Backman

I’ve read almost all of his books. Man Called Ove, Anxious People, Britt-Marie Was Here, Bear Town Trilogy. I absolutely love his writing and now I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself until he publishes a new book. I love how he takes the entire first half of a book to develop deeply rich and complex characters before the “story” truly begins. I feel like I’m already living with them before anything happens. It’s like peeling an onion, with each character being a layer before you reach the core/root.

I think the comparison between books is like you mentioned, a common theme that people are often not who they appear to be. I appreciate how he conveys that theme with a focus on different generations for each of his books. Ove (elderly), Bear Town (teens), Anxious People (younger adults), Britt-Marie (middle age adults), My Grandmother (child). Often when we read books where main characters are not of our generation we find it difficult to relate. Somehow Backman has this beautiful talent to help us make that connection with those of other generations.

I guess I’m just too impatient to be a Backman fan. I really do not like fantasies and there was just too much constant referring to the fairy tales and Land-of-almost-awake for me. I realize the grandmother made these stories up to help Elsa through each upsetting event in her life and they gave her strength to go on but after reading 130 pages I just had to stop. I wasn’t enjoying it, it was drudgery to make myself read, and I couldn’t help thinking of other books I had waiting.

I’m glad you enjoyed it and I have heard it’s a good book but it’s not the right book for me right now. I hope I get back to it some day as I suspect it gets better, but I wasn’t enjoying the Land-of-waiting-for-better.

I’m also a huge Backman fan. I’ve read Ove and Britt-Marie, and I’ll pick up Bear Town for next month’s challenge. While it took me a minute or two to wrap my head around the Land of Almost Asleep (because it’s been quite a number of minutes since I’ve been an almost-eight-year-old), part of what I enjoy about Backman is that he forces me to slow down and pay attention to the journey. I thought this was one of his best.