287
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #91,308 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★☆☆☆
It's a sweet story, but overly simplistic and hard to believe
It's a sweet story, but I just didn't enjoy this book. Others in my book club liked it better than I did, but nobody thought it was a page-turner. It's an easy read, but the writing style was disappointing and elementary for me. At times it has this kind of a rhythm (as an example)...Ove thought that was ridiculous. Ove couldn't understand why someone would do such thing. Ove thought youngsters should know better. That was perhaps intentional by the author, but it was too redundant for me. Another thing that my book club and I could not understand was why the main character was only 59. His age is mentioned 3 times. The entire story is about a retired old curmudgeon (and the word OLD is used several times for Ove such as the "blond weed neighbor calling him a "crazy old muppet") who has lived in his house with his wife for 40 years and he just wants to die because his wife has already died. He acts like an 90 year the whole book. He doesn't know what a laptop, Ipad or Macbook is, cannot pronounce internet, thinks high heels and makeup are ridiculous, he drives slow, uses a shoehorn, doesn't know about hybrid cars, disagrees with using credit cards for shopping, doesn't use a coffee maker because a percolator is perfectly fine, etc. I'm sorry but age 59 just doesn't fit the story. His coworkers say, "wouldn't it be nice to slow down" because they are trying to "retire the older generation." I liked his neighbors as endearing characters, but the story is predictable and at times hard to believe. This will be the type of book that will have wide swings in favorability. It wasn't for me, but I think some folks will enjoy it.
