Happy book review day!
This past weekend I read A Man Called Ove.
I laughed some. I shed a tear or twenty. I definitely recommend it.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Ove is the definition of a curmudgeon. He is cantankerous. Downright cranky. He is given a wide berth by his neighbors as he makes his daily rounds, inspecting his little community.
But there is more to the story, as there is to all stories, and all people.
Throughout this novel, the story of "the man called Ove" is interspersed with flashback chapters of "the man who was Ove". These chapters weave together to form the tapestry of Ove's life. There is joy, but also incredible heartache. There is pride, and there is sympathy. We see the bits and pieces of Ove as a so-real human, and his motivating characteristics.
Meanwhile, he meets a family of loud new neighbors, and a mangy cat, and a whole host of other characters, and the way they all deal with one another changes Ove fundamentally.
It is a lovely story, and a heartbreaking one.
Ove reminds me of so many men I know. You know the type: quiet, stoic even. Old-fashioned. Convinced right is right and only they know what right is. That doesn't mean there isn't sympathy; they just have no time or patience for things that don't fit their ideals of "right". They are sincere; they don't believe in "walking around with a smile plastered to [their] face all the time" just to be polite. They have no problem being rude to people they don't like, and the parameters of what determines whether or not they like someone depends on things like how well they use tools and whether or not they follow street signs to the letter.
They seem hard, but that doesn't mean they are uncaring. They seem critical but that doesn't mean they are cruel.
I highly recommend Ove's story. It was a quick read, but it was an emotional one. This is one of my favourite examples of realistic fiction. It was just beautiful.
Never mind that my eyes ached the rest of that night and the entire day after.
This has been a popular book over the past few years. Have you read it? What did you think?
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