A review by rebeccameyrink
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I feel like I read a different book than everyone else. I’ve never heard anyone say anything negative about this book.

I found this book very predictable. The comedy didn’t hit home for me, and I found myself annoyed at the authors transparent attempts to make a heartwarming novel.

The main character reads like a curmudgeonly 90 year old man and I found it really hard to believe he was a middle aged man. 

The thing I disliked most about this book was how it was seemingly about how a racist, xenophobic and overall mean man, who was constantly complaining about “foreigners” and making strange remarks on Japanese cars, would somehow have a change of heart if a “foreigner” dedicated every waking hour to forcing a friendship with him. 

I personally really struggled with the ableism and fatphobia in this novel. Disability is treated as inspiration for the able bodied characters, and at one point the novel describes children with ADHD as having “no hope” for learning and “the type of students no qualified teacher with all the parts of her brain correctly screwed together would voluntarily face.” Umm what? 

I truly despised the way the author described the only fat character in this book. It was dehumanizing. His happily ever after was getting a sandwich named after him. Ugh.
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