A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman - ★★★★.½

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AUTHOR: Fredrik Backman
TRANSLATOR: Henning Koch
GENRE: Contemporary Fiction
PUBLICATION DATE: July 15, 2014
RATING: 4.5 stars.

Like I had mentioned in my Eleanor Oliphant review, books that come highly recommended tend to be read with higher expectations, and more often than not, you end up disappointed. But I can't believe I have been lucky enough twice in the same year to find a book that doesn't just match the expectations I had but goes well beyond it.

If you want a detailed analysis of "A Man Called Ove", there are many brilliant reviews of the same and I anyway won't be able to match that standard. What I can only do is pour out my heart about the book.

This is the first book since "Wonder" that made me live the emotions rather than read them mechanically. I rarely laugh out loud or cry with books, but in this case, I found myself not just doing the above but even snorting a couple of times (and I am certainly not a snorter!) The book unfolds like a roller-coaster, starting off slow and steady, and then speedily taking you through ups and downs and roundabouts; you just want to stay on the ride as long as you can, relishing every emotional high and low till you reach the satisfying climax.

Just like "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine", this book made me love all the characters in spite of, and sometimes even because of, their idiosyncrasies. More than half of these characters have real-life counterparts: the disgruntled old man, the concerned neighbour, the educated ignorant, the apathetic bureaucrat, the youth in the throes of first love, the innocent yet oversmart toddler, .... The characters were almost like a psychological case-study. Ove especially is to me so reminiscent of my father. I have always been very close to my Dad, but now I feel like I understand him even better, all because of Ove.

Nothing in the book seems frivolous. There are no filler chapters, there are no obsolete characters, there aren't overt or covert complications. Every single person, house, car, animal and thing has a clear role to play in the development of the story, and this is sheer brilliance on the part of the author.

This is not the best book I have read in my life, but it would certainly rank somewhere at the very top. Fredrik Backman needs to take a special session for all wannabe authors on how to capture your reader and enable them to effortlessly discover, know and love the characters you've created, while at the same time, not compromising on the integrity or quality of your story. Take a bow, Mr. Backman! You get added to my trusted authors list. Well-done indeed!

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