A review by katiegagliano
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
- 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
5.0
Ok, I understand why everybody raves about Frederik Backman now. Until I joined Bookstagram (maybe BookTok too, but he’s more noticeable for me on Insta) I don’t think I’d ever heard of Frederik Backman. This is a case where socials 100% influenced my read — and I’m so glad they did.
This was a 5/5 read for me. I checked the book out at the library and still tabbed so many moments in the book — I think I’ll probably go buy my own copy so I can transfer the tabs.
I cried on and off the entire book, and had to put the book down during the epilogue because I got so teary. I laughed (a lot). I mourned for him, I felt anger and dread and mushy squishy soft-hearted feelings. Ove strikes me like a well baked sourdough — crunchy and rough on the outside but ultimately soft and warm, just with some punch. He’s an acquired taste.
The cruelty of the white shirts was infuriating.
There were some really beautiful moments in this book and I appreciated Backman’s style. I enjoyed the flashback moments that gave us deeper insight into Ove. I’ll definitely be reading more of Backman’s work.
A few favorite moments:
“He was a man of black and white. And she was color. All the color he had.”
“It’s a strange thing, becoming an orphan at sixteen. To lose your family long before you’ve had time to create your own to replace it. It’s a very specific sort of loneliness.”
“Just because he’s dying today doesn’t mean that the vandals should be given free rein.”
“She just smiled, said that she loved books more than anything, and started telling him excitedly what each of the ones in her lap was about. And Ove realized that he wanted to hear her talking about the things she loved for the rest of his life.”
“But to Sonja, Ove was never dour and awkward and sharp edged. To her, he was the slightly disheveled pink flowers at their first dinner. He was his father’s slightly too tight-fitting brown suit across his broad, sad shoulders. He believed so strongly in things: justice and fair play and hard work and a world were right just had to be right.”
“You’re the funniest thing she knows. That’s why she always draws you in color,” says Parvaneh.
“It was as if he didn’t want other people to talk to him, he was afraid that their chattering voices would drown out the memory of her voice.”
“Death is a strange thing. People live their whole lives as if it does not exist, and yet it’s often one of the great motivations for living. Some of us, in time, become so conscious of it that we live harder, more obstinately, with more fury. Some need its constant presence to even be aware of its antithesis. Others become so preoccupied with it that they go into the waiting room long before it has announced its arrival. We fear it, yet most of us fear more than anything that it may take someone other than ourselves. For the greatest fear of death is always that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone.”
My one real complaint is the handling of language around Jimmy — it made me uncomfortable. While Ove is uniformly insulting to everyone, the pointed language about Jimmy’s weight felt more pointed than other observations and more attacking. I also didn’t feel like there was as much growth there as there could have been, especially considering Ove’s feelings around Jimmy did evolve.
This was a 5/5 read for me. I checked the book out at the library and still tabbed so many moments in the book — I think I’ll probably go buy my own copy so I can transfer the tabs.
I cried on and off the entire book, and had to put the book down during the epilogue because I got so teary. I laughed (a lot). I mourned for him, I felt anger and dread and mushy squishy soft-hearted feelings. Ove strikes me like a well baked sourdough — crunchy and rough on the outside but ultimately soft and warm, just with some punch. He’s an acquired taste.
The cruelty of the white shirts was infuriating.
There were some really beautiful moments in this book and I appreciated Backman’s style. I enjoyed the flashback moments that gave us deeper insight into Ove. I’ll definitely be reading more of Backman’s work.
A few favorite moments:
“He was a man of black and white. And she was color. All the color he had.”
“It’s a strange thing, becoming an orphan at sixteen. To lose your family long before you’ve had time to create your own to replace it. It’s a very specific sort of loneliness.”
“Just because he’s dying today doesn’t mean that the vandals should be given free rein.”
“She just smiled, said that she loved books more than anything, and started telling him excitedly what each of the ones in her lap was about. And Ove realized that he wanted to hear her talking about the things she loved for the rest of his life.”
“But to Sonja, Ove was never dour and awkward and sharp edged. To her, he was the slightly disheveled pink flowers at their first dinner. He was his father’s slightly too tight-fitting brown suit across his broad, sad shoulders. He believed so strongly in things: justice and fair play and hard work and a world were right just had to be right.”
“You’re the funniest thing she knows. That’s why she always draws you in color,” says Parvaneh.
“It was as if he didn’t want other people to talk to him, he was afraid that their chattering voices would drown out the memory of her voice.”
“Death is a strange thing. People live their whole lives as if it does not exist, and yet it’s often one of the great motivations for living. Some of us, in time, become so conscious of it that we live harder, more obstinately, with more fury. Some need its constant presence to even be aware of its antithesis. Others become so preoccupied with it that they go into the waiting room long before it has announced its arrival. We fear it, yet most of us fear more than anything that it may take someone other than ourselves. For the greatest fear of death is always that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone.”
My one real complaint is the handling of language around Jimmy — it made me uncomfortable. While Ove is uniformly insulting to everyone, the pointed language about Jimmy’s weight felt more pointed than other observations and more attacking. I also didn’t feel like there was as much growth there as there could have been, especially considering Ove’s feelings around Jimmy did evolve.