A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman

Our group were generally enthused by 'A Man called Ove'.
'I really enjoyed it...walloped it down and cried at the end'; 'I loved it. Backman's style of writing is warm and funny...the characters are all irresistible...all in all, a delight to read'; 'I laughed out loud, which is very rare for me'. We'd enjoyed the quirky characters, the mix of sadness and humour, the way the little community helped each other out and the kindness behind Ove's grumpy behaviour. The similarly grumpy cat seems to have struck a particular chord for several of us. Only one of us was disappointed by the book, finding the style 'very repetitive and wooden' and becoming irritated by 'longwinded analogies'. She thought that perhaps something had been 'lost in translation'. However, two of our group with close contacts in Denmark disagreed, saying that the style and the characters were 'very Swedish'.

So, 9 enthusiastic thumbs up and one very reluctant thumbs up.



The next book is Stacey Hall's 'The Familiars' on Tuesday 14 March