Book Story – ‘A Man Called Ove’ – By Fredrick Blackman
Books are often read on the recommendation of people, you feel have your taste or can recommend as per your preference of genre.
So, one day, I called my mentor cum teacher from college days after I had finished a very beautiful book about a teacher-student relationship in context to life lessons.
This call I made, was after a long time, and she told me she has lost her husband a couple of months back. I was a bit taken aback hearing this. She told me about her failing health with a lot of poise in her voice.
She also told me how she keeps a tab of my work through my social media accounts.
Hearing this, I felt love and energy gushed in my heart and started wondering how a teacher’s heart is so full of love n care despite all her pain n sorrow. And I smiled to myself, thinking this is the reason my heart ached to reach out to her after reading that book.
She lovingly suggested me to make sure to read this book, ‘A Man Called Ove’.
I got this book and when I realized it’s the debut novel of the author, it made me wonder – what an encouraging thing to write a book in the first place, and then getting such warm reader response – must have made its author floating on 9th sky (if there is any).
Subtleness Redefined
I started and felt a little slow. Left reading it for a week – as a reader, we somehow start feeling/assuming books to serve us instant pleasure like OTT on Netflix or Amazon Prime, etc.
I picked up this book again and this time my heart felt the protagonist’s pain, few smiles, and breathing his life in waves.
Few chapters in the book, are so endearing and can make you feel so close to situations that you can actually feel your hands trembling, heart missing a heartbeat, and throat going dry.
The pace and the subtleness of the characters and the story have ..either you will stop reading it altogether or you will move at Ove, protagonist’s pace.
This book has its very clear demands- either you walk with it with the pace it commands or simply walk out.
I tried walking away…but failed miserably. It will be with me forever. Someday, I will again pick this up again to read when the pace of the world around me tries to overwhelm me.
Bond described in the book between Ove and his dead wife is beyond words. Ove’s beliefs, values and practices are so museum type, very difficult to find these days.
You might find many parts of Ove’s around you, and after reading this, you might think about embracing them with a warm hug, provided they let you.
You might get the feeling of old-world subtle romance, where your imagination led to warmth in the relationship.
Beautiful and heart-warming read.
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