A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
I passed this book a million times before I actually picked it up to read it. It kept catching my eye but for some reason (perhaps the other 20 books sitting on my nightstand) I didn’t pick it up right away. But, boy do I wish I had!
This will be a short review because (1) it was not part of my book club list; (2) I’m not sure its needs discussion other than to be in sheer admiration of a beautiful story; and (3) it was phenomenal and I could never do it justice!
So, what is this book about? It is about a curmudgeon on the verge of killing himself. He is rude, picky, daunting, intimidating, a bully and closed off from society. He is a hermit who inflicts his beliefs on others. So the fact that he wants to kill himself should make the reader happy, right? Well, like an onion we begin to peel back the layers and it’s within those layers that we begin to see the man that is behind the curmudgeon mask. You may not begin the story liking Ove but the more you understand him and the more you learn about him, you learn that he could be you.
Every event in our lives shapes who we become…our love, our family, our upbringing, our pets, our homes and our education. We are what we absorb through life and Ove is no different. His character is an introspective look at ourselves…who we are and who we can become. What do we want to be in life and who do we want to be to other people?
This was an exceptional study in the human condition with the past and present selves meeting to form a whole person. It is a beautiful account of a regular guy who begrudgingly is a good person. A person who doesn’t want to help but helps anyway. A person who does not want to like or love but does it anyway. Isn’t that who we all are deep down? Sometimes the things we don’t want to do, turn into the best things in our lives.
I hope that you’ll read this wonderful book and share with me what you took away from it. Was it to never judge a book by its cover? Or was it that love exists inside of us all?
What was your take away?
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