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8.02k reviews for:
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry - Target Club Pick
Fredrik Backman, Fredrik Backman
4.12 AVERAGE
8.02k reviews for:
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry - Target Club Pick
Fredrik Backman, Fredrik Backman
4.12 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
The characters are so cute and the story is really nice. I found it quite slow at the beginning but I loved how everything came together in the last 3rd.
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Heather lent me this one, and I gobbled it down in two days. Megan wasn't a huge fan, and I can see that it might be an acquired taste: I skimmed a goodly amount of the fairy tale part (with no ill effects that I can see) and Granny herself is a difficult character to like, so the first part of the book, when Elsa is 100% pro-Granny, is challenging. However, soon Backman's multi-faceted pictures of human nature develop fully, and his picture of the beauty and pain of life makes the book powerful and moving. I'll admit it: I laughed, I cried! Backman's willingness to reveal the good in all people of all personality types is unusual and refreshing. He seems like he'd be a great friend as well as a wonderful author!
This is a novel for patient readers who love words, grammar (Elsa has a red pen that she uses to edit poorly-written signs), and other people.
'We want to be loved. Failing that, admired; failing that, feared; failing that, hated and despised. AT all costs we want to stir up some sort of feeling in others. The soul abhors a vacuum. At all costs it longs for contact.' Doctor Glas, quoted in MGAMTTYSS
"The mightiest power of death is not that it can make people die, but that it can make the people left behind want to stop living."
This is a novel for patient readers who love words, grammar (Elsa has a red pen that she uses to edit poorly-written signs), and other people.
'We want to be loved. Failing that, admired; failing that, feared; failing that, hated and despised. AT all costs we want to stir up some sort of feeling in others. The soul abhors a vacuum. At all costs it longs for contact.' Doctor Glas, quoted in MGAMTTYSS
"The mightiest power of death is not that it can make people die, but that it can make the people left behind want to stop living."
Enjoyed but also disappointed. Elsa’s eccentric granny tells her the stories of the people who live in their building via a series of fairy stories. I mean there’s a bit more to it than that, but this takes up a large chunk of the book. You know the fairy stories are going to be relevant, otherwise why would they be there, but I got so lost in the detail that I skim read some of the fantasy paragraphs and so the significance of each character in each tale didn’t have the impact on me that I think the author would have wanted. A story about a female doctor travelling the world to warzones and natural disasters, the people she saves and how she becomes her grand-daughter’s superhero would have been a good enough story for me without all the other stuff.
Very imaginative, but ended pretty fast for my taste. Still a very good book.
Sweet memory: Caleb and I listened to this together while he was 16yo driving back and forth to North Dallas over Labor Day weekend 2019. He was going through two days of rigorous testing for academic challenges. Lots of special memories were made, and this Backman work was the common thread. Elsa, her Granny, and their entire eccentric household will always be a special link between my second born man-child and me.
Charming young protagonist and an eccentric and combative grandma. So what’s not to love? It was about twice as long as it needed to be.