Where to even begin...
This book was the most perpetually beautiful and heartrendingly moving piece of writing I have ever read. And that barely even begins to cover my feelings on it.
I picked this book from my parent's bookcase just before going on holiday, not expecting anything in particular, simply something to while away the long flight and feelings of Lyme Disease eating away my central nervous system. What I didn’t expect was a one two punch combo of hilarity and emotion that would leave me feeling full to the brim with the warm and fuzzies. A strange feeling to have after reading a book about a man who hates everyone and everything.
I’ll start with the title. It’s about as uninspring as you can get for a title, simplistic, obvious and giving very little away. Were you to literally judge the book by its cover you’d probably skim over it. ‘A Man Called Ove’ doesn’t give very much away, especially as in it’s native country (Sweden) it’s a really very popular name, with just over 1% of the population having the name. That’s kind of the point though, and hopefully in reading this and the book itself you’ll understand why.
Ove is someone we all know. He’s the man at the end of the road tapping his windw when you’re outside playing with a ball. He’s the chap in his car driving at 30 in a 50 zone. He’s the guy in the shop having a go at the waiter because he doesn’t understand the menu. Grumpy, soured to life he’s thourouhghly unlikeable and unliking, nothing about him is either charming or one would argue that interesting. A strange choice for a protagonist you would think, and in fact the first chapter of the book you are spent thinking ‘why is this hateful, ittitating old man talking out at me from the pages?’ (though the more jaded of us are also probably thinking ‘why do I relate to this so well?’)
The story of course develops from that and there are more than the occasional moments where you find yourself having to put the book down and just take a second to compose yourself again before reading on. The character development, the interest you garner for these characters and the overall storytelling is masterful and grips you as you read, desperate to learn more about Ove and the people (and cat) that he meets. You have to make it through the first chapter though. The reason you make it through this chapter of course is because of the incredibly engaging writing. Now I’m not fluent in Swedish, in fact I don’t even know a single word in swedish, so when I’m talking about the quality of writing here I’m also talking about the quality of translation. Its an often overlooked skill, being able to translate in a way that retains the original voice and meaning of the text, and I think this was done masterfully by Henning Koch. The whimsical nature of the style of writing is a powerful counterbalance to the often dark and emotionally harrowing moments of the subject matter, the attention of the subject held on seemingly insignificant details that Ove is interested in such as the hook in the roof. It’s a truncated, simplistic style similar to the man himself, removing the reader from the ‘big picture’ of a situation and presenting small details at face value, in a matter-of-fact way that belies the incredibly deep and moving undertones. You read through the first chapter with relative ease because of the ease at which you can read it, it’s clever without being pretentious and it compels you to move onto the next line with each line. To read the book or judge the man at face value would be to miss the deep seated emotion beneath both.
As the book progresses of course we begin to understand him. We see where the grump comes from and why he is the way he is. The tragic beauty of his backstory that is presented in the same matter-of-fact tone as the telling of the ‘present day’ story cuts emotional swathes in a way that is difficult to read at times. His own interpretations, (or deliberate lack of thereof) of life changeingly destructive incidents carve the character we are presented with in the future, traits and actions in the present narrative explained by the events of his past. It is through linking the threads of the twin narratives that we can pick up on the intricacies of who he is and begin to understand how and why he goes about treating those around him the way he does.
In reality we often see individuals like Ove, and most people’s immediate reaction is to blow them off. A grumpy old man is a grumy old man, enough said, move on. Characters like Parvaneh however don’t simply accept that, either by grace of character or by sheer bloody mindedness and impatience they see through the Grumpy exterior (or merely dismiss it) and they force them to be more than that. It is through Parvaneh’s forcing of Ove to be a functioning member of their neighbourhood that we begin to learn the reasons why he is the way he is. All the characters in the book are ones that we are familiar with. Everyone knows an Ove, everyone knows a Parvaneh, a Lanky man, a middle aged runner with a terrible girlfriend. These are all our locals, yet so rarely do we know the stories that define them, that created who they are, and this book does wonders in explaining just how they became who they are. Ove is angry at life, not the people in it and as a result his personality comes out as unpleasant, but when it’s proved to him over the course of this book that life isn’t something to be angry at, that there’s always more good to be had then he sees that his personality is as good as he sees life to be.
I’m not going to say this is the best book I’ve ever read, its not a great literary epic that will effect the cource of English degrees for years to come, though I would also argue that this is more than just ‘a holiday read’ as one of the reviews emblazoned on the front over announces (mostly beccause you’ll waste a chunk of your holiday because you’re too engrossed in your book). Where it doesn’t sit back and make you think on its complexities too much, it doesn’t pretend to need to, in it’s essence it is a book about depths of character, about not judging a book by its cover and to allow people the opportunity to show you who they are. Ultimately this is the story of a man’s life and an explanation as to why he is who he is. It’s an invitation to avoid making snap judgements and finally it is a gut wrenchingly emotive work that shows you just how good people can be if they’re given the opportunity. If you do read it on holiday, make sure it’s a quiet one, one where people won’t judge you for grinning from ear to ear whilst a little tear rolls down your cheek.