There is life after 59 years! Domestic readers are little familiar with the work of Frederic Backman, and in vain. To our shame, we also learned about it quite recently. And today we will help you to touch his works for some time.
Today we will talk about the book “The Second Life of Ove”. Briefly consider the plot, as well as the meaning of the whole work. So sit back, it will be interesting.
Brief story
In the center of the plot we have the old man Uwe, who is 59 years old. Six months ago, his wife Sonya died, with whom he lived in perfect harmony for 40 years. Now we have a grumpy and straightforward grandfather who can tell everyone what he thinks.
Seeing no point in living even after being fired from work, Uwe decides to commit suicide. And everything is carefully thought out. For example, he spreads an oilcloth under him, so that it would be easier for his hanged man to immediately lower it and not dirty the floor in the house.
However, every time he is interrupted by either a neighbor who knocked on the door to the garage, where he wanted to be poisoned by exhaust fumes, or other visitors.
Despite all the hardships, Uwe is a pedant to the marrow of his bones. He gets up at 5.45 every morning to drink coffee and walk around his small village. He walks the streets, checking the cars in the parking lot, how well the garbage in the bins is sorted, whether the garages are broken into, rewriting the license plates of visitors’ cars.
He becomes furious if he sees a cigarette butt on the grass or a bag of chips, as he believes that the order in the city is, to a large extent, his merit. Uwe is sure that without pedants like him, anarchy would have reigned in the world long ago.
Each chapter opens the doors to Uwe’s life and his past a little wider. And we understand that he went through his life path, which made him so.
For example, as a child, he handed over a wallet with money found at his father’s work to the lost and found office, and after his father’s death at work, he gave the company an advance that he managed to receive.
However, the life of the already elderly Uwe changes after Parvane and her family become his new neighbor. They used to live in the Middle East.
The meaning of the book
On the cover of the book, the author himself wrote the following: “I would like to hope that in each of us there is at least a little Uwe.” Perhaps this phrase is the meaning of the whole work.
To paraphrase, Uwe is conscience, and the writer hopes that everyone has at least a small part of it.
In fact, Uwe is a very kind, sensitive and always ready to help person at heart. he is just straightforward, does not like hypocrisy and lies. When he and his wife were in a car accident and she lost her baby and ended up permanently in a wheelchair, he remodeled the house for her. Then he quarreled with the authorities of the town and the school administration, but nevertheless he made a ramp for his wife so that she could freely continue to teach literature to children.
Ove is the personification of conscience, and he will not tolerate injustice. He is also a patriot of his country, and does not understand how others can give preference to imported things, in particular, cars. He, for example, prefers his old Swedish Saab and is proud of it.
Backman also wants to tell us that love for relatives and friends, people around can radically transform a person. As long as Uwe’s wife was alive, he saw the meaning in everything. with her departure, he lost his bearings, but soon he saw him in a simple service to people. From that time, his real second life begins, about which the book is written.
The author strives to convey to us that we need to be more sensitive to people around, show interest and care for them. After all, even the most nondescript or grouchy person can be very sensitive and kind, just carefully hiding his insides.
This concludes our analysis. If you have any questions or suggestions, be sure to write them in the comments. And we have prepared for you some equally interesting analyzes. Here they are:
What does John Kehoe’s book “The Subconscious Can Do Anything” teach?
What ended the series “Good Intentions” or the end of the world in British
How did the Ashes series end or what does the thief and commander of the Red Army have to do with it
And now that’s all. See you soon on the pages of new articles and a peaceful sky over your head.
