#BookReview: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

March 28, 2018

This is the second year of the DNF and, since I'm still failing pretty badly at that, it will also continue to be the year of the lazy ass review. As threatened in this post, you'll likely be seeing a few reviews that are completely thoughtless and probably shorter than their blurbs as I attempt to get off the computer and work my way through more books before the tbr topples and takes out one of my family members. Today's victim of my laziness is A Man Called Ove which has enough well thought reviews out there anyway :)

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Crabby Old Man Fiction
Released May 2015
Amazon ♦ Goodreads

A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door.

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

My Thoughts:

4 1/2 Evil Kitties

I read this for my real life book group which met and talked about this book two Monday's ago. Yep, I'm always with the program.

There is no point in writing a review for this book since I am still lazy and there are currently 42370 reviews on Goodreads and 141 of them written by my friends alone. This sounds like as good an excuse as any to duck out of a real review and just tell you that I loved it. I loved Ove, I loved his Aggravation Cat and I loved his relationship with sassy Parvaneh and her family. And mostly I loved that the old grump found a purpose to keep on living which is something so many people never find. It’s just a lovely story. You should read it if you haven’t already.

You should also all have an aggravation cat. Here's mine. His name is Patrick (that's him above too) and last week he decided to eat 15" of thread and gave us all heart failure when it came out the other end. He's cuddly and cute and at least 80% evil.