The Best Books Club: A Curmudgeon to Love

In the character of Ove, author Fredrik Backman (“A Man Called Ove”) has created a figure more than a few online reviewers have termed a mean old man only his beloved, very-patient Sonja could love. I disagree.

I’ll readily admit Ove is a textbook curmudgeon. But to dismiss Ove as a narrow-minded, rigid and cantankerous man ignores several key facts.

First, those negative character traits are little more than a shell that, albeit under protest and with significant grumbling, Ove routinely sheds. Yes, he initially scorns the new neighbors, but he almost immediately helps them and continues to do so.

His supposed rigidity concerning rules is nonexistent when he helps Jimmy fix a bike and Anita outfox the regulations-waving councilman. And while he may have been tempted to leave a near-dead cat in a snowdrift, Ove not only champions it in a deadly feud with a neighbor’s dog, but he takes it in, feeds and cares for it, and takes it with him everywhere, even breaking rules to do so.

Additionally, as Backman shares scenes from Ove’s past, it is apparent the shell is protective armor Ove began acquiring at age 8 when his mother passed away. It is a shield he added to as dishonest bullies and corrupt political officials targeted him throughout his lifetime and again. It is a shield only a few people — his beloved Sonja and exasperated-but-adoring neighbor Parvaneh — have the wisdom to look beyond.

And when we view Ove through their eyes, we see a man who many of us can identify with. Beneath his “I’ve-got-it-all-together” façade is a man who is well aware of and railing against the disconcerting and often frightening fact that as he ages and his physical and mental strength decline, he is becoming increasingly vulnerable to those who have only their own best interests in mind. We see a man who doesn’t give a fig about changing trends and popular opinion. He knows what he believes in and remains true to himself and his values.

I first read “A Man Called Ove” six years ago. Since then, a pandemic and mandates made me, an “older” person, feel a bit bullied by bureaucrats. More recently, rising prices and shortages of basic goods being used as fodder for political posturing leave me, a widow on a fixed income, feeling manipulated and vulnerable.

Additionally, a culture that is seemingly abandoning with alarming alacrity the principles upon which I and my peers were raised and is not content to simply discard those principles but feels the need to vilify those who dare to remain true to them leaves me feeling uneasy and in need of some armor myself.

In Ove, I see a compatriot of sorts, a complex but sympathetic man.

And so, after I read the final page last month, I closed the book and held it for a few minutes, not ready to say goodbye to a man called Ove.

Want to join in the

conversation?

Join us in our Facebook Live discussion of “A Man Called Ove” on The Best Years Facebook page, in The Best Books Club Facebook group at 4:30 p.m. July 12. Here are a few points we’ll discuss:

1. In the opening scene, Ove’s attempts to buy a new computer introduce us to his ongoing battles with the inaneness of the modern world. Do you sympathize with Ove? Explain.

2. As a reader, you get to know Ove slowly, as snippets of his past are revealed. What surprised you most about his past? What are your thoughts on how the author revealed his past as he did?

3. In what ways can you identify with Ove?

4. After Ove’s confrontation with Tom, Backman writes, “A time like that comes for all men, when they choose what sort of men they want to be.” Do you agree with the author? Explain.

5. Ove and Sonja’s love story is a poignant thread that runs throughout the book. What is the key to their highly unlikely romance?

Coming Up

In August, we’ll dip our toes — excuse the pun — into nonfiction with “The Boys in the Boat,” by Daniel James Brown. Even readers who are not particularly interested in sports will enjoy what Chris Schluep, Amazon.com Web Services senior editor, calls a “character-driven story with a natural crescendo” about the eight-oar crew team that “raced its way to the 1936 Berlin Olympics for an opportunity to challenge the greatest in the world.”