HAF Book Club: A Man Called Ove discussion

[Sandra Craft]

Please please, can those of you who've already finished Ove move your comments over here?  I'd try to do it but I fear disaster.

[Biggus Dickus]

I finished the book earlier tonight...as they say I couldn't put it down. I got a good start with it on Friday as I noted earlier in the thread, then read what I could on Saturday,  but as I was busy with other things I didn't have much time. So read most of it on Sunday,  a bit more last night and the rest this evening.

I'm tired now, and have to get up early so I'll save my complete review for later, for now just let me say I really enjoyed the book a lot, in fact I didn't expect it to be that good or rather I was surprised by the hold it put on me.

I laughed, I cried,...often I closed the book after finishing a chapter and lost myself in my own thoughts,  memories and emotions.

Excellent recommendation.

I'm so happy we started the book club back up, otherwise I may never have read it.

[Tom62]

I fully agree with Father Bruno. I still have about 100 pages to go, but so far it is the best book that I've read this year. Without the  book club, I probably would never have read it. I'm reading the book on the train to work (a 45 minutes commute). The people sitting in the train must think that I'm a bit crazy, because  I'm either laughing or blinking away tears.

[Davin]

I got the book and am still on schedule to start reading it on the 10th.

[Biggus Dickus]

I got the book and am still on schedule to start reading it on the 10th.

"David this is Bruno. Stand by for SALUTE report 2-1, over."

"Please report target "Zulu" time for your reading mission"

"I repeat, report target "Zulu" time for your reading mission"

"Over"

[Tom62]

Mission accomplished  .

[Davin]

I have completed 90% of Fahrenheit 451 (including a few essays and other material related to the book), and will read the rest tomorrow in time to start the book on the 10th.

[Sandra Craft]

Well, I liked the book as a whole, and intend to buy another of Backman's novels, but I have to admit I didn't care for it as much as Bruno or Tom.  That was entirely because of the character Ove -- I did not care for him, tho I did warm up more a little at the end when Backman finally improved his nature a bit.

I have to admit that the character I identified most with was the absent Johannes -- Rune and Anita's son.  Since Rune was just like Ove, I would have also taken off as soon as I could and never come back if I'd had him for a father.

But that being said, I think Backman is a fine writer and storyteller (seriously loved the nameless cat character), and look forward to reading his "My Grandmother Told Me to Tell You She's Sorry" in July.  Maybe I'll react better to a bad-natured female character, who knows?

[Biggus Dickus]

Well, I liked the book as a whole, and intend to buy another of Backman's novels, but I have to admit I didn't care for it as much as Bruno or Tom.  That was entirely because of the character Ove -- I did not care for him, tho I did warm up more a little at the end when Backman finally improved his nature a bit.

I have to admit that the character I identified most with was the absent Johannes -- Rune and Anita's son.  Since Rune was just like Ove, I would have also taken off as soon as I could and never come back if I'd had him for a father.

But that being said, I think Backman is a fine writer and storyteller (seriously loved the nameless cat character), and look forward to reading his "My Grandmother Told Me to Tell You She's Sorry" in July.  Maybe I'll react better to a bad-natured female character, who knows?

Oh, I didn't care for Ove myself, believe me....I've known a few similar persons in my life and I wouldn't have fared well in his presence at all, but I did admire his love and devotion to his wife Sonja, and how he took care of her,...and his visits to her at her grave and their conversations. 

My favorite character by far was Parvaneh. I think in a way she was similar to Sonja, and saw a goodness in Ove that few others recognized. So I do wish we could have gotten to know her better, but it was alway's her interactions with Ove that spoke directly to me the most.

And Ove leaving everything to Parvaneh and her family at the end was quite touching as well. I think it spoke to the generosity that existed somewhere in his heart, a kindness that only Sonja or Parvaneh were able to reach and expose...I do wonder who he was planning to leave his money, home and car to in the beginning of the book when he was first planning to kill himself, maybe Rune and his wife? Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

All in all it was an enjoyable story, I like the variety of characters in the book, and like Books I actually did love the the nameless cat character...I could see something like that happening to me, get stuck with a cat as a friend. (In honor of the book I'm spelling the word cat correctly, but only here in this thread )

The book I purchased had an excerpt at the end from his book "Britt-Marie Was Here", and I enjoyed the part I read so I think I'll probably read that one next. 

Here's a small description of the main character:
Britt-Marie can't stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. She begins her day at 6 a.m., because only lunatics wake up later than that. And she is not passive-aggressive. Not in the least. It's just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention. She is not one to judge others—no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt, or morally suspect they might be.

