Showing posts with label Book beginnings: A Man Called Ove. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book beginnings: A Man Called Ove. Show all posts

Friday, July 15, 2016

Book Beginnings: A Man Called Ove

I am taking part in the Friday book beginnings hosted by Rose City Reader. Here is the link to the Book Beginnings host Rose City Reader  and here is this book's beginning: "Ove is fifty-nine. He drives a Saab. He's the kind of man who points at people he doesn't like the look of, as if they were burglars and his forefinger a policeman's flashlight."
Here is a quote from page 56, for Freda's Voice where she hosts Friday 56. Actually page 56 gives away a bit too much so I am using a quote from page 51 which Ove says to a nasty woman neighbor.
"If you throw that stone into my property, I'll throw you into your garden!"

Here is my review of this book, which I give 5 stars.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. Translated from Swedish to English.
This book captivated my heart. I cheered for the iceberg of Ove to melt and live again. What an interesting guy, a curmudgeon aged 59, who has a strong code of ethics that he rigidly adheres to. He meets neighbors who need his help, resists giving it, but his private code says he must help them. The men in white shirts are symbols of what is wrong in his society and in ours: unhelpful and sometimes vindictive bureaucrats. Force a man into a nursing home. Allow his home to burn down because it is on a boundary between two agencies. Make life a misery for Ove and his wife. Ove befriends a wonderful varied crew, ranging from a young man Ove calls “bent” who comes out as gay, another young man who wants to fix a bicycle to gain the affection of a girl, an immigrant from Iran who likes the prickly Ove, and more. He meets his match in the feral cantankerous cat and they end up adopting each other. This is one of my top ten books I  read this year thus far and I am sure it will remain in my list of favorite books of 2016.
Good news, there is a movie made of this book in 2015 which is garnering a huge audience in Europe and awards for its star. I would like to see this movie, with English subtitles. The movie is in Swedish, I think. An American company has bought the rights to this movie and I am not sure what this means but it sounds promising. If they film a new version I want Clint Eastwood in the role of Ove; he was brilliant in Gran Torino. I know Clint could play age 59!