Be thankful, grateful, patient, charitable, kind, and don’t forget to smile, as it is infectious. God Bless America and Protect Our President and Military
As someone who has written and published several books, I find it hard to critique others’ work because every book has an audience. You can’t judge a book by its cover, or by its first impression. (Read On)
The book A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, adapted into a movie, was released in Sweden in 2012. I might add unbeknownst to me. The book was released here in the States in July of 2014. I am stating this as if in my defense.
Zoom ahead to October 2014, the movie St. Vincent was released, starring Melissa McCarthy in her first serious role as a newly divorced Catholic, single mother with a son in 6th grade. It was actually not a book but was based on a 2011 screenplay by Theodore Melfi, called St. Vincent De Nuys, and it was Hollywood Blacklisted. It was directed by Melfi, who wrote the role specifically with Bill Murray in mind.
Melissa McCarthy, in her first serious role, plays an X-Ray Tech who gets a job at a local hospital out of state and buys the house next door, of all people, Bill Murray (aka St. Vincent). He’s a grumpy ex-Vietnam vet whose wife is slipping away with dementia in a nursing home, drinks too much, smokes too much, gambles with money he doesn’t have (trying to keep her in an upscale nursing home for the little time she has left), and has a shared love interest with a local stripper (Naomi Watts).
McCarthy needs a babysitter to be present with her son, who is the new kid in a tough 6th-grade inner-city Catholic School neighborhood, while she is working her 12-hour, sometimes plus shifts. The son is taught by Chris O’Dowd, a priest at the school, who offers religious insight and gives them a worthy year-end project.
Murray, on the other hand, helps the kid get street-smart and ready for life’s challenges. I/We would highly recommend this movie if you haven’t seen it, and if you did watch it again, as it is well worth it!
So, browsing the shelves at our local Barnes and Noble in December of 2014, I came across the book, A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman. I read the jacket cover, which had the same feel as the movie, St. Vincent, and boy, was I wrong! Normally, I try to get through a book in 50 pages before losing it to my memory, and I think I made it maybe to page 35? I actually thought it was so bad I tried to return it! This is where the saying “you can’t judge a book by its cover” comes in.
Leave it to none other than Tom Hanks to make a fool of me when, in January of 2023, the movie A Man Called Otto was released. In its credits, it stated that it was loosely based on the book A Man Called Ove. How this book became a New York Times bestseller is beyond me. However, the movie A Man Called Otto was great! Go Figure!
So, I gave you my story and my pick for an overrated book. What was yours, and why??
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