My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry in Our Shared Shelf

Mar 30, 2018 Azam Heydari rated it really liked it · review of another edition

"مادربزرگ از من خواسته بهت بگم متاسفه"، داستان الساست: السا دختر متفاوت تقریبن هشت ساله که مادربزرگش می‌میرد. مادربزرگی که قهرمان زندگی الساست "چون هر هشت ساله‌ای باید یک قهرمان داشته باشه". مادربزرگی که السا را با دنیای داستان‌های خیالی و شوالیه‌ها و قهرمان‌ها آشنا کرده و حالا السا را بعدش مرگش می‌فرسته تو یک داستان، که السا قهرمان داستان باید یک سری نامه را کشف کند و به دست صاحبانش برساند. نامه‌هایی که مادربزرگ در آن‌ها عذرخواهی کرده و این وسط واقعیت و خیال در هم می‌پیچند "چون هیچ داستان خوبی "مادربزرگ از من خواسته بهت بگم متاسفه"، داستان الساست: السا دختر متفاوت تقریبن هشت ساله که مادربزرگش می‌میرد. مادربزرگی که قهرمان زندگی الساست "چون هر هشت ساله‌ای باید یک قهرمان داشته باشه". مادربزرگی که السا را با دنیای داستان‌های خیالی و شوالیه‌ها و قهرمان‌ها آشنا کرده و حالا السا را بعدش مرگش می‌فرسته تو یک داستان، که السا قهرمان داستان باید یک سری نامه را کشف کند و به دست صاحبانش برساند. نامه‌هایی که مادربزرگ در آن‌ها عذرخواهی کرده و این وسط واقعیت و خیال در هم می‌پیچند "چون هیچ داستان خوبی به تمامی واقعیت نیست و به تمامی خیالی هم نیست". کتاب مثل بقیه کتاب‌های فردریک بکمن شخصیت‌های متعددی دارد که بکمن خواننده را با زوایای مختلف شخصیتشون به مرور آشنا می‌کند، طوری که خواننده انگار همه را می‌شناسد و با همه زندگی کرده. شخصیت‌های تک‌صفتی اول ماجرا مثل ترسناک، مست، عصبی، فضول، وسواسی همه بعد پیدا می‌کنند و می‌شوند کسانی که دردهایشان را می‌بینی، با شادیشان لبخند می‌زنی و به خاطر دردهایشان غمگین می‌شوی.

فردریک بکمن نویسنده سوئدی از نویسنده‌های موردعلاقه من است، به خاطر نوع نوشتنش، طنزش و شناختی که از شخصیت‌های داستانش می‌دهد. وقتی کتاب‌هایش را تمام می‌کنی، انگار که آرام آرام گره‌های پیچیده شخصیتی کاراکترهای داستان را برات باز کرده طوری که شخصیت‌ها از سیاه و سفید همه خاکستری می‌شوند حالا گیریم یکی پررنگ‌تر و یکی کم‌رنگ‌تر. ...more

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Jun 03, 2019 Cindy rated it it was amazing

Oh my word! I LOVED THIS BOOK. If I could give it more than 5 stars, I would. From the beginning, I was riveted by the multi layer storytelling, the rich characters, the bonds, and the beautiful, strong knight. It was a fairy tale worth reading over and over again, if only to identify certain things sooner. I am still emotionally spent and more than a few tissues were needed. Speechless.

Favorite lines:
"There are many ways of being alone, darling." p.137
"People can turn into idiots if they're alo Oh my word! I LOVED THIS BOOK. If I could give it more than 5 stars, I would. From the beginning, I was riveted by the multi layer storytelling, the rich characters, the bonds, and the beautiful, strong knight. It was a fairy tale worth reading over and over again, if only to identify certain things sooner. I am still emotionally spent and more than a few tissues were needed. Speechless.

Favorite lines:
"There are many ways of being alone, darling." p.137
"People can turn into idiots if they're alone for long enough." p.137
"Your granny traveled around the world saving children's lives, darling. She was a...superhero!...All superheroes have to make sacrifices, darling." p.137
"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." p. 220 and p. 225 (variation)
"People in the real world always say, when something terrible happens, that the sadness and loss and aching pain of the heart will 'lessen as time passes,' but it isn't true. Sorrow and loss are constant, but if we all had to go through our whole lives carrying them the whole time, we wouldn't be able to stand it. The sadness would paralyze us. So in the end we just pack it into bags and find somewhere to leave it." p. 220
"Granny wasn't a time-optimist, she was a time-atheist, and the only religion she believed in was Do-It-Later-Buddhism." p.231
"Fears don't transform themselves, they just bite and try to scratch your eyes..." p.232
"Because not even fairy tales defeat shadows." p.233
"Don't fight with monsters, for you can become one. If you look into the abyss for long enough, the abyss looks into you." p. 243
"Did she know you wanted to become a policewoman...she's the one who made me want to become one...why...because I was afraid of everything when I was small. And she told me I should do what I was most afraid of. I should laugh at my fears." p. 300
"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." p. 335
"It's complicated being a grown-up sometimes...it's not, like, easy-peasy being a kid either..." p. 335
"I want someone to remember I existed. I want someone to know I was here." p. 336
"You can't die, because I'm here now. And you're my friend. No real friend would just go and die like that, do you understand? Friends don't die on each other." p. 336 SOBFEST!!!
"You've completed your mission, you don't have to protect the castle anymore. Protect Granny now. Protect all the fairy tales!" p. 339 SOBFEST!!!
"They laugh until no one can forget that this is what we leave behind when we go: the laughs." p. 354
"So that's what she does. One day at a time. One dream at a time. And one could say it's right and one could say it's wrong. And probably both would be right. Because life is both complicated and simple." p. 368
"And after that, they're the boy's superheroes. Because all seven-year-olds deserve superheroes." p. 370
...more

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Nov 15, 2018 Liza rated it really liked it

Sweet and laugh-out-loud funny.

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Aug 19, 2015 Julie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adult-fiction

I highly enjoyed A Man Called Ove. This book, though, far surpassed it for me. Harry Potter references, black "dogs", fairy tales, feisty grandmothers and underdogs had me sobbing at the end. It was a delight the whole way through. Definitely a surprise favorite for the year! ...more

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Feb 09, 2016 MJ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4+ Loved Elsa's voice and the way Backman told a very complicated and difficult story through the eyes of an almost eight-year-old, who under the influence of her devoted grandmother uses fairytales and stories to make sense of reality. ...more

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