A Man Called Ove by Fredrik BackmanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
When you are a guy silently reading lectures and medical texts, what will you do if a girl sitting beside you suddenly cried? Will you:
A. Shy away, feeling a little awkward at the moment
B. Watch her cry
C. Hold her hand and ask her the reason why
D. All of the above
Lol, he took letter D for an answer.
It was a rainy Sunday morning, minutes after he took his breakfast that he saw his beloved crying. Tears (view spoiler) were falling down her eyes when she was reading fast, ingesting the climax of the e-book she was reading:
Ove was hurt.
Ove is an old widow, had a lonely childhood, no sibling, no mother. He grew up with his father filled with simple life. The father-and-son relationship is not as warm as a christmas morning, but it wasn't bleak either. But when you learn to know a man who took a train going to the other side just to stay beside the woman he desired, you learn Ove's sensitivity. Bits and pieces of him came through the chapters, and you feel in awe of the things he has done for his beloved. Their lives are full of love, and yet, loneliness hits you hard when you found out that he was planning to follow his wife to the heaven — by committing a suicide.
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But enough of the spoilers, because when I was reading the climax til the end I was crying.
When the man beside me asked as to why I was crying, my words became incomprehensible. I felt pity and angry and sad and serene in the end, and I just want to hug Ove because of what happened but can't, so I cry the frustrations and sentiments to the man who asked why, and more crying ensued.
And deep inside, I wish that when I grow old, we can be like Ove and Sonja, a couple full of love.
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