Monday, June 29, 2015

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry / Fredrik Backman 372 pp.

From the author of the lovely A Man Called Ove comes a tale even more packed with characters and events but which lead, alas, to a less satisfying reading experience.  Elsa is seven and different; her best friend is her grandmother, an off-the-wall retired surgeon who makes a lifestyle of causing incidents such as frightening the neighbors by hiding inside a snowman and tacking pizza slices on Christmas wreaths.  Together they spend their days having adventures in the imaginary land of Miamas until Grandmother's days come to end.  Then, Elsa is sent on a dangerous quest to bring peace to her multi-family apartment building, which involves hidden letters and real predators.  Fanciful and sweet but with an artificial quality; Ove was a much more real character than anyone in this story.

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