Book Review: "A Man Called Ove" by Fredrik Backman

By- Shreya Banerjee

Edited by- Diksha Sharma

A grumpy old man, his neighbors, a cat who refuses to leave him alone, and my heart—that’s what this book has.

Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove is, at its core, the literary equivalent of a coconut as a metaphor for a person—tough and hard on the outside but tender and much softer on the inside. That is the main character, Ove, for you. He is cranky, judgmental, and is certainly convinced that the world has gone to ruin since people stopped driving Saabs. He patrols his neighborhood as if it were a ritual, and yells at people who park incorrectly. He is not hesitant to show his distaste towards incompetent bureaucrats. He terrifies his neighbors just by existing, or at least he tries to.

But then we read further.

We learn why he’s like that. We learn of his breathtaking yet heartbreaking past, and the rules he clings to because, to him, they’re all that’s left.

Backman knows how to play with the readers’ emotions. One minute you’re laughing at the ridiculous new neighbor, and the next, you might find yourself ugly-crying.

The other characters—pregnant Parvaneh with her unbudging presence, her sweetly inept husband Patrick, the whole neighborhood of chaotic humanity, and the cat—are a delight.

If you love books that make you laugh and cry, or if the trope of found family is what gets you going, then this book is bound to find its way into your affections.