A Man Called Ove

“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.”

This gives an early impression of Ove, framing him as a judgmental and grumpy old man. Ove proves to be far more open-minded than anticipated, for instance, in his acceptance of Mirsad. 

“[He] shoved his hands in his pockets in that particular way of a middle-aged man who expects the worthless world outside to disappoint him.”

These brief lines characterize Ove’s worldview. The world has repeatedly disappointed him, and he has faced many obstacles: the loss of his family home, Sonja’s accident, the loss of a child, the loss of Sonja, and the loss of a job. 

“Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had.” 

Here we see not only Ove’s worldview encapsulated (he sees everything as black/white or right/wrong) but also how Sonja complemented him. She brightened his life, and the narrative reiterates a version of this line twice.