2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Fredrik Backman‘s book, A Man Called Ove.


***Please remember to mark spoilers.***

Participants: D.G.,Danielle

Suggested break down of reading so that you can check in and let us know how you're doing. The following breakdown is purely a suggestion and is therefore not set in stone.

Rather than putting dates for each section I've done it so that it takes into account that not everybody will necessarily have the book at the same time.

Week 1: 84
Week 2: 84
Week 3: 84
Week 4: 84

Thanks Mary Pat!

Let me give Danielle the thread so we can start tomorrow!

Ok I've started!

I think I'm in chapter 3, thereabouts. A few initial thoughts:
- Ove is such a curmudgeon! I laughed so much with some of his rants (remind me of my husband who has gotten a bit curmudgeony over the years.)
- I'm listening to the audio and I would have never figured out the Swedish pronunciation of Ove on my own. (Sort of like Oova).
- (view spoiler)[Did his wife died? It's difficult to discern so far because the book is in first person but she's definitely not around. (hide spoiler)]

D.G. wrote: "Ok I've started!

I think I'm in chapter 3, thereabouts. A few initial thoughts:
- Ove is such a curmudgeon! I laughed so much with some of his rants (remind me of my husband who has gotten a bit curmudgeony over the years.)

Hahaha, does he agree?

- I'm listening to the audio and I would have never figured out the Swedish pronunciation of Ove on my own. (Sort of like Oova).

Interesting, not exactly how I pronounced it (understatement).

(view spoiler)..."

Lol, just wait and find out ;) I wondered myself at the beginning :)

Hahaha, I haven't talk to him about the book yet! :) I need to start a list of the things my husband rants about...hahahaha.

- the pronunciation of often as OF-TEN instead of 'offen': he usually goes like...do people say LIS-TEN? It's 'lissen!" (hahahaha!!)
- the increasing number of advertising everywhere (oy vey! this one comes quite often...hahahaha!)

can't think of more right now but I'll keep this as a running list!!!

Ok, not sure where I am now, but I read today up to the chapter with the clown. (LOL!)

I cried in the subway this morning while I was listening (probably should have held it in, specially with all the commotion in NYC this morning). This hit closer to home as (view spoiler)[ my husband was a widower when I met him and he talked how he seriously considered committing suicide after his first wife died. But after a while, even with how much he hurt, he realized he wanted to keep on living. I guess that's where Ove will end up. (hide spoiler)]

Alright! Sorry I wasn’t able to leave a comment earlier but things have been a little crazy for me lately.

I did get a chance to read up to about Chapter 6 (I think) and so far I’m really enjoying it!! I love seeing characters with different points of view so it’s really fun to see Ove’s extremely stubborn attitude and then go back and see how that all started with his relationship to his dad. I also so badly want to be irritated with Ove but he reminds me so much of my grandparents that it all just turns into fond exasperation.

I’m excited to read about this clown. I can’t really imagine Ove even talking to a clown! And thanks for the warning about the tears. I tend to read between classes as much as I can and that’s not a great place for crying.

Danielle wrote: "I can’t really imagine Ove even talking to a clown! "

LOL, so true!

I just finished chapter 19, where Ove took a drive with the cat. That was both so freaking hilarious and touching. I both laughed uproariously and ended up crying at the end of the chapter. (You probably already noticed that I'm a cryer. ;)

I'm enjoying the flashbacks with young, muscular Ove falling in love with Sonja. Sorry I can't post the chapters...this is one of the issues with listening that you cannot do any highlights!

Anyhow, there are two things I'd like to discuss: (view spoiler)[
his suicide attempts - I mean, they have been serious tries so he definitely means it. If it hadn't been because the rope broke, he would have died in his first attempt (I laughed so much when he grumbled about the quality of the rope!) But I think he's desire to do "the right thing" is stronger. That's why he cannot help but lend a hand when somebody asks him and he considered the poor young train conductor feelings.

relationship with Sonja - drat...need to go to work so can talk about this now. (hide spoiler)]

I don't know that I've cried so much with a book in my life - not even with The Book Thief.

It broke my heart when the author peeled the onion regarding Ove and Rune animosity.

BMW indeed!

So it took me a while but I finally sat down and listened to the rest of the book in one sitting. Thankfully, this gave me time to clean my house and finally put up the rest of the Christmas decorations. The bad part is I had to stop and sit down on the couch to cry hysterically.

I always loved books that were about groups of people forming strong connections (I guess you could call them families of choice) so this book really hit hard in all the best ways. I think it’s definitely in my top 5 books.

I finished it a couple of days ago and also gave it 5 stars.

I never specially thought about liking books where people form their own family but you are totally right! By the end, Parvanah was the (view spoiler)[child he had lost and he had time to enjoy being a granddad.(view spoiler)[

I also liked how he ended up having a life (view spoiler)[ separate from Sonja after her death(view spoiler)[ and how he felt needed and useful even though he was retired. And he had so much to offer! (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]