“A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman – A Twist of Fate; A Second Life

The personalities which colour our beings are things constantly subject to change and even complete metamorphosis, depending on the facts and philosophies we learn as well as the events we experience.

In many cases, people remove themselves further and further from what they would refer to as their true natures, becoming products of their experiences rather than their own being. In A Man Called Ove , Fredrik Backman introduces us to just such a gentleman, the titular Ove, a 59-year-old widower whose bitterness marks his orderly days.

With Ove having recently retired after spending over thirty years at the same job, his life focuses entirely around his home and neighborhood complex, which he decided to take under his wing and enforce all the rules and regulations.

His neighbors see him as a difficult, bad-tempered, bitter and inflexible man whose natural state of being is grumpy. He has even quarreled with his best friend many years ago and has been rather lonely since his wife's death, barely having contact with other people.

One day however, a new family moves into the complex, a pregnant Iranian woman, Parvaneh, her Swedish husband Patrick, and their two girls. They happened to drive in an area forbidden to cars, flattening Ove's mailbox in the process.

In turn, this sets in motion a chain of events that tentatively brings Ove closer to his new neighbors, eventually opening up his internal world to them, unraveling bit by bit the story of the tired old widower and the kindest man in the world hidden within.

Written in a light style, Ove's story is primarily a comedic one, with tragic lines drawn throughout, bringing the reader back down to Earth and reminding him/her that just like in real life, joy and sadness coexist, and there is nothing to be done about it.

We never lose the sense that we are reading a dramatic story about a man who has walked down a dark internal path that led him to lose purpose in his life, and some of the moments really are gut-wrenching as they may be relatable to many people out there. Nevertheless, Backman ensures that the light of hope and comedy shines on through, bringing laughs and tears in equal measure.

The relationship between Ove and Parvaneh is a very interesting one, bringing together two vastly different cultures on common grounds; their friendship is as beautiful and strained as it is unlikely, with argumentative clashes leading to mutual respect, and eventually, trust.

Their interactions are nothing short of delightful, whether they be emotionally moving or awkward and adorable. It's rather heartwarming to see Ove get closer and closer to people in a world he resigned himself to leave behind, despite the countless tragic turns his life has taken.

Speaking of which, the “mystery” of how Ove came to be as he is certainly serves as a driving factor in the story and certainly helps to keep things interesting as far as the intrigue goes.

In conclusion, A Man Named Ove is a slower, more realistic type of novel that ought to be classified as both a tragic and comedic story, one that explores some more depressing aspects of existence through the lens of laughter.

There is much enjoyment to be found in this book, just like there is a whole world of lessons to be taken from it; it's definitely a story worth reading if you enjoy slower novels revolving around relationships between people.

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Fredrik Backman Personal site Fredrik Backman is a columnist, blogger and writer from Sweden who has penned two bestsellers in his country so far, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry and A Man Called Ove, the latter of which was turned into a major motion picture.