TL;DR: Oh my days, what can I say about this book that everyone else hasn’t already? I’m extremely late to the Ove party, but I’m more than thrilled to be joining the ranks of readers who fell in love with this book—as well as those who got seriously emotional while reading it. This is a story about loss, love, loneliness, friendship and family, and it’s undoubtedly a massive tearjerker! If you’re an emotional reader like me, I’d caution you to not read it in public because it’s liable to make you cry (big ugly tears) unless, of course, you don’t mind being a hot mess in front of everyone, lol. Ove is a wonderfully grumpy and messy character written with so much heart and complexity and while I was unsure at first, this curmudgeonly old man completely won me over in the end. All the stars!

I couldn’t be happier to have started my Backman journey with A Man Called Ove. Time for a confession: over the years, I’d attempted to read this thrice and each time, I “put it down for now” because it didn’t reel me in. It’s such a well-loved book that I didn’t want to admit defeat, and I’m so glad I gave this another (and another, and another) chance. If you can relate to this, I would say press on because much like Ove is a character who will slowly but steadily worm his way into your heart, so too did the writing take some getting used to. I think that’s usually the way with translated works (at least for me), but in this case, it was also the peculiarities of our main character that took some getting used to! Ultimately though, I found the mix of elements in the story very well balanced—from the more heartbreaking to the heartwarming and hopeful, and very often the humorous aspects—everything flowed nicely and made this such a compulsively readable book. So much so that I finished it one sitting!

I loved Ove and his curmudgeonly ways. I have to admit that I was initially frustrated with his attitude and grumpiness, and I couldn’t help but grumble over why on earth he was so bloody stuck on the type of car someone drove and what that meant about them as a person! But the more we learned about his backstory, his wife, and how tired, angry, and frustrated he was with how the world kept changing, the more I empathised with him. Of course, there’s a lot I didn’t particularly agree with—especially with the way he said and did certain things—but there’s no denying that even as he was whining and moaning about the stupidity of mankind, some of his commentary about society (regardless of how un-PC he said it) rang with such truth that it was hard not to laugh about it! 🤣 There’s so many layers to what makes Ove who he is and I loved learning about every moment—from the moral values instilled by his father to the maddening events that solidified those beliefs into granite to the unwavering love he had for his wife and their life together to the way he was a quiet helper and hero in the most unexpected and reliable of ways. He was a man of actions (his love language is definitely acts of service) and that made me appreciate his character so much more as we quickly see through his grumpy exterior to the big heart that lies underneath.

Of course, this story would not be what it is without the wonderful cast of secondary characters who become a large part of Ove’s life, whether he wants it or not. I loved how Patrick, Parvaneh and their two girls come (quite literally) crashing into his life and turning it completely upside down with their “incompetency” and “idiocy”. 😂  Of course, there’s the Cat Annoyance who became a wonderful companion to Ove (again, whether he wanted it or not). I was surprised by how much I loved Jimmy (such a good egg) and I was so fascinated by Ove’s love-but-mostly-hate relationship with Rune. I also loved the most surprising relationships he forms with other unexpected characters who somehow seamlessly weave their way into his life (and you guessed it, whether he wanted them to or not!).

Maybe his story is nothing new or groundbreaking, and maybe we’ve read about the grumpy old man with a big heart a million other times. That doesn’t change how ultimately, this was such a feel-good read that will have you emotionally invested and that you will thank for leaving you emotionally scrambled (in the best way) too! 🤭

Have you read A Man Called Ove or is it on your TBR?

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