Phong Lê’s Reviews > A Man Called Ove > Status Update

Ove’s wife’s condition is obvious from four or five pages in, so its big reveal falls flat and fails to deliver on an emotional level as the author intends. Up until that point, Ove has also been portrayed in such an exaggeratedly bad light that it was hard to feel any sympathy for him anyway.

Manipulative storytelling. Clumsy exaggeration of Ove’s personality flaws just so the author can then try to earn our sympathy by revealing his tragic backstory for no reason other than to earn our sympathy.

Tedious, repetitive and mechanical storytelling. I’m going to throw this thing in the fire if a character nods or kicks at the ground one more time. Four times per page for 28 pages is quite enough.