I finished A Man Called Ove, about Ove, a curmudgeonly older man living alone in Sweden after his wife recently died. Ove patrols his neighborhood each morning to make sure nothing is out of order, doesn’t understand how anyone would drive anything other than a Saab* (or maybe a Volvo*), is 100% honest and blunt and set in his ways, and argues about almost everything (because he is always right). Ove is GRUMPY, and lost without his wife. He doesn’t see the point in carrying on, and has plans to end his life.
New neighbors move in and back a trailer in to his mailbox, giving Ove the opportunity to tell them what idiots they are and show them how to properly drive a trailer. This is the impetus of Ove’s relationship with them, which he can’t seem to avoid forming, despite wanting to.
I see why so many people love this story. The writing is great, and Ove’s orneriness can be humorous (and of course, he is a great guy, deep down). The story of the community of his neighborhood is beautiful. But man, Ove’s behavior reminded me a bit too much of some people I know… which made me feel annoyed and frustrated. I wanted it to help me understand the behavior a bit more, and it kind of did, but not enough for me to LOVE this book.
*This part was funny to me since Steven used to have Saabs and has a Volvo now.
I also finished Talking to Strangers, which I only picked up because Jamie recommended it on The Popcast. I didn’t really know what it was about. Ha.
It’s not a “how to” in talking to strangers – it’s about why we don’t understand people we don’t know, and how the assumptions we make about strangers affects society. The author looks at well known cases and incidents and theorizes what went wrong – why we didn’t know someone was a sociopath, why we assumed someone was a murderer when they weren’t, why moles are able to exist in our highest levels of government intelligence, etc. It’s a very interesting book, and easy to follow and understand. I learned a lot that will stick with me!
Now I’m reading The Most Fun We Ever Had, a family drama I heard about on a podcast. The first few pages of writing had me rolling my eyes hard at how pretentious it was, but now I’m super in to the story!
Talking to Strangers sounds really interesting! In 11 short weeks I should have it on Libby, haha. It’s a good thing I’m too busy to read these days anyway!
Only 11 weeks! LOL. I had it requested on Libby too, and ended up with hard copy so I wouldn’t have to wait so long!
I understand what you mean about Ove – it was hard to read about how grumpy he was about everything, given that it was entirely unnecessary to be like that. Did it give you any useful insights about the people you know who he reminded you of?
Talking to Strangers does sound interesting! As does your third book… At the moment I’ve got a big pile of books TBR. Florian and Charlotte got me “Girl, Woman, Other” for Christmas – looking forward to starting that!
Ove just reminded me to be considerate of other people’s internal suffering. The whole “you don’t know what battles everyone is fighting” adage 🙂
I need to look that up – no idea what it is but it sounds familiar!
Ove! I loved that book so, so much. I don’t really know anybody like that in my life so it was just fun to read about someone so grumpy and curmudgeonly. Haha. But I can see how his character might read differently if he reminded you of people in your own life!
I’m glad you’re enjoying The Most Fun We Ever Had! I’ve heard great things about that book, even though it’s super long.
I can see why you loved it! The writing is so fun, and the interactions with Ove can be quite humorous!
The Most Fun We Ever Had is unputdownable for me. I think character-driven novels might be my thing! I think I would buy it and reread it! (even though it’s SUPER DUPER long)