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A Man Called Ove (2012) by Fredrik Backman ⭐⭐⭐
I read the Kindle version of A Man Called Ove way back in June 2023, and for some reason never wrote about it.
First, I’d like to say that Ove is pronounced ‘oovuh’ for anyone not familiar with the name. It was written by Swedish author Fredrik Backman.
A Man Called Ove is a story about a grumpy man in his 50s who loses his wife to an illness way too soon and has extreme difficulty dealing with it and all the changes in the world around him. He just wants people to leave him alone so he can commit suicide, but he can never find the time to do so, as no one will stop bothering him. This is usually to comical effect, almost in a cartoon-y whirlwind of events that happen one thing after another.
At times I really was over Ove and his cranky sensibilities, which apparently did not only start when his wife died. He is one who hangs onto the past, hates change, and is extremely unreasonable most of the time. He will not step out of his comfort zone even for a little bit.
I didn’t really know how to feel about this book while reading it. It’s not exactly an easy read, as it deals with sobering subjects such as death, suicide attempts, and depression. It’s way out of the ordinary thing that I would read, but the movie was out, and my husband and I figured we’d read it before we saw it. Perhaps this is the reason I didn’t write a review on it, coupled with the fact that I just plain forgot.
The movie stars Tom Hanks, so I knew it would be a good watch. For reasons unknown to me, Hollywood changed Ove’s name to Otto, naming the movie A Man Called Otto. Tom Hanks did well, but the movie ended up being a watered down version of the book, just like most American made films based on books.
A Man Called Ove is extremely well written, though, and worth the read if you are up to it, as there are enough uplifting parts to keep you hanging on.
