2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This is the discussion thread for A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman Chapter 10-19

This book is so great so far, as I'm reading I'm having so many mixed emotions. One second I'm laughing and the next I'm almost crying. Especially the chapters about his childhood,the ones about his whife and the chapter about his fathers house made really emotional.

I love that Ove's sense of right and wrong supersedes his own personal wants, even though he's grumpy about it. He just wants to die but he keeps putting it off for the sake of helping other people with their problems, or because he doesn't want to traumatize a poor train driver.

The Cat Annoyance is my favorite character. I like that he talks to the cat like he talks to his wife. Cats can be very helpful after a loss. I felt terrible when his wife's dad and then cat died one right after the other. The same thing happened to me last year. It's rough.

Oops, those were spoilers....didn't know his wife and cat would die... :(

Susy wrote: "Oops, those were spoilers....didn't know his wife and cat would die... :("

But you must have known that his wife died, you get to know that pretty early in the book. Or maybe it's later in the book than I remember...

I haven't started yet ;)

Susy wrote: "Oops, those were spoilers....didn't know his wife and cat would die... :("

I didn't say his wife and cat died. I said his wife's dad and his wife's cat died. That was in a flashback. I'm sorry I didn't mark the spoilers. I just assumed anyone looking at this thread would have read through the chapters it listed.

I really like this book so far! I'm having a similar experience as Soveig about the mixed emotions. That book is really well written in terms of balancing the humor and the sad moments, sometimes literally within the same moment, (view spoiler)[such as every botched suicide attempt (hide spoiler)].

I keep being really surprised by the forwardness of the neighbors, particularly Parvaneh (though I do like her). I've never had neighbors like this or know of anyone who has.

SarahKat - I also love Cat Annoyance, both for his personality and his interactions with Ove. He's described so perfectly.

I still don't actually find this book funny. Just really, really sad.

Ove is less cartoonish the further I get into the book, but there are parts that don't ring true to me, such as the part where Ove drives the cat around in the car. That was straight out of a Warner Bros Sylvester and Tweety cartoon. There are other bits like that, usually at least one in each chapter.

I have found Ove to be a much more sympathetic character the more I got to know about him. The chapter about his father early in the book was really eye-opening and took the book in a slightly different direction than I thought it was going. I appreciate the author's attempts to develop Ove's backstory with a bit of pathos instead of just relying on the slapstick bits.

Just finished Chapter 19. Still thoroughly enjoying the book. Still chuckling every time Ove does something that reminds me of myself, like when he glared at his aim-less clog. The first time I drove after getting back to the States from India, where I'd spent about a month, I got in on the passenger's side. It took me a second to realise my mistake; instead of getting out immediately and walking around to the other side, I totally glared at the steering wheel as if it were at fault. For a few seconds, I was utterly indignant that it had the audacity to be on the wrong side of the car.

Incidentally, Randy, I absolutely would have driven around with the cat. In fact, the only bit I found unbelievable in that scene was (view spoiler)[the cat clawing the newspaper and defiantly sticking its paws through the tear (hide spoiler)].

On another interesting-to-me note, I love languages and it's a lot of fun to find similarities among them. Parvaneh in Farsi is like the word parvaana in Hindi; however, where in Farsi it means butterfly, in Hindi it means moth. Similar but not identical. =)

Nik wrote: "Just finished Chapter 19. Still thoroughly enjoying the book. Still chuckling every time Ove does something that reminds me of myself, like when he glared at his aim-less clog. The first time I dro..."

That's interesting about language and Parvaneh's name. Glad you're enjoying the book :)

For the cat scene that you found unbelievable, I think that may be at least in part because (view spoiler)[the cat is constantly being attributed human emotions and motives, which was entertaining for me to read, even if it may not have been accurate. (hide spoiler)].

Kristina, agree completely. The Cat Annoyance is highly entertaining, believable or not. (For the record, though, I think most of the stuff is believable—cats really are the most amazing jerks sometimes.)

Nik wrote: "Kristina, agree completely. The Cat Annoyance is highly entertaining, believable or not. (For the record, though, I think most of the stuff is believable—cats really are the most amazing jerks some..."

I agree! If the first thing I do when I get home is not saying hello to my cat, she slaps my legs when I pass her lol

I really love Cat Annoyance!

Nik wrote: "Just finished Chapter 19. Still thoroughly enjoying the book. Still chuckling every time Ove does something that reminds me of myself, like when he glared at his aim-less clog. The first time I dro..."

I even think Seven (my cat) would do that Nik! Probably the notion that she would do it to defy me, would be my own interpretation, but she would definitely (view spoiler)[tear up the newspaper because she likes the feel of the seat to her paws better.
And I too would drive her around more if she wouldn't be so afraid of all the city noises :) (hide spoiler)]

Susy wrote: "(view spoiler)[…she would definitely [tear up the newspaper because she likes the feel of the seat to her paws better. (hide spoiler)]"

Oh, I get that. I just took issue with the specificity of it. My thought was that the Cat Annoyance would (view spoiler)[simply throw the paper to the floor or move it aside, as they did initially. Even shredding it in defiance would have been fine. It was that the Cat Annoyance precisely tore a line through the paper so they could poke their front paws through it that challenged my ability to suspend disbelief a bit (hide spoiler)]. But really, it's not a big deal; I didn't intend to scrutinise it this closely. =)