At the start of the novel A Man Called Ove, I didnāt think I was going to like it. The beginning scene of Ove yelling at someone in the service industry probably wasnāt the move to get me immediately hooked. I didnāt feel like reading about a grumpy, mean old man, and the writing didnāt seem like anything special. But then I suddenly found myself laughing out loud. So it was deceptively charming, and I did enjoy reading the novel, but it didnāt make a profound impact on me.
Oveās downright meanness wasnāt always funny. I know some people similar to Ove, and being around them isnāt fun. I did sometimes feel like his negativity was played to the extremes for comedyās sake, which didnāt always work for me. I preferred his subtle eccentricities rather than the outrageous acts like hitting a clown, yelling at people trying to do their job because of his own ignorance, refusing to help a dying cat that was within help, or locking a journalist in a garage (though the latter was kinda funny). But I think leaving out these outrageously contrived bits would have made Ove more endearing, and it wouldāve made more sense to me why Parvaneh, the new nextdoor neighbor, got so attached to him.
Some things that didnāt make sense to me:
- Oveās mailbox got crushed close to the beginning of the novel, and over halfway through the book, he still hadnāt fixed it. With Oveās fix-it-yourself-or-youāre-a-dud attitude and his pathological need for order and efficiency, it didnāt make sense to me why he didnāt fix his mailbox immediately. The plot point was used to introduce the mailboy, but it didnāt fit with Oveās character.
- The book made him seem at least a decade older than 59. Revealing his age was definitely jarring for me. I understand everyone ages differently, but the age just didnāt fit.
- The novel was structured with flashbacks, and I often found it difficult to reconcile the younger Ove with the older Ove, since they sometimes seemed like two different people. Although the author explained why and how Ove became the way he is as the flashbacks progressed and it increasingly made more sense to me, it was still enough of an obstruction that took me out of the flow of the story. I think this is a fault of mine rather than a fault of the story or character development.
Again I feel as though my review is more negative than my general feeling toward the novel. I really did appreciate the story, enjoyed all the characters (most of the time), and thought the majority was charming, heartwarming fun. I donāt think the story will stick with me, though.
