If you love It's a Wonderful Life and Jimmy
Stewart, then read A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. The much
beloved main character is Ove, a 59 year-old Swedish man who recently lost his
wife and thinks his own life should be over. He's funny and heartwarming and
exasperatingly "crotchety" and rule-bound all at the same time. A new family -- Lanky One, pregnant Parvaneh
and their girls (ages 3 and 7) -- move in next door and the adventures begin…
Ove slowly opens up to a stray cat, re-establishes relationships with other neighbors
and uses his anger to find the will to
battle the "white shirts" (bureaucrats who are just as inflexible in Sweden as
in the US). Along the way, readers learn
about Ove’s young life and his marriage to Sonja: "He never understood why she chose him. She only loved abstract things like music and
books and strange words. Ove was a man entirely filled with tangible
things. He liked screwdrivers and oil filters. He went through life with his hands firmly
shoved into his pockets. She danced."
In all honesty, I was a bit put off by some of the talk of
suicide - especially for high school age readers, but I ultimately found the
character to be endearing and even highly amusing at times. With so many crises and those unique neighbors, the vignettes circle round and each is charmingly told as Ove
convinces us that "men are what they are because of what they do. Not what they
say." Yes, there were also several moments when felt like crying, but I was heartened by the way
in which the community rallied around Ove much like the movie character George
Bailey finally learned the value of his life when seen through the eyes of others.
