A Man Called Ove, to me, was just another book with three hundred-plus pages that I usually seem to invest in to escape boredom when I held it in my hands back in December on the day I bought it. And little did I know that it was not “just another book”. It is a novel that fills its pages with bittersweet emotions and slices of life that could pull on certain corners of your heart sometimes.
I am absolutely tied up on the inside with feelings I would have for someone real, not for a character from a book; because somewhere Ove was real, somewhere I could understand him (and obviously couldn’t at many places), somewhere he was family and I wanted him to be.
We all have an Ove in our lives, maybe he might be your next-door neighbor, maybe your relative, maybe that grumpy old fella you see at the grocery store on most Saturdays, or maybe a little in yourself. And so, you’d connect with his story like it was part of yours too.
I normally prefer finishing up a book in a week utmost so that I can grab a new book and start with a new story with new characters and their lives but this one was different. It absolutely mutilated my plan of finishing a book within a week. And funnily enough, I found myself not wanting this story to end; I read as little as possible every day so that somehow it wouldn’t end (but obviously that plan never worked). And the minute I finished the story of A wonderful Man Called Ove, I didn’t know what to feel. I was a ball of emotions that I didn’t know which was governing over the others the most. And not a minute passed by without me wishing I could somehow go back to the past and start reading the story anew.
One might wonder if this is that extraordinary of a book; for those, I have just three words- What and understatement. I have no idea how many people in this world have read this book already, but if someone ever asks me which was the best book of all I’ve ever read, I know that I wouldn’t even have to think for the answer to that question. Thank you Fredrik Backman for this gem.
This book, no.., this treasure about the life of an extraordinary human named Ove, whom I really wish was real, has my whole heart and will always be that way. And so today this book is not “just another book” anymore, it is a promise that there is good in this world and that there can be happiness if you look for it.
I don’t know if this was a review or my bottled-up feelings poured out. But that is the love I have for this treasure of a book that it is.
He might be grumpy, but he definitely has a heart. And he definitely isn’t black and white... he is all colors.
~Dedicated to A Man Called Ove :)
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