A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As its name implies, A Man Called Ove, is about one person, a grouchy old man. (He's 59. I don't see that as particularly old, but the author did.) The other characters are only in the book to let the reader know more about Ove. We learn a little about what motivates them, but not in depth.

I often say a good novel requires at least one character to change over the course of the story. Ove's attitude toward living does change, but not his core personality. Instead, what changes is the opinion of him held by the readers and also, I believe, by the author.

As the story begins, we think Ove is simply an unhappy old man. We watch him contemplating and even attempting suicide. We think he is way too focused on silly regulations and anything that seems out of place. And we find it funny how he believes he can judge people based on the cars they drive. Yet Ove has a history and as it is revealed we learn there is quite a bit more to him than we thought. What we considered odd, even annoying, behaviors have a reason, sometimes relating to his childhood, but most often to his relationship with the love of his life, his late wife Sonja.

Some of the other characters see through Ove. Sonja did before she died and Parvaneh, or as Ove first calls her, the “foreign pregnant woman,” also seems to know what is good in his soul. In the end, Ove's character portrait is far more detailed then we realized and our hearts go out to the life led by this crotchety old man.

I liked the way Backman gradually moved from mocking his character to sympathizing with him, especially with the grief Ove feels over the loss of his wife. I do wish some of the minor characters were better developed, Jimmy in particular.


View all my reviews