[Sandra Craft]

My favorite character by far was Parvaneh. I think in a way she was similar to Sonja, and saw a goodness in Ove that few others recognized. So I do wish we could have gotten to know her better, but it was alway's her interactions with Ove that spoke directly to me the most.

My impression was that Parvaneh was a toned down version of Ove, and her fondness for him came from the similarities in their nature.  Just as, I might as well admit, part of my antipathy towards Ove is caused by the similarities between us.  It is my fondest hope that when I am truly old (not a mere 59) I will NOT be anything like Ove.  I work hard towards that.

And Ove leaving everything to Parvaneh and her family at the end was quite touching as well. I think it spoke to the generosity that existed somewhere in his heart, a kindness that only Sonja or Parvaneh were able to reach and expose...I do wonder who he was planning to leave his money, home and car to in the beginning of the book when he was first planning to kill himself, maybe Rune and his wife? Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

I never even wondered about that, but leaving it to Anita would have made the most sense.

The book I purchased had an excerpt at the end from his book "Britt-Marie Was Here", and I enjoyed the part I read so I think I'll probably read that one next. 

Here's a small description of the main character:
Britt-Marie can't stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. She begins her day at 6 a.m., because only lunatics wake up later than that. And she is not passive-aggressive. Not in the least. It's just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention. She is not one to judge others—no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt, or morally suspect they might be.

The grandmother in the book I'm picking up next sounds Ove-like too -- I wonder if Backman makes a specialty of such characters?

[Tom62]

I loved the book. It has very funny, lovely and sad moments. Ove isn't my kind of guy either, but that doesn't bother me. The author used an unlikeable, but interesting person as main character and managed to rip a very good yarn. Other authors might not be skilled enough to pull that one off. From the list of "other" characters, I like Jimmy the most. The scene where Jimmy defrosts the cat is hilarious.

[Sandra Craft]

^^^ Agreed re: the very good yarn.  When a writer can build an interesting story around a character I dislike, that's real talent.

[Davin]

I'm on schedule at 30% in.

Just inside the front cover there is a quote, "At first glance, Ove is most certainly the grumpiest man you ever met. Never trust first impressions." I fear that reading that has tainted my reading experience, because now I'm trying to see if he ever turns out to not be a... not exactly a piece of shit, but a fairly horrible person. The kind of person who thinks they have the answers even when they are ignorant, the kind of person who thinks they can size up a person's worth in a few minutes, intolerant, abrasive, ignorant without the humility to admit it... and I struggle to think of any good qualities. I suppose adherence to rules.

I don't like Ove. I don't feel like Ove makes many decisions on his own, and doesn't seem to make any big ones on his own. At least so far. All his actions have come from mostly his dad telling him something and then him following that without consideration to what is right.

And while I can see that Ove has had a tough life and that appears to be why he turns out to be why he has turned into a miserable person, he still doesn't actually choose much himself. He's just a rock tumbling down a steep hill banging into the other characters.

I like the cat, but that's the only character I like so far. It's the only one who seems to choose its own actions.

I like the writing, I just don't like the main character or the story much.

Those are my notes from about a third through the book. Maybe things will change.

[Sandra Craft]

Ove does get a tiny bit better toward the end.  Just a little bit but enough for me to feel marginally sympathetic. 

One thing I didn't understand about Ove and his Dad -- Ove's promise to himself to be as much like his Dad as possible seemed to fall far wide of the mark, or he was supposed to have meant something very different than I thought.  I remember Ove's Dad being a sweetheart, not at all grumpy or bitter altho it could be argued that his life was even harder than Ove's. 

I did like Backman's depiction of the two little girls as well.  They seemed very authentic to me, esp. the three-year old (and I'm guessing the seven-year old was supposed to be precocious.  I rather liked Jimmy as well, altho he didn't get all that much development (he was a minor character after all).

One thing that did bug me was the treatment of the "white shirt" who wanted to put the rapidly decaying Rune into a home.  I can well understand the white shirt being a cold, robotic, inhumane sort (I worked for the Feds myself for over 30 years, you do get kinda soulless after awhile); nevertheless, he was right about Rune. 

There would be no way someone like Anita could have kept handling that, even with home help.  Altho half the neighborhood also promised to help I doubt that would have lasted long.  They all had lives of their own after all, which would take most if not all of their time and attention. 

Someone in Rune's condition would need a professional around who knows exactly what to do if things go badly south, which would be increasingly likely as his condition worsened.  Left in the care of loving but exhausted, untrained amateurs, Rune could end up suffering far more than if he were in a nursing home.  I think that should have been acknowledged, and Backman should have created a compromise between the white shirt and Anita.

But altho it sounds like I keep complaining I did enjoy the story.  One stylistic thing I particularly enjoyed was Backman's way of describing peoples' (and cats') reactions.  It was remarkably vivid.