Reviews tagging 'Racism'

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

29 reviews

samuelbrown23's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I found the book overall enjoyable and simple as this is focus on first person perspective. The neighbors could get annoying, I do agreed with Ova like how acted on their demands. It’s seems that this focus so much on plot moving along that felt like could get lost where you are at in the story since the author going back in forth in the timeline makes easier to forget the setting. Speaking of the setting I wish the author would some time makes remind to reader where and when is Tory taking place. The character definitely has some type of mental health issue: death of parent early age, and lack of social interactions. This book  gives mixed feelings kind felt very comforting and disturb of the character action from attempting to
Commit sucide to heart felt moment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Xenophobia, and Suicide attempt

highlandheffalump's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Racism

elizlizabeth's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I can understand it as a dark comedy, but absolutely not as a cozy heartwarming tale. Ove is not without many flaws which fine, but did the plot have to be so dull? It mostly hinges off bad things happening and Ove reacting to them, which got tiring after a while.
I have a bone to pick with the many slurs, fatphobia, and shrieking women. Might give Backman another chance to see if this was an Ove thing or an author thing but I have limited hopes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Racism

Minor: Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, and Car accident

orchidlilly's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

A really good exploration of grief and learning to live after it. Ove is both lovable and annoying, which turns at a point to endearing in its own right. The rest of the characters feel very real and individualized, and have a lot of unspoken depth to them. The back and forth between Ove's memories and current life really build his story well and allow the reader to understand why he is the way he is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Dementia, and Death of parent

Minor: Infertility, Racism, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

craftysnailtail's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book was almost a DNF for me. I'm glad I finished it, but I honestly did not like it until I was at least 80% of the way through. I simply did not like Ove. I know you're supposed to grow to love him, but I didn't. Maybe that makes me a monster, and I can accept that. His curmudgeonly traits were fine and a little endearing by the end, but sometimes he was flat out mean. I can't get behind that. 

I'm also fairly convinced that Backman has never met a cat before in their entire lives. A cat that licks steering wheels passive aggressively, happily wears socks, and calmly sits on bar stools in cafes they've never been in before was so out of left field. The rest of the book is very realistic, so the cartoon cat threw me in every scene they were in. 

The use of similes to describe every single disgruntled expression this man has ever had in his life drove me mad as well, but that's clearly a personal writing style preference, so to each their own.

The overall message of the book is... nice. And I think it gives the reader a nuanced perspective of what it's like to be a senior that society seems to have given up on. But the road to get there was gritty and uncomfortable. I mean I was rooting for Ove getting what he wanted for the vast majority of the book because it felt like his right to make that decision. At least I appreciated the ending, though. I don't think it's a book I would recommend to friends, but it was different from other books I've read recently, so that made it worth it for me in the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Dementia, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

mel_j's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was sad. And hopeful. It made me cry – but still, there are very questionable (xenophobic, mysoginistic, ableist and fatphobic) things uttered by Ove.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Ableism, Cursing, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, and Pregnancy

Minor: Addiction, Miscarriage, Abortion, and Toxic friendship

oliviagrace430's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Loved 😭 predictable but so heartfelt. Cried throughout the book, and felt so sad to be done upon finishing! 

I will say there are some racist and fat phobic comments made from the POV of the main character (I think to show us where his flaws were) but they 1) never felt necessary (was able to grasp character flaws without them) and 2)took me out of the book a bit, hence the deduction from 5 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Moderate: Fatphobia and Racism

nasolireads's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book just broke me completely. This story is so heartbreaking. A story about grief and how people deal with it and also about found family and love. Even though Ove irritated me at the beginning, I began to love him little by little as the story went on. The way he talked about his wife and the life they had together I felt very connected to Ove more and more. The way Ove slowly accepted Parvaneh and her silly family and how she helped him live a little longer it was just so beautiful. I loved the way it was written, interchanging from past to present. It seemed repetitive at times but it worked for me. This book had me sobbing from beginning to end. I loved it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racism, Grief, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Outing

michelle_mc96's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

theliterarylair's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

DNF'd at 50%
TW- Fatphobia, racism, sexism, suicide

This book is like when you feel you *have* to laugh at something an old man said to you, just to be able to get away from him...

I get where this was trying to go, and understand why it tugs at certain people's heartstrings, I suppose, but I was deeply uncomfortable at almost every page.

This has not dated well at all, and this "bitter" man is actually very racist, sexist and fatphobic. Why am I supposed to feel inspired by someone who eventually just acts *somewhat* politely.

Have Backman's other books aged better?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

Moderate: Racism and Sexism