A Man Called Ove & Finding Life

 Those who find their life will lose it,

and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

 

Matthew  (NRSV)

When our three children were young Ruth read to all of us in our various vehicles as we travelled through Northern Ontario and as far away as Newfoundland. It's a warm memory for all of us. We moved on to books on audio tape, then CD's, and we're still listening although now it's a download onto a phone played through the car sound system.

We've just finished 9 1/2 hours of a Swedish bestselling novel, A Man Called Ove (OOH-ve). It's been translated into several languages and become a play and a Swedish film. Now it will "go Hollywood" with Tom Hanks as the star, although honestly I think he is ill-cast.

I didn't think we'd get beyond the first chapter or two because Ove is described in detail as a cantankerous, thoroughly unlikable man in his late fifties. He is gruff and suspicious of virtually everyone, a stickler for details, providing he gets to make the rules. Who needs this sort of story? Supposedly the novel is humorous!

We stuck with it, fortunately. The author, Fredrik Backman, slowly reveals Ove's life story, and we begin to appreciate the reasons for his sour way of being. We discover that he has recently lost his wife, the only person who ever understood his inner self. And with that loss he methodically plans his demise.

But despite his determination Ove keeps getting diverted from death by encounters with neighbours and acquaintances and strangers -- almost miraculously. And we realize that he is actually a compassionate and  -dare we say it-- generous person whose practicality is a godsend for others.

I won't spoil the ending, but I will tell you that we often laughed aloud at parts of the book, and at its conclusion we were quite moved. The man we found so unsavoury to begin with had found his way into our hearts.

I kept thinking about the gospel passage in which Jesus says, paradoxically, that if we hope to find our lives we will need to lose them. As someone who has experienced tremendous loss through life Ove wants to protect himself, yet he finds fulfillment in giving, from the heart.

Yup, I would certainly recommend A Man Called Ove. It's not great literature, but it still has life lessons.

Have you read it? Did you like it?