CW: suicide
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman is a story about Ove and his grieving for his wife, Sonja. Ove is very particular about his routines and needs everything to be the same, and since Sonja passed away six months prior, Ove has stopped living and wishes to commit suicide to reunite with Sonja. However, when a new family backs their moving truck into Ove's mailbox, it starts a chain of events that makes Ove realize that there is still beauty in life without his wife.
This book made me feel a lot of emotions at once. I didn't cry while reading this, but I had moments where I was giggling or laughing out loud and some moments where I felt sad about seeing how Ove came to be the person he is. The jumps in time from the past to the present allow the reader to get a better understanding of Ove and why he is the way he is despite his first impression as an insufferable, difficult man.
One critique I have of this book is that until you get into the rhythm of the book, it is sometimes difficult to know when you are in the past or the present. Sonja's death isn't revealed immediately, but it is close to the beginning of the book (it's within the first 50ish pages.) that it's understood as the story unfolds.
As much as this story is about grieving, it's also about friendship and chosen family. By the end of the book, Ove finds a community for himself with his neighbors and rekindles a friendship with his friend-turned-enemy, Rune. In the past, the reader gets a sense of how Ove's and Rune's friendship both came together and fell apart before it comes back together. Parvaneh and her family were my favorite characters in the book, and I loved how in their own crazy way, they adopted Ove as a part of their family. I found these characters added a lot to this book so it wasn't entirely focused on grieving and thoughts of suicide.
A Man Called Ove is being adapted into a film, called A Man Called Otto, starring Tom Hanks. This was the primary reason I read this book, and sometimes I found myself reading Ove's dialogue in Tom Hanks' voice! I'm excited to see how this adapted to the big screen.
Have you read A Man Called Ove? What did you think of the book? Share your thoughts in the comments; I can't wait to read them!
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