Monday 20 June 2016

"A Man Called Ove" by Fredrick Backman

   As the heading on my blog explains, I don't always see a book the same way as others do.  And that is apparent with this book.                Several of my friends really loved it. On Goodreads, there were 63,494 reviews with an average 4.31 rating.
   Ove is a curmudgeon who has lost his wife and his job.  He is only 59, but seems much older. 
  Quote: "Ove had been a grumpy old man since he started elementary school. He believed so strongly in things- justice and fair play and hard work and a world where right just had to be right". 
   I rather enjoyed his backstory, but the actual story was supposed to be funny but was so dark and slap-stick - falling off ladders, hitting people with the door.
  To be honest, I feel like a curmudgeon talking about this book, because I really didn't enjoy it.  I read parts of it to my husband and he laughed.  So, it is just me.  Can a woman be a curmudgeon?
  My friend Penny wrote a 'proper review'.  Click here to read it.


   The author, Fredrick Backman is Swedish and has written another book called "My Grandmother Asked Me To tell you She's Sorry".  Both of these books have sold very well. 
   Carol, on the blog "Giraffe Dreams" believes that Swedish novels are 'unique and quirky'.  She writes about the novel "The 100-year-old-man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared".  I didn't really appreciate that book either.  I'm just a curmudgeon!

1 comment:

  1. Hi Betty,
    I half agree with you! I too did not like "The 1oo Year Old Man" and I have a friend at the cottage who couldn't stop praising it. But I did like "Ove" - I laughed and cried. I do agree- some of the antics of the characters were a little over the top. Terri

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