Britt-Marie was here (by Fredrik Backman)

(Amazon UK link)

I very much liked the book ‘Anxious people’ by Fredrik Backman when our local reading group read it a couple of years ago. And I enjoyed ‘A man called Ove’ when I read that in the summer. So I was pleased to find that the reading group had chosen another book by this author for this month’s read: ‘Britt-Marie was here’. I was able to buy it inexpensively for my Kindle when it was on special offer.

The story is about a woman of 63 called Britt-Marie. We meet her in a job centre, being rather a nuisance to the unfortunate girl behind the counter. Britt-Marie wants a job, but she has no professional experience - or nothing recent - and she has no idea what she wants to do. It’s quickly clear that she was married but is no longer, though it takes a bit longer to learn what happened. She doesn’t need money; she seems to have plenty. But she wants a job. 

Britt-Marie has obsessive-compulsive tendencies. The author demonstrates this right at the start as we see her pondering the best - indeed, the only - way to organise a cutlery drawer. This theme recurs again, later in the book. Britt-Marie evidently likes routines, and believes that certain things (such as meals) must happen at certain times. She keeps endless lists to keep her days ordered. And she hassles the job centre worker so much that she is eventually given a job.

The job doesn’t pay very much, and is only for three weeks. It’s at run-down small town miles from anywhere; Britt-Marie is to be the caretaker for a recreation centre. The bulk of the book takes place as she tries to impose some order - including extensive cleaning - and gets to know a few locals, most of whom are as strange as she is, albeit in different ways.

But there are also forays into the past, as Britt-Marie remembers comments by her husband, putting her down. She also mentions the loss of her sister at a young age, and the circumstances surrounding it. I found myself feeling more and more in sympathy with her - her obsessive compulsive nature seems to have stemmed from childhood neglect and trauma. Then she had a husband who considered her socially awkward, and didn’t succeed in hiding the fact that he was having an affair…

Fredrik Backman is Swedish but his books are very well translated, and I thought this, like the others, was very well written. He has a dry kind of humour and an excellent writing style. In several places I smiled; more than once I almost laughed. The poignancy is well balanced by the lighter sections, and I found it a very readable book.

Having said that, I felt that it dragged a bit in the middle. That’s partly because there are quite a few young teenagers who drop into the recreation centre; they mostly had nicknames, and they all seemed rather two-dimensional. There’s rather a lot of football, too. Britt-Marie has no interest in football at first, but gradually finds herself drawn in, even getting excited at tense matches. Football (indeed, any competitive sport) leaves me cold. I could see that it was used in the book as a means of drawing the community together; that football is something of a metaphor for life, and in particular for Britt-Marie’s gradual thawing. But it’s not a metaphor that drew me in.

There are some likeable characters in the book, although none of them is explored in any great depth. There are some important issues at stake: quite apart from the emotional abuse Britt-Marie has suffered, there are children living in poverty and neglect, an older teenager who is in trouble with the police, and one who is seriously in debt. The picture of the almost abandoned former town is realistic and quite moving at times. And the ending of the book, although somewhat left open, is - I thought - quite satisfying. 

I didn’t like this quite as much as the other books I read by Fredrik Backman, but I still enjoyed it overall.

Review copyright 2024 Sue's Book Reviews

A Man Called Ove (by Fredrik Backman)

(Amazon UK link)

Nearly two years ago I read the book ‘Anxious People’ by the Swedish author Fredrik Backman. In discussion with the local book group, I learned that they had previously read another book by this author, ‘A Man Called Ove’. They had all liked it, and were pleased that it was being made into a film starring Tom Hanks, albeit moving the setting to the United States and the name to ‘Otto’. 

So when I saw the book available inexpensively for download on my Kindle, it was an easy decision to acquire it. I have been reading it for the past few days and finished last night. On the whole I liked it very much.

The time frame is a bit confusing at first, as the story moves backwards and forwards as new details are revealed. But it starts with Ove, a man who must be in his mid-sixties, trying to buy a computer. He has never done so before, and his questions don’t quite make sense. So he becomes increasingly annoyed with the sales staff…

The action then moves a few weeks earlier. We see Ove meeting a stray cat, whom he dislikes on sight. Then he sets out on what is evidently his daily rounds of inspection on the estate where he lives. He’s somewhat obsessive about security, possibly autistic: it’s not clear. His life follows a predictable routine which all seems rather depressing. He has recently retired from his work and is not happy all the extra time he has available.

But Ove has many depths. Through forays into the past, and interactions with his neighbours, we quickly learn that although he is grumpy and technologically challenged, he is kind, altruistic and generous when he feels that people deserve it. He also decides, sometimes, that he will help even if he doesn’t feel like it, since this leads to fewer altercations and less hassle. And, rather against my better judgement, I started liking Ove more and more. 

