I got to know Britt Marie in an earlier book, 'My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry' by Fredrik Backman, as a negative character, an almost villain. In this book, she is softer, sweeter and still wacky, possibly suffering from a severe case of COD, as she is obsessed with cleaning everything and using baking soda most of the time. The story has humor, satire, and poignancy from the beginning to its last words.

When the novel begins, Britt Marie is sixty-three and she is still married to Kent, who has been the main ruler of her life for forty years. When she hears from Kent’s mistress that he had a heart attack, she leaves home, and after applying for a job at the unemployment office, she settles in the small town of Borg with the job of running the recreation center, which is abandoned. As soon as Britt Marie gets in, she starts cleaning the place. Later in the story, she finds room in a house and begins living there.

Throughout the novel, all the events circle around her, like coaching soccer although she doesn’t know anything about it, being part of a community, and finding herself at the end.

I found the settings of the story to play an important part in the evolution of the events: such as the opening-setting, which is the unemployment office, the tiny dying village of Borg, recreation center, the corner place, which is the shop, pizzeria, car workshop, and the post office at the same time.

The characterization, the forte of Backman, is again at work in this book. Little by little, we learn about Britt Marie, her unhappy past and her awkwardness, socially and otherwise. The manner she evolves and blossoms is praiseworthy and not any small writer’s feat. Also, the secondary characters, all different, quirky, happy or miserable, again are penned with minute attention. This novel also adds to or explains more about the characters and events in the earlier book.

I found this story with all its eccentricity to be very readable and fun, but I may be biased because I am becoming a devout fan of this author.

the enjoyment of a story and appreciation of good characterization in the hands of a very talented author.

the characters and the quirkiness that invades all parts of the story.

read whatever books are left that I didn't read, which are written by this author.

happy and satisfied

is Fredrik Backman, (born 2 June 1981). He is a Swedish columnist, blogger, and writer. He is the author of A Man Called Ove (2012), My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry (2013), Britt-Marie Was Here (2014) Beartown (2016), and Us Against You (2018).

I am partial to Backman's writing and his fearlessness as a writer for experimenting with style and content and his quirky and original characters.

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Created Oct 12, 2018 at 4:21pm • Submit your own review...