Review: A Man Called Ove

I'm the same person who finishes a 400 page book within 90 minutes and still takes 3 days to finish a 300 page book. Yes, it's the one and only me. Only I can perform this great miracle of reading too fast and not reading fast enough. Bow down to me.

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.

QUICK THOUGHTS AND REVIEW: 5/5, I MAJORLY CRIED AFTER READING THIS YO. 😭😭😭😭😭 

Possible Trigger Tags:

1. Very minor mentions of homophobia

2. Mentions of sexist thoughts

3. Minor cursing

WHAT DID I FEEL ABOUT THE  BOOK'S: 

1. Writing Quality: I will be clear about this, while the book's style is definitely very interesting, it's definitely very slow. Like the pace is slower than a dehydrated turtle tryna cross the Sahara desert. That's literally one of the reasons why it took me almost three days to finish the book. Not counting the factor that I actually had some in real life stuff and events to deal with and was dead tired, but yeah, the book's really very slow paced compared to my usual tastes. But it's definitely very interesting, and there are quite a few comic moments that make me chuckle or laugh out. 

2. Character Development: Ove's character development is remarkably shown throughout the story in two different phases. They're not loud or boisterous, but the changes are very subtly done which makes Ove a completely different man. 

The first part is leading upto the present [basically when Patrick and Parvaneh move in]: Ove is shown as a grumpy old man who seems like he literally hates everyone and everything and hates it especially when things don't go his way. He has a routine that he follows thoroughly because he hates change and grumbles how everything isn't the same anymore. But Ove wasn't the same back then. He perhaps was a man of a few words but he was kind and he had loved and married Sonja and had wanted a child [whom he later lost in an accident] and then he lost Sonja as well, which could have been a reason why he turned so bitter. He'd lost his parents as a young child and then losing the ones you love definitely makes you hate life.

The second part is events leading from when Patrick and Parvaneh move in. It's clearly understandable that Patrick and Parvaneh and their two daughters are a chatty bunch and Ove clearly does not like to chat with people, or people in general. Or cats for that matter after Ernest dies. But as time progresses, the cat, the family, even the annoying youth from the neighbourhood and Rune have grown on him. It's like that they've become a part of his life that he wants to be there but he is too prideful and grumpy to admit to it. The girls love him and Parvaneh is always there to accompany him because she believes no one deserves to be alone and it's really beautiful to see Ove warm up to the people he's pushed away all this time.

3. Couldn't put it down- Ness:  10/10, any book that wrings out the tears from me gets an instant 10. Like no joking here.

4. Intellectual Depth: Appearances can be deceiving I guess. No one seems to want to know Ove because he's grumpy and bitter and does not seem to get along with anyone else. I've dealt with a fair share of old people in my life and about 80% of them are like that. Bitter and grumpy and nagging. But they weren't always like that. There's always a side of them- a story or an incident that changed them forever. And they're really not as bad as they seem. Once you get them interested, they'll go out of your way to do the things for you [hi grandma!!]. Just sad people don't take the time to understand one another.

5.  Plot: The story is told in two parts. One is events from the past that lead up to the present  or grumpy Ove. And the second part is when Parvaneh and Patrick move in with their daughters from across the street and Ove finally begins to warm up to them. Being told in alternate chapters, it's a really comical and beautiful plot, seeing Ove like a reluctant hero that does nice things under the garb of doing his duty. Well, would reluctant hero be something to be used for Ove? But yeah, it's a really comic plot but the story's written really so well I cried.

OVERALL,A GREAT READ, why the fuck was I sleeping on this book the whole time!!!??!!?!