Fredrik Backman
This was a book selected by D (my much better half) as part of our once-in-two-months book shopping. So naturally, I couldn’t just read it, I had to read into it. The message was simple, I had a lot of character similarities with Ove. It was less to do with his literally hands-on approach to fixing things and more to do with “right has to be right”, but the similarities in personality were obvious enough right from the beginning for me to LOL.
This is probably the only book that has made me go from smile to laugh to moist eyes in a span of 30 pages. Smile because I understood Ove’s perspective and why he does the things he does. As it turns out, Ove isn’t bitter. “He just didn’t go around grinning the whole time!” Laugh because the insults and reactions are hilarious and creatively sharp. And cry because. Oh wait, that’d be a spoiler, so no.
The slow reveal of Ove’s not-so-typical heart of gold, as people keep popping into his life, is really done well. And it’s not just Ove, the other characters, especially Parvaneh, have been written very well. In general, the main reason the book worked for me, outside of the excellent humour, was its solid understanding of its protagonist’s condition, and its commentary of the changing nature of society and its mores. There is something profound that is being delivered here – on life, youth and aging, death – but with a gentle touch. That’s probably what makes the book so heartwarming and such a pleasure to read.
