En man som heter Ove
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4.1 • 12 Ratings
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- $20.99
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
Ove är 59. Han kör Saab. Folk kallar honom ”bitter” och ”grannarnas skräck”. Men Ove är fan inte bitter, grymtar han. Han går väl bara inte runt och flinar jämt!
Varje morgon tar Ove sin inspektionsrunda i kvarteret. Flyttar cyklar och kontrollerar källsorteringstunnorna. Trots att det är flera år sedan han avsattes som ordförande på bostadsrättsföreningens årsstämma. Eller ”den där statskuppen”, som Ove själv bara minns den.
Men bortom den vresige ordningsmannen finns en historia och en sorg. Så när de nyinflyttade grannarna i radhuset mittemot en novemberdag råkar förstöra Oves brevlåda blir det upptakten på en komisk och hjärtevärmande berättelse om tilltufsade katter, oväntad vänskap och den uråldriga konsten att backa med släp. Som kommer förändra en man och en bostadsrättsförening i grunden.
Fredrik Backmans debutroman om den arga äldre mannen i grannhuset präglas av pricksäker humor och hög igenkänningsfaktor. En underhållningsroman som både lyckas skapa sitt eget humoristiska universum och berätta något viktigt om oss själva och vår tid. Det är en underhållande feel good-berättelse i samma anda som Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann och filmen Livet från den ljusa sidan.
Extramaterial: E-boken innehåller även utdrag ur Fredrik Backmans briljanta och skruvade humorbok ”Saker min son behöver veta om världen”.
Customer Reviews
Review of A Man Named Ove/En Man Som Heter Ove
Review of A Man Named Ove (Read in Swedish)
Ove is a curmudgeon. A pain-in-the-butt neighbor. A rule-bound, obsessive-compulsive, rigid man. A man who disdains anything newfangled. A man who considers the vast majority of humankind incompetent. A man who distrusts everyone and is sure that they will take advantage of him. A man who hates bureaucrats and men in white shirts. He feels kinship only with someone who drives a Saab. Or perhaps a Volvo, but nothing else.
As we meet Ove we learn that he has recently lost the only two things that gave his life meaning, his wife and his job. Without them life has lost its purpose.
The author takes us through a series of flashbacks, spaced throughout the book, going back to Ove’s childhood and the years since and there are number of surprising revelations. His father is a man of few words but rigid morals who leaves an imprint on Ove. We learn of the relentless tragedies and disasters in Ove’s life. He builds himself an emotional fortress to protect himself from pain. The problem is, he has become a prisoner in his own fortress. Only his wife was allowed to enter and she could see that under his gruff exterior is a tender soul. But now she is gone.
The arc of the book follows Ove through the slow and painfully gradual dismantling of his fortress. He encounters a neighbor, a highly pregnant Iranian immigrant half his age with a no-nonsense attitude that he cannot dismiss. There are a number of episodes along the way that alternately had me laughing out loud or in tears. Being able to move so rapidly from one to the other I consider an aspect of the author’s skill. The flash back episodes often bring a sense of surprise and the thought “So that is why he does that!” The author slowly builds a case for why his personality is like that even as it is slowly dismantled. A zebra (or perhaps better, a tiger) does not lose it stripes and Ove retains some of his stubborn qualities but in the end is a changed man.
A highly enjoyable read. Along the way the author also criticizes unfeeling bureaucracies that in their own way can be as stubborn and unfeeling as Ove at his worst moments. This book made me want to read more by this author.