His life has not been happy; he never knew his mother, and his father was an undemonstrative man of few words. Ove is scrupulously honest and hopes to live up to his father’s memory as far as he can. But he has lost the one bright spark - the love of his life - and he’s really not sure how to live without her. 

I was a bit shocked when I realised, in one of the early chapters, that Ove was planning to end his life. He made his plans scrupulously. It could have been disturbing, but somehow the author manages to introduce some low-key humour in the descriptions. Ove does not want to leave a mess, or make life difficult for whoever discovers him. And despite three or four attempts, via different methods, he can’t quite succeed…

I was a tad confused by the names and descriptions of the various neighbours. But Ove didn’t always know their names anyway. He is thrust into the life of his neighbour Parvati who is heavily pregnant. And despite his lack of comprehension of small children, he is beloved by her three-year-old, and finds almost a kindred spirit in her older child. 

He also becomes involved in a problem experienced by his neighbour Anita whose husband Rune is suffering from Alzheimer’s. There are other neighbours too; those who are important in the story take on more of a character as Ove gets to know them. 

The writing is excellent - at least in its translated form - and the author tells an excellent character-based story. But there are some important issues raised: that of parental expectations, for instance, or of who is responsible when tragedies happen. There are also questions asked about what responsibility the state has in taking adults into care homes if they believe that there is insufficient care in the home. And overall there’s a positive, encouraging theme about the importance of community - even if it has taken Ove a very long time to accept it.

Given the themes, I would not have expected to like this book as much as I did. But I found it almost compulsive reading. The chapters are short with descriptive titles and it's quickly clear which ones are set in the past. I would recommend 'A Man Called Ove' to anyone, with the proviso that there are some descriptions of suicide attempts. They are written in an almost light-hearted way that could be upsetting to those who have lost loved ones. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's Book Reviews

Anxious People (by Fredrik Backman)

(Amazon UK link)

I had not heard of Fredrik Backman, although I gather he’s written some bestselling novels, one of which is soon to be released as a film. His book ‘Anxious People’ was allocated for this month’s reading group, so I acquired a copy and then read it in three or four days. The author is Swedish, and writes in that language, so I was reading a translation - and am very impressed with that. The language not only flows extremely well, but even manages an annoying pun that’s mentioned more than once.

Having said that, it took me a little while to get into the book. The chapters are short, the time frame variable, and the subject matter somewhat up for debate. My summary is that it’s about a group of people who were taken hostage after a failed bank robbery. But it’s also about capitalist society, and depression, and there’s a bridge that features quite heavily. Pizza, too, and fireworks, and people hiding things from others…

It’s essentially character-driven, and the author clearly has tremendous empathy, able to get under the skins of a variety of different folk. Amongst the hostages there’s a caring elderly woman, a middle-aged married couple, a young lesbian couple, one of whom is quite heavily pregnant, and an older, single woman who is either obsessive-compulsive or autistic. There’s also an estate agent, though she doesn’t feature all that much (other than with her annoying tagline that was cleverly translated), and - though we don’t meet him at first - a guy dressed as a rabbit.

These diverse people are introduced somewhat randomly as they meet each other, initially at a viewing of a flat that’s for sale. Much is made of it being on the day before New Year’s Eve. But we also learn about a man who jumped off a bridge ten years earlier, and a little background into why the bank robber decided to do something as drastic as robbing a bank.

There are lots of other bits of background information that get filled in, sometimes in chapters that are shorter than a single page. I couldn’t keep everything in my mind, so when I was part-way through the book I went back to re-read some of the introductory section. It made more sense then, but I can see why the author did what he did.

Some quite heavy issues are covered in the gradual unfolding of people’s personalities, so it’s impressive that there is also some humour. There were several places where I smiled at the phrasing of a comment, or the way people were behaving. The balance is extremely well done, without in any way detracting from the serious nature of living with anxieties and immense stress, of not fitting in with society, or of trying to make a good life for one’s children despite a difficult childhood of one’s own.

There are some unexpected twists and turns, including a couple of revelations that I really wasn’t expecting (one of which made me go back, yet again, to an earlier section to try to figure out why I hadn’t seen it coming). And the ending is entirely satisfactory, with a kind of postscript that tells us what was going to happen to some of the characters in the future.

Those who prefer action-driven books, or those with a lot of clear plot may find this slow-moving or dull, but for those of us - and it included most of the reading group - who love character-driven books, I would recommend this highly. The entire main story takes place over just a few hours, but there are many flashbacks to events in the past, to circumstances that led to each of the hostages being present, and to one of the characters in discussion with a psychiatrist.

Overall, I enjoyed the book very much and may even look out for others by the same author.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's Book Reviews