A Man Called Ove

Sometimes I feel like a man called Ove by Fredrik Backman.  I'd like to just disappear but "life" keeps getting in the way.  Those obligations to do the right thing, to take care of things because you should and in the end because it is worth it.  

I wish I had the ability to stand with no emotion showing in my face and let people move on because it doesn't help to argue.  Ove is a man of little words in a fictional story but he has a big heart that made me think longer and kinder of people I've been angry at for a while.  The story is a string of events that tie very nicely together giving the reader insight as to Ove's character and the characters of people he comes in contact with.  We learn to love him and his idiosyncrasies and we learn there is reason to his seemingly maddening ways. 

His story is sad, bittersweet and insightful, worth reading a couple of times, which I never do.  I mean I don't think I've ever reread a book much less started it again as soon as I'd finished.  Backman has a nice style of connecting the present story with the back stories of each character right up to the final chapter.  

I rate A Man Called Ove:

• Fiction appropriate for young adult and older.  I fit in the older category and could relate well to his aging and loss of loved ones.
• Written from the author/readers point of view allowed me to come to my own conclusions successfully.
• Believable fiction that takes place in a neighborhood of people that are very different and lends perfectly to developing the story.  I liked how the author used such deverse characters and personalities to pull the story together.
• Clean language, no inappropriate sexual content.
• This quote from page 282 says how the book made me feel, "All people at root are time optimist."

A Man Called Ove

by Fredrik Backman

Washington Square Press

ISBN 978-1-4767-3802-4 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-4767-3803-1 (ebook)