From the Bookshelf of Diversity in All Forms!…

A Man Called Ove

Fredrik Backman

Start date: July 1, 2017

Finish date: July 31, 2017

Discussion: Monthly Group Reads

Why we're reading this: July's topic/theme is Ageism

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman…more
[close] July's topic/theme is Ageism

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 74 topics — 1,387 comments total

Monthly Group Reads

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (June 2021)
By Mariah Roze · 7 posts · 65 views

last updated Feb 12, 2024 09:45AM

The Help (March 2023)
By Mariah Roze · 4 posts · 22 views

last updated Mar 06, 2023 09:46AM

showing 2 of 2 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Nov 23, 2020 Richard Derus rated it it was ok

Shelves: owned

Real Rating: 2.5* of five

THIS is the one that I read most of whose title I couldn't think of when I was reviewing My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry...it was like reading The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared only I already knew the jokes and wasn't really interested in reading it anyway.

What a disappointing read. It's not funny, or profound, or even particularly creative, y'all.

“We always think there's enough time to do things with other people. Time to sa

...more

50 likes · Like · see review

May 28, 2023 Radwa rated it really liked it

Shelves: translations, contemporary, adult

IT REALLY GOT ME!

I won't deny that I was a bit annoyed by the way the cat was treated and I felt like the author has never seen or dealt with a cat before, but I was crying reading that final chapter.

Take the story of Disney's UP and make it Sweden, replace the dog with a cat, the young scout boy with a lot of nosy lovable neighbours, and the adventure with taking down the beaurucracy, and you got "A Man called Ove".

We meet Ove as an old grumpy man whose wife died and that made him grumpy with e ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Aug 30, 2019 Andrea rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, everyone-loved-this-but-me, borrowed

So. This is awkward. There's only one (!!!) other person on my whole friend list who also only gave this one star. Clearly, I'm in the minority here.

The thing is, I have never been able to get into Swedish books. I always thought it was just the German translations I read, but I also couldn't get into an English translation. Maybe I just can't get into translations at all. Who knows.

At any rate, I couldn't get into the story, and I just didn't care. Oh well.
...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jan 27, 2018 Cam rated it it was amazing

Bravo bravo bravo !!!

2 likes · Like · see review

May 23, 2017 Karin rated it really liked it

Endearing. Excellent use of a tale to tell the entire story of an old man who has quite the past but few know his story. Read it in one sitting (long flight).

1 like · Like · see review

Oct 20, 2016 Bonnie Brandt rated it really liked it

I think the point of this book was to try and get the reader to enjoy a story that contains the most off the wall similes and a mean grumpy main character.

IT WORKED! It was questionable for the first 100 pages...but it definitely won me over, I was a little bit surprised.

1 like · Like · see review

May 10, 2025 Lindsay rated it really liked it

This was surprisingly good. A bit slow at the middle, but the beginning and ending were amazing.

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 19, 2016 Judy Lindow rated it did not like it

Shelves: adult-fiction

Curmudgeon, staunch principles, same place in 40 years, strict routines, short fuse, bitter, cranky, unkempt cats ---- for one: heartwarming tale? Bleh. Guess I'm in the 1% for this one. To be honest, I only read a couple of chapters and continued to not like the character, not find the book funny or the writing interesting. Flipped through it and saw MORE of the grumpy old man words and/or doing MORE crazy grumpy old man stuff … omg, THIS MAN WAS ONLY 59. Something is going on that we don't kno ...more

Like · see review