A Man Called Ove by Frederik Blackman, a book review

A Man Called Ove was this months book club book. It was discussed in my first ever online group.

The Blurb

Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots – joggers, neighbours who can’t reverse a trailer properly and shop assistants who talk in code.

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 . .

A Man Called Ove, My Review

Many months ago I happened upon a film on Netflix called A Man Called Otto. It wasn’t my normal kind of watch but being a big Tom Hanks fan for many decades, I gave the film a try. And I laughed and cried and loved the movie.

When I found out we were reading the book on which the film was based I was quite excited to see what the original story would be like.

I did enjoy the book but it was really a slow burner. It jumps from past to present and gives long and detailed storylines about Ove’s past and his life with his wife and their neighbourhood. It’s all introduced quite slowly as this picture of a sad elderly man is built up.

In brief, Ove is grieving his wife, the love of his life, and he’s finding it hard. He wants to be with her but with his new neighbours he suddenly finds that every attempt of ending his life is thwarted.

It’s kind of sad that this awkward man is portrayed as a grumpy, unkind person, when no-one seems to take into consideration his grief and loneliness.

The new neighbours are a pregnant, pushy lady, her husband and two little girls. She pushes her way into Ove’s life, he doesn’t really have much choice. We see his character develop over time, even though he’s still angry, obsessive and wants nothing more than to be with his wife, he does have an helpful side and can’t control his need to be of help to people whether he wants to be or not.

Ove’s wife was his complete opposite, bubbly, kind and warm but she saw something in Ove that other’s didn’t immediately see. They had a good life together but that was also tinged with tragedy. They were always very much in love though.

In the film we have a more condensed version of Ove’s story, with his history presented in short flashback clips. He was actually older in the film and this fitted the grumpy old man image better. It was also a lot more humorous than the book. A perfect mixture of depression and joy, dark and light. Which is what the author attempts to achieve but in a much slower, long drawn out way. There are a lot of differences in the film and the book, not just storylines but the portrayal of Ove/Otto. I think it’s a lot easier to feel more for Otto, even after having all the back story you get with Ove.

Both the ending of the book and the ending of the film are really good. So even if the book is hard going it’s still worth getting to the end. It’s a very different book but it’s an insight to how people who don’t really fit can be really useful and become well appreciated and even loved. It’s also a good story about the effects of grief.

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