A few forumites mentioned this book, saying how wonderful it
was, so I had to have a peek, I downloaded the sample and was immediately
hooked.
Ove is a grumpy old man, who has his routines and gets very,
very annoyed when other people don't do things properly. This was originally a blog by a Swedish
author, so the chapters are mini stories in themselves alternating between
Ove's present life and his past history of growing up and meeting his
wife. Reviewers have compared this to
"The 100 Year Old Man Who Jumped Out Of A Window" and is similar in
the jumping back and forth in time and being Scandanavian, but I thought the
100 Year Old man was tedious, long winded and uninteresting. This is snappier and so much better.
Looking back on my feelings reading this, my over-whelming
memory is of the love Ove had for his wife.
She was so unlike him, but was his whole reason for being.
As the stories unfolded and I realised facts about the
characters, I often had a lump in my throat.
By the time I got to the end, I could hardly see. But it was happy tears as well as some sad
ones.
This book is definitely taking its place in my top 3 books
of the year. I think it is special and I
enjoyed it so much.
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