This isn't really my cup o' tea: too sentimental, too "cute." But having just been forced to read a very bad, very badly written book, it forced me to reevaluate my judgement: Backman clearly understands style and pacing, and knows how to use them. The choppy sentences and brief chapters contribute to a fairy-tale quality, and while some reviewers objected to the repetition ("a man call Ove did xyz..."), I thought it neatly hammered home that Ove is Everyman, and his life is our lives. And Backman has a point to make. The point may be a little simplistic, don't judge a book by its cover, don't judge anyone until you've walked a mile in their moccasins, but "simple" doesn't mean wrong, and doesn't mean it might not need saying.
For me, it could have been darker. Ove is a grumpy old pain in the you-know-where, but REASONS!! So many, many reasons! I think I would have liked Ove better if he had just been allowed to be grumpy, without the SPOILERS sad childhood, lost job, dead wife etc, etc, etc. His neighbours are walking, talking embodiments of Meet Cute: awkward fat guy? Check. Sassy woman of colour? Check (and she's pregnant! How cute is that?) Ove's former neighbourhood adversary is now suffering from dementia, saved from permanent hospitalization by his loyal, over-whelmed wife. Ove is denied no opportunity to be both politically incorrect, and demonstrate that he's basically decent and has a heart of gold.
A "grumpy old man" story that was more to my taste is Frederick Barthelme's "There Must be Some Mistake."Interestingly, another book in which the central character has settled into "old" habits in his 50s. But while backstory trauma is hinted at, the central character's anti-social ways aren't excused or explained, and he's seen through the lens of neighbours who are as annoying and as flawed as he is -- much funnier and more realistic.
I will probably come back to this: I may keep in on my bedside table, and dip into it, in the spirit of the blog essays it started as
For me, it could have been darker. Ove is a grumpy old pain in the you-know-where, but REASONS!! So many, many reasons! I think I would have liked Ove better if he had just been allowed to be grumpy, without the SPOILERS sad childhood, lost job, dead wife etc, etc, etc. His neighbours are walking, talking embodiments of Meet Cute: awkward fat guy? Check. Sassy woman of colour? Check (and she's pregnant! How cute is that?) Ove's former neighbourhood adversary is now suffering from dementia, saved from permanent hospitalization by his loyal, over-whelmed wife. Ove is denied no opportunity to be both politically incorrect, and demonstrate that he's basically decent and has a heart of gold.
A "grumpy old man" story that was more to my taste is Frederick Barthelme's "There Must be Some Mistake."Interestingly, another book in which the central character has settled into "old" habits in his 50s. But while backstory trauma is hinted at, the central character's anti-social ways aren't excused or explained, and he's seen through the lens of neighbours who are as annoying and as flawed as he is -- much funnier and more realistic.
I will probably come back to this: I may keep in on my bedside table, and dip into it, in the spirit of the blog essays it started as
Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details
