337 pages
Published May 5, 2015 by Washington Square Press.
Solid story. I cried.
I listened to this on audio. I think I would've liked it better on paper as the crotchety part got a bit annoying out loud. The style is of a storyteller's distance, so I think I would've read it that way.
I loved it. I loved every bit of it.
A beautiful and funny story.
Definitely one of my favorite books ever.
Read it!
After reading the first two chapters of this book, which I'd been meaning to read for quite some time, and which so many people had recommended to me--I was afraid that it would be a dull book about a man I didn't much like. But I persisted, and am so glad I did.
This novel is simply written and presented in short vignettes which are arranged in a clever way that lets the reader see Ove from all directions. Ove had been on his own from an early age. He has known tragedy. He is a good man. He is principled, and lives his life based on those principles. He has his routines, as everyone should. And he thinks that he doesn't need other people. That is where his is wrong.
Not to worry--Ove does not hate cats. Ove especially does not hate The Cat Annoyance.
"The cat eats tuna …
After reading the first two chapters of this book, which I'd been meaning to read for quite some time, and which so many people had recommended to me--I was afraid that it would be a dull book about a man I didn't much like. But I persisted, and am so glad I did.
This novel is simply written and presented in short vignettes which are arranged in a clever way that lets the reader see Ove from all directions. Ove had been on his own from an early age. He has known tragedy. He is a good man. He is principled, and lives his life based on those principles. He has his routines, as everyone should. And he thinks that he doesn't need other people. That is where his is wrong.
Not to worry--Ove does not hate cats. Ove especially does not hate The Cat Annoyance.
"The cat eats tuna fish twice per day and doesn't like shitting in other people's houses. Please respect that..."
One could pretty much say the same of Ove. Everyone needs a routine and, perhaps, something to complain about...I fell in love with Ove. There is sadness in his life, but also humor. The author placed these funny moments very well.
Random note: I was put in mind of the Nick Hornsby novel, About a Boy; it's also about the importance of having other people in one's life.
Anyway, I would recommend this to anyone!
Not counting the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, A Man Called Ove is the best selling book by a Swedish author in decades, maybe ever.
It doesn't break any new ground and it reminded me very much of Anny Tyler's much better 1985 The Accidental Tourist. Both are about middle aged men who've lost a loved one and shut down their emotions because of it until both good and bad aspects of life around them thaws them out and brings them back into the world of the fully living. It gets a little too heart warming for my usual taste and the stray cat he takes in behaves so unrealistically that it borders on magical realism, which I dislike.
It is, as Publishers Weekly's blurb on the back cover of the edition I read says, a "crowd-pleaser." At times these days, that's all I'm looking for, personally. It …
Not counting the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, A Man Called Ove is the best selling book by a Swedish author in decades, maybe ever.
It doesn't break any new ground and it reminded me very much of Anny Tyler's much better 1985 The Accidental Tourist. Both are about middle aged men who've lost a loved one and shut down their emotions because of it until both good and bad aspects of life around them thaws them out and brings them back into the world of the fully living. It gets a little too heart warming for my usual taste and the stray cat he takes in behaves so unrealistically that it borders on magical realism, which I dislike.
It is, as Publishers Weekly's blurb on the back cover of the edition I read says, a "crowd-pleaser." At times these days, that's all I'm looking for, personally. It is not, as Kirkus Reviews said, "Hysterically funny," though I can think of maybe two books in my life that have made me laugh out loud.
