A Man Called Ove
by Fredik Bachman (Sweden)
2014/ 364 pages
Read by George Newbern 9h 9m
Rating – 7.5  (but an enjoyment level of 9)

The blurs and reviews generally say “heart-warming” and “life-affirming” and trite as they are, the words are certainly are true. Sometimes I like these kinds of novels, sometimes not. It has to be both the right book and the right time. A steady diet would be annoying.

In this tale we have “A Man Called Ove” who is relatively young in the backstories,  but now he’s one of those guys who “… has been a grumpy old man since elementary school.”  Curmudgeonly, might be an apt word to describe Ove.  He knows how to do everything the right way, the honest, decent, correct snd proper way – the way which “any dummy should know.” He gets this original moral steadfastness from his father, now deceased, but, it would seem, without his father’s humanity. Ove is a very negative person in general.  >>>>MORE>>>>