A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

A Man Called Ove

by Fredrik Backman

Perfect for fans of Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine; Ruth Hogan's The Keeper of Lost Things and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project, A Man Called Ove is one of the best-loved and most life-affirming novels of the decade.

This multi-million-copy phenomenon is a funny, moving, uplifting tale of love and community that will leave you with a spring in your step.

'Warm, funny, and almost unbearably moving' Daily Mail

'Rescued all those men who constantly mean to read novels but never get round to it' Spectator Books of the Year

At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots - neighbours who can't reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d'etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents' Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of the local streets.

But isn't it rare, these days, to find such old-fashioned clarity of belief and deed? Such unswerving conviction about what the world should be, and a lifelong dedication to making it just so?

In the end, you will see, there is something about Ove that is quite irresistible . . .

Reviewed by nannah on

Share
DNF @ 44%

Sorry, I just couldn't make it. There should be content warnings on books!

Content warnings:
SUICIDE IDEATION
SUICIDE ATTEMPTS

Okay, so I'm extremely depressed and deal with suicidal ideation at least multiple times each month. This book, described on the blurb as "uplifting", described by me after a few chapters as a book version of "Up" without the balloons and traveling across the world, seemed like a heartwarming escape.

Then I read on. Chapter four (or five? I don't want to check) had the protag actually attempt suicide, thinking things over Very Thoroughly before attempting it. He was interrupted/it failed, but it didn't matter. The damage was done for me.

This continued for Every Other Chapter before I got around halfway and quit.
Every other chapter this protag tried to commit suicide in different ways!

For someone who's depressed and already suffers from suicide ideation regularly, this is like someone anonymously urging me on! Every time I read the protag thinking things through, I was like: "Well, that doesn't sound like such a bad way to go, either. Maybe *I* can do that, too." Especially due to the nonchalant way of the protagonist's thinking.

It was awful. A simple warning somewhere on the goodreads summary would've spared all this ... A lot of YA summaries are adopting this, but apparently for adults it's unneeded?

Anyway, I'm getting too bitter, so I'll stop here. I really didn't have any problems with the characters, prose, storytelling, etc. That's why I'm not giving it a rating.

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 3 April, 2019: Finished reading
  • 3 April, 2019: Reviewed