At its heart, A Man Called Ove tells a simple story, but being simple doesn't mean it doesn't stand out. This is my first time reading Backman, and it's immediately clear to me that this author has a way of elevating the mundane through his understanding of life, love, and people. How else can you write someone as cantankerous and ornery as Ove and make us love him in five chapters flat?

It's rare that I react outwardly when reading, but this book has made me laugh and made me cry. Reflecting on it, I can see how the book managed it. I've always been sensitive towards events in life that are random and tragic, that have no reason and yet happen anyway, and the way people respond to such things. These occurrences make you feel so much: gratefulness, anger, relief, grief, injustice. Or, I suppose, the key point is that it makes you feel, and I think that's where this book transcends its "basic" narrative. Backman truly has a way of structuring his story such that it is poignant and devastating.

Honestly, though, I feel a bit conceited talking about the author like I know his body of work. This is my first book by him! But if he manages to do this in all his books, I want to read more, for all that they're not my kind of book. I very much love and appreciate this form of storytelling, taking what is a very typical (and perhaps stereotypical) character or dynamic and adding depth. As fussy and stubborn as Ove was, I could always see the reasoning behind his thoughts, whether it was because of his backstory or the system in which he was born. I would even agree with him! As far as I'm concerned, these are the hallmarks of a masterful writer and storyteller, and I'm delighted to discover more.

What in the white-savior bullshit and billionaire-apologia was this?

The concept was strong and touched on important issues with real potential, but the execution completely missed the mark for me. Nearly everything lacks nuance: the family dynamics, the “poor and lovely rich people” attitude, the near-total absence of any meaningful discussion about disability and mobility aids, and the poorly written book-within-the-book.

Metadiegetic storytelling isn’t my thing, and this didn’t help.