A Man Called Ove

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012

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Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary: “A Man Called Ove Buys a Computer That Is Not a Computer”

The book opens with the main character, 59-year-old Ove, attempting to buy a computer in an electronics store. He is demanding and out-of-touch with modern technology, asking the shop assistant about an “O-pad” in a dismissive manner: “So this is one of those O-pads, is it?” (1).

He is suspicious of the tablet and doesn’t quite understand it. When the young shop assistant tries to explain, Ove quickly becomes exasperated: “I want a computer! A normal bloody computer!” (2). The shop assistant proposes a laptop, but this also does not fit into Ove’s definition of what he considers to be a computer.

The assistant convinces Ove to consider a MacBook—or “McBook” (3) as Ove calls it. Ove’s ornery manner wears out the assistant, who calls over a colleague to demonstrate the device while he goes to lunch. The young man’s mention of lunch sets Ove off again: “Lunch […] That’s the only thing people care about nowadays” (4). Then, sneering, Ove walks out of the shop without buying anything.

Chapter 2 Summary: “(3 Weeks Earlier) A Man Called Ove Makes His Neighborhood Inspection”

The second chapter jumps back to three weeks earlier and describes Ove’s regular routine at the house in Sweden where he has lived for almost four decades. The narrative paints him as a creature of habit. He starts his day at 5:45 a.m. and doesn’t even require an alarm clock, he’s so regular: “He woke up at quarter to six and that was when he got up” (5).

He then puts on the coffee percolator, “using exactly the same amount of coffee as any other morning” (5). He used to drink a cup with his wife, Sonja, but this does not appear to be part of the routine on this day, as she is only alluded to but makes no appearance.

Next Ove goes on his neighborhood inspection. Outside he confronts a cat—which he dislikes just as much as any human. He then proceeds to survey his neighborhood, suspiciously checking if street signs are secure, whether his garage door is locked, and if any unauthorized vehicles are in the guest parking lot.

After his morning walk, he goes home and cancels his telephone service and newspaper subscription. The narrative offhandedly offers this information, as these actions imbue no great significance. However, the reader soon learns that Ove is planning to kill himself. This is hinted at again later in the chapter when describing Ove’s living room ceiling: “He’s going to put up a hook there today. And he doesn’t mean just any kind of hook” (11). It’s a hook for a noose.

Ove has recently lost his job, and this revelation is subtle: “‘Won’t it be nice to slow down a bit?’ they said to Ove yesterday at work” (10). This attitude doesn’t suit Ove, who sees work as imbuing his life with purpose.

Throughout Chapter 2, it becomes clear that Ove is at odds with all his neighbors. He looks at the family—“foreigners” (11)—moving into the house next door with apprehension. The new neighbors then proceed to shatter Ove’s morning peace by scraping the trailer hooked to their car against the side of his house.

Chapter 3 Summary: “A Man Called Ove Reverses with a Trailer”

Ove rushes outside to find his new neighbors: The husband, Patrick, whom Ove simply refers to as “the lanky one” (13), is struggling to back up his car with a trailer attached to it while his wife, Parvaneh, gives instructions. Patrick is tall, blonde, and skinny, while Parvaneh is “short, black-haired and obviously foreign” (13). Their Japanese car is wreaking havoc on Ove’s flowerbeds.

Ove confronts them, roaring at them that this is a no-driving zone. When Patrick fails to back up the car and trailer yet again, this time knocking over Ove’s mailbox, Ove takes over. He gets in the car and ignores the fancy technology, doing it his way—the old-fashioned way: “Reverse radar and parking sensors and cameras and crap like that. A man who needs all that to reverse with a trailer shouldn’t be bloody going it in the first place” (17).

His job done, Ove heads home but doesn’t find peace. The doorbell rings. Two young girls, 3 and 7, are there with a Tupperware container of food—sent over by their mom, Parvaneh. He accepts the gift with suspicion, first thinking they are trying to sell him the food.

The conclusion of Chapter 3 more clearly crystallizes Ove’s plans for suicide. In addition to the solidification of Sonja’s absence, it becomes more apparent that she is deceased. The chapter ends with Ove reiterating that, now that he’s taken care of things like cancelling his newspaper subscriptions, “tomorrow he’s putting up that hook” (21).

Chapters 1-3 Analysis

The narrative immediately presents Ove as a suspicious man—the type of older person who thinks things were better back in his day. His refusal to acknowledge technology and his distrust of anything that isn’t a desktop computer exemplifies this. His physical mannerisms also mirror his innate distrust of others: “He’s the kind of man who points at people he doesn’t like the look of, as if they were burglars and his forefinger a policeman’s torch” (1).

Ove is also mistrustful of modern people and their habits: “People didn’t know how to do that anymore, brew some proper coffee. In the same way as nowadays nobody could write with a pen” (5). This dubious attitude reflects how he views the shop assistant, the neighbors, and even the cat he confronts on his morning walk. There is only one moment where we see Ove vaguely warm to another being, in Chapter 3: As Patrick goes to try to back the car out again, Ove and Parvaneh wearily mutter “Christ” at the same time, “which actually makes Ove dislike her slightly less” (15).

In general, Ove appears weary and bitter. As the reader comes to understand his circumstances, this worldview starts to make sense. He’s been let go from his job, and his absent wife is presumably dead. Coupled with his references to “the hook” and apparent plans for suicide, the portrait painted of Ove is a pathetic and tragic one.