A MAN CALLED OVEBook Review [CC]

Hi everyone, today I'm here to do a book
review of "A Man Called Ove" by Fredrik Backman. Originally, I was going
to do a dual book and movie review but I. Didn't realize that the movie was so
recent and it's from Sweden so I. Couldn't find an English version.

I don't
know if it's even available yet in America so until that happens I will
just leave you with this book review and when I finally see the movie I will
share my thoughts. I listened to the audio book of "A Man Called Ove" and it is 9
hours and 9 minutes. It was the perfect length. I listened to it, as
always, on my drive to and from work.

I don't remember who the narrator was, but
he did a great job. He really conveyed the emotion well, and he did a good job
distinguishing between the different characters which I think can sometimes
come out too over the top. And he did a good job expressing those without it being very
caricature-like. This story is a very simple story about a man called Ove, and
he is sort of your stereotypical grouch.

He's lived in the same community for
40 years. He was one of the first people to live in his housing block and
since then it has expanded and grown and he takes it upon himself to be the sort
of Neighborhood Watch, to do inspections of the different properties, to pay
attention to the visitors in the guest parking and make sure they're not there
for over 24 hours. He's very used to structure. He believes right is right and
wrong is wrong, and that's just his personality.

And the book begins with this
new family who is quite different than moving into the house next door to him.
They are a mixed race family with two little children and they're sort of all
over the place-- very chaotic, very fun. But their lifestyle is quite opposite of
his, so it's just an interesting clash of cultures. And that's where the story
takes off. We also get these alternating chapters of his life when he was growing
up until the present day, so we kind of get some context, some background about
his personality, his character and how he got to be where he is.

It's all very heartwarming and at the
same time heartbreaking. It's a really great blend of funny and sad. It has that
sort of that indie comedy film feel to it which is why I really wanted to see
the movie. It also has a really wide array of characters.

There are LGBT
characters; there are characters of different races, characters with
disabilities. It just has a wide mix of people. What I
think is great about it is it doesn't focus on the people's differences, it just
presents them as the types of people that are in Ove's life and how they
all have effects on one another. And at the basis of this book, I think is really
a story of how people's lives, when they come in contact with one another, affect each other, and the positive and
sometimes negative effects that you can have on one another.

And I think that at
the end it's just a very touching story about one grumpy old man who starts to see life
in a new way based on these interactions with different people. And I thought the
author did a great job of unfolding the sort of personality and giving you
different pieces of his life to help create a fuller image of him. It was done
so well and so expertly that you really got to know Ove's character deeply
and connect with him. And then when a situation happened, the author didn't
even really need to give you the punchline, if it was like a funny
situation, because you knew exactly how Ove would respond.

And he didn't really
need to tell you how to feel; it was just kind of ingrained into the story. So I
thought that was really well done. Overall I gave this book three and a half stars because it wasn't life changing, it wasn't the best book I've ever read, but it was a very solid
read-- one that I would recommend if you're looking for something more light
and heartwarming with a little bit of sadness in real life, you know, tragedy
and there. But overall I just thought it was great.

I enjoyed listening to the
story and I'm excited to see the film whenever I can. If you've read this book and
you have thoughts on it I'd love to hear them in the comments below. And if you
happen to be from Sweden or somewhere where you can see this film and you've
seen it, I'd love to hear what you thought. If it was a faithful adaptation
without spoiling anything for commenters below.

But if you enjoy the film I would
like to know cause I really wanna see it. I hope you guys enjoyed this review and I will see you
in my next video. Bye!.