A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Bachman

AN ENTIRE SPOILER ALERT (of one of the best books I've ever read. I did my best to write this review in the style of Ove-please forgive the run-on sentences. Ove would understand them, and I liked Ove.):

I read a lot. I enjoy most of what I read. But occasionally, a book is so well-written, so true to form, of prose and content, and believability that I not only enjoy the characters, I know them. I knew Ove. I loved Ove. I hurt for Ove. I laughed and cried and hoped for Ove.

Ove (pronounced oova) is a man of 59 who sees the world in black and white. A true right vs. wrong, BMW vs. Saab kind of man, turned out from his job through forced retirement shortly after his wife, Sonja, passed. Without Sonja to care for and a job to do, Ove fails to see any reason to continue with life. And if it weren't for the meddling, needy new family who moved in down the road, comprised of a "non-caucasian" woman (Ove isn't racist, he's blunt, factual, matter-of-fact, and from Ove's perspective, a woman from Iran is in fact, not caucasian. That isn't a matter of being racist, it's simply the way it is), her "incapable husband" (again, from Ove's perspective, Patrick, who can't do so much as back up a bloody trailer without hitting Ove's mailbox, is not a capable person) and "curious" children (curious not only because they ask too many questions, but because they are strange little creatures to a man who never had children), Ove may have succeeded in dying. But things happen, plans change, tomorrow may be better timing.

Ove, who insists on following the rules (no bikes parked outside the bike shed because the sign says so; no driving in the residential square because, again, there is a sign posted that says otherwise), tries desperately to join his wife in the afterlife, promising her he will do so while on his daily visits with her. Still, through whatever reasons, divine intervention, nosey neighbors, or pure luck, the non-caucasian woman and her incapable, curious family, along with a group of unlikely people which include an orphaned man in the house next to Ove's, the woman and her infirm husband who once was Ove's friend until the man purchased a BMW, a homeless, "bent" young man, his stand-on-ceremony father, and the bent young man's best friend who is too incompetent to change a bike tire, and a mangy cat with only one ear, half a tail, and patches of missing fur intervene. Showing Ove in strange, uncomplicated, and unplanned ways, Ove is still relevant and needed.

Without exception, a Man Called Ove is one of my new favorite reads. Of course, it won't be for everyone; not everyone understands a "Get off my lawn" kind of attitude, but I do, and I loved it.