Dale Harcombe's Reviews > A Man Called Ove

Ove is one of those curmudgeons that are fun to read about, but not the type of person you want to meet in real life. I started chuckling from the first page. Ove seemed so familiar to some people I have met over the years. He is opinionated, sure he is always right and has little time for those who disagree with him or do not act in what he considers an appropriate manner. But then, as the book goes along, we find out more of Ove’s family background and the lessons he learnt from his father. One of these was, ‘Ove, only a fool thinks strength and size are the same thing.’ Ove remembers it as well as many other lessons his father taught him by word and example. We also learn of the circumstance that have shaped him. Life has not always been kind to him. But into that life came Sonja. She loves him and it is clear he loves her. When she dies after 40 years together, he feels he has nothing left to life for. He plans to join her as soon as possible. But as Ove often finds life or death does not go the way he plans.
Ove is 59 but in many ways his attitudes and behaviour appear much older than that. Perhaps that has as much it do with his upbringing and circumstances as anything else. I laughed throughout this book, got exasperated and shed tears at other times. Ove is certainly no-one’s idea of a politically correct person. He is a character in every sense of the word but one with firm views about the way things should or shouldn’t be done. The cast of neighbours, bureaucrats and other characters, Ove encounters add definite colour and balance and some laugh aloud incidents. I loved this book and couldn’t wait to get back to it. This is a thoroughly engaging story and I highly recommend it.