in order to know his wonderful story.

You miss the strangest things when you lose someone. Little things. Smiles. The way she turned over in her sleep. Even repainting a room for her.

This is a debut novel by Backman. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and very happy that I picked this book. I went on picking up and reading his other books and even enjoyed them too. This is a must read book for everyone who doesn't mind a little bit of curses and rude attitude. Who doesn't love a well written humorous book about a grumpy little old man?

My rating : 4.5/5

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