"L" found this book, and it sounded good to us so we read it. We both really liked it. It deals with some heavy topics, but uses humor in a way that we found ourselves bursting out laughing, as in LOL'ing. So, thumbs up!
I want to start by saying: go look up the word "kronor." No, I'm just kidding, I did that for you. Kronor is the name of money in Sweden. Yes, this book is set in Sweden. It took until page 52 for me to hear the word, kronor, and I didn't stop to look it up. Maybe I was driving since I had the audiobook. I finally figured it out! Note, you may also want to know that the car, Saab, was founded in Sweden in 1945; don't ask me why you may want to know this. Just trust me.
It's hard to give a recap without giving spoilers....hmmm. So, I think I'll skip one of the "biggie" themes, because the reader needs to figure that one out all on their own.
Biggie topics:
- A worldview that is black & white (either right or wrong) without the shades of gray (or compromise)
- At the same time that shades of gray/compromise might be a good thing, we see Ove (pronounced Oo' vuh) NOT compromising on his principles. L and I liked the way Ove stuck to his values even in hard situations, where someone else may have wavered. Ove (ooo' vuh) decided what kind of man he was, and that's who he was. Truly. You knew where he stood :-)
- Retirement; we get some of Ove's (ooo' vuh)'s views on retirement, and what he calls becoming "superfluous." This is an issue that L and I have spoken about a bit more of late, now that she and I are both nearing the age of retirement (not yet! but not so far away). And so it was interesting to hear Ove tackle the topic.
- Miscellaneous topics: loyalty, what gives life purpose, and different types of people - from "foreigners" (as Ove says), and maybe ethnocentricity or the lack thereof, as well as persons who are LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Queer).
P.S. Something that caught me off-guard was hearing the same exact 2 sentences only a few pages apart. (pg 58 of Large print book) "He was a man of black and white. And she was color. All the color he had." (pg 70 of Large print book) "People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had." --- I never like to see even one sentence repeated, especially so close together. Was this an editing mistake? Seems like it.
P.S.S. An example of superb use of language: "Get out! No animals in cafe!" 'He slashes at the consonants so that they hop about like naughty children caught inside the sentence.' (Awwwesome!)
List of Characters, Ove and Sonja, Rune and Anita, The Lanky One (Patrick), the foreign pregnant one (Parvanhah), Adrian, Lena, Jimmy, Mirsad, Amel.
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