A Man Called Ove was a short, emotional, happy-sad read. Ove lead a depressing and lonely life, for most of his life. I’m going to start with the areas this book shined for me:

I adored the relationships he built with the community around him… Especially with Parvaneh’s children, and Mirsad. There was this very special moment towards the end where he connected with the older daughter… He went into her bedroom while she was playing a game, and he sat down next to her, watching her play, while she told him what she was doing. And another moment between them was when she told him that she had asked for an iPad because she had a passion for drawing, and he saw that spark. I have mixed feelings about Parvaneh and Ove, but overall, she really did help him move on from Sonja and find the joy in life again. There were many touching moments in the book, where Ove began to let his walls down, and that was really what the entire book was about… finding a community of people who love you for you, and becoming a family. It was a very sweet, but very sad story, and the end never ceases to… almost bring a tear to my eye haha :)

Now for the bad… Personally, I’m not a huge fan of Backman’s writing style. I even read the sneak peak for another one of his books, Anxious People, and didn’t enjoy the prose there, either. I think that’s probably a big reason I can’t give this one 4 or 5 stars. I also felt as if most of the characters were a bit flat, and I’m not entirely sure why I feel that way. Most of the side characters didn’t really get much time to develop, and I don’t necessarily think they should be given that time, but it did still leave me a bit wanting. Sonja and Parvaneh were really the driving forces in this novel, with everybody else being sort of in the background. It is very hard to develop characters in a third-person limited POV, however. I can’t fully articulate WHY the supporting characters feel lackluster, all I know was that that was the vibe I got while reading. Sometimes Parvaneh was really annoying as well. Constantly insisting on things and overstepping Ove’s boundaries. There was even one point when she said, unprompted, and only after knowing him for a few weeks (maybe months?), that she would help him pack Sonja’s things away and I was like GIRL. You do not know him that well. There was another part where she demanded he take her and her children to the hospital, then she made him sit and watch her kids when he didn’t want to, then she gave her 3-year-old a crayon in the car, and when he objected to that she was like ‘well she might try to do something worse than getting crayon in your car’. I feel like it’s pretty reasonable to not want a 3 y/o with a crayon in your car… So yeah. Parvaneh annoyed me a bit. But, I dunno. That could have been intentional. And, as for the scene where she demanded he take her to the hospital, it was right after

Ove attempted suicide, and it seemed like she may have noticed.

So possibly she was pushy because she didn’t want to leave him alone. Who’s to say.

A Man Called Ove was a touching story, and although I didn’t find it as incredible as others have, I would still recommend it to people.