A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman

We all know that old bloke on the corner who glowers at us, the one with a face like a bulldog sucking lemons, the one who barks at us for dropping litter or parking in the wrong place. The one who we suspect goes around the house grumbling about the radiators being on.

Hell, I fear I am becoming that man. Becoming Ove.

We first meet Ove as an irascible and archetypally grumpy old man seeking simply to drill a hook into his ceiling when he in interrupted by new neighbours reversing a trailer into his fence and post box. The neighbours, Parvaneh and Patrick and their daughters slowly inveigle their way into Ove’s life bit-by-bit as the novel progresses – interrupted by a series of flashbacks to Ove’s childhood and young adulthood, and his courtship with his wife, Sonja. And there is real tragedy within the story: dead fathers, burned homes, babies lost, cancer.

The trials and tribulations of the neighbourhood in which Ove was a stalwart member and founder of the Residents’ Association, however, was heartwarming and touching. The threat to remove Rune, a neighbour and one-time friend, long-time rival of Ove’s, to a nursing home because of Alzheimer’s, which finally motivates Ove to stand up to the anonymous men in white shirts. Jimmy, the overweight neighbour whose mum Ove and Sonja had helped to stand up to an abusive boyfriend and who styed behind in his mum’s house. Mirsad, struggling to come out as gay to his paprents. And, of course, Parvaneh who manages to be supportive without being a doormat.

I believe the novel started life as a blog and it does have that episodic feel to it, especially in the first half as it bounces between past and present but there is a coherent narrative running through the novel: six months before we meet Ove, his wife had died and he has started methodically and doggedly planning to commit suicide in order to meet her again in Heaven. And this is where the novel jarred a little for me: attempted suicide, interrupted by the mundane demands of life, are not really the stuff of humour and it felt like Backman was playing it for humour. His attempt to hang himself fails because the rope breaks, for example; his attempt to gas himself in the car fails because Patrick fell from a ladder. These section felt off to me. Uncomfortable.

And too easily solved: bleed a radiator here, adopt a cat there, all your suicidal ideations will be fixed. Offer a neighbour a box of saffron rice to save their lives. Pretend your kids are allergic to cats – cats who bizarrely trot happily around the neighbourhood and pop into cars and restaurants with their new owners, despite an apparent feral and stray life previously – and all will be well. Foist a gay teenager onto them and they will thrive!

The writing style does take a while to get used to – and listening to it as an audiobook may not have helped – as it is very much from Ove’s point-of-view and replete with his dismissive and judgmental observations. But it is convincing and well put together and the conclusion – whilst inevitable – did bring a tear to the eye and a lump to my throat on a drive to work. So Backman was obviously doing something right!

The book that seems to be most often linked to this one on Amazon, Audible and Goodreads is Eleanor Oliphant is Perfectly Fine by Gail Honeyman: two unconventional protagonists, both misunderstood, both dealing with a tragic and secret backstory. This is a shame because, whilst A Man Called Ove is an effective and moving and, yes, heartwarming read despite my discomfort in places, Eleanor Oliphant is, in my opinion, by far the superior book: more honest, more painful, more authentic and convincing.

But this is a strange book, a difficult book. And probably a book that will stay with me for some time.