Book Review: A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman- Book Review

Indresh Paliwal

A man called Ove is a book about a lot of things, none of which looks superficial in the context in which it is presented in the book.

The book revolves around Ove, a person of 59, just out of a proper job, who finds it difficult to deal with people around him because they don’t seem to live life ideally, according to him.

He finds himself at constant disagreement with people about their choices, their incompetence in doing things which according to Ove every man should be able to do.

It’s a story about how constant interaction, a bit of empathy and care, and the power of sheer parlance, can move a person. Imagine a strict old aged man hell-bent on committing suicide and failing at it, due to hilarious hurdles posed by his neighbours. to being a loving grandparent who tries buying an iPad for his neighbour’s little girl who calls him granddad. It’s a very loving story of the protagonist, which gives us a glimpse of the thought process, and just the observably strict nature and the struggles or conviction which shaped them into what they are, of curmudgeons around us, and how they come off to be as they are. Moreover, this book gives us a reason to understand such people in our own lives.

The story moves in flashback with a kind of anecdotal account of his life from his birth to his teenage and beyond. That’s just a fraction of the literary genius of this book. The author juggles between a variety of emotions he wants to convey in a single chapter, and he does that by constantly moving to and fro from one incident in his life to another, where on one hand he names one of his neighbours Blonde Weed and on other admires his father for the man he was and how he wanted to be very less unlike his father. I have never come across a book which is able to move from emotion to another with such lucidity.

In a unique yet subtle way, the author throws light on the topic of love. And time. How it blooms, and ages. How badly it is missed when lost. How even grumpy men can soften when the right hands hold theirs. To quote Fredrik Backman, “She laughed and laughed and laughed until the vowels were rolling across the walls and floors as if they meant to do away with the laws of time and space.”

A lot seems to be working for this book and all of its credit goes to the incredibly talented author we have here. It’s undeniably relatable. Most of us either have encountered someone like this around us and sometimes even in our own families.

This book is one among those which excel at giving you a glimpse of a long era, of a person or a situation or a life, in some 300 pages. It’s a fantastic read, this book. One should definitely try reading this one because first of all it is hilarious, and secondly, it’s very warm when thought about in retrospect.