A Man Called Ove in A Book Walks Into a Bar

May 13, 2018 Travis rated it liked it

2.5 stars (rounded up to 3 stars)

Apologies to my sister-in-law, Lauren, who loved this novel, but I didn't love it.

Now, I did love the first 50 to 60 pages of A Man Called Ove: the story is light, airy, funny, and cheerful and seasoned with a dash of Ove's grumpiness. I found myself literally laughing out loud on almost every one of those early pages.

After those opening 50 to 60 pages, though, the novel stalls. The characters that I initially found so enchanting do not grow nor show any real de 2.5 stars (rounded up to 3 stars)

Apologies to my sister-in-law, Lauren, who loved this novel, but I didn't love it.

Now, I did love the first 50 to 60 pages of A Man Called Ove: the story is light, airy, funny, and cheerful and seasoned with a dash of Ove's grumpiness. I found myself literally laughing out loud on almost every one of those early pages.

After those opening 50 to 60 pages, though, the novel stalls. The characters that I initially found so enchanting do not grow nor show any real depth: they are all caricatures more than characters. By the end of the novel, no one has really changed; all that's different is the circumstances of their lives. Ove is still the grumpy old man that he has always been--even as a young man. The novel tries to show Ove transforming as he interacts with Parvaneh and her family and his other neighbors, but he doesn't really change at all because, although Ove has always been cranky and cantankerous, he has also always been, at heart, a decent, loving person with a great deal of integrity. As the novel opens, we have a cast of characters all of whom are fundamentally good and loving, and as the novel progresses these characters all find new friends to bring within their circle of love. This is not a bad thing at all, but there is no real drama in this novel.

Instead, A Man Called Ove is a series of events in the life of Ove. In each of these vignettes, Ove reacts just as we would expect him to from the initial portrait that the novel paints of him. We get the same type of jokes and humor over and over. The novel feels hackneyed and even a bit boring by the end. All of the characters are stereotypes, and we can easily predict how they will act because they always act stereotypically.

My negative comments notwithstanding, this isn't a terrible novel. The characters are likable. There are many passages that are delightfully humorous. There is some drama--though the outcome is never really in question. I did find the ending moving in spite of its being quite clichéd. It is a very easy and quick read. But, overall, it is a mediocre novel and thus deserves a rating, 2.5 stars out of 5, reflective of that mediocrity. ...more

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