So I’m trying something new… partly because I have a difficult time remembering what I’ve read, and I also like hearing what people thing about books I may want to read. I am no great critic and I make no promises that my reviews will astound you in anyway, but here goes. I do need to get better about taking notes whilst reading, though.
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry
by Fredrick Backman
I have mixed feelings about this book. In the beginning I wasn’t even sure I’d keep reading it because it didn’t grab me in the way I want to be grabbed (more like a creepy too delicate hug when you want a passionate embrace). It was a slow burn with an occasional pop and crackle that would just keep my interest enough that I stuck with it, assuming that eventually there would be a burst of flames.
It’s a unique story in the way that it’s told, but I felt like the imaginative world often overshadowed reality too much at times and it wasn’t until a little over halfway through the book that I actually started to get into it and wanted to know what happened next. The imaginary world of Miamas is complex and in the beginning I became a little bored with it quite frankly. Eventually it made more sense and the way the real world and Miamas were weaved together became more enjoyable and I appreciated it more for what it was.
Ultimately, I did end up enjoying it. Maybe I was even in the wrong frame of my mind when I began it and only appreciated it in the end because I persevered and my mood changed? I think I may read it again to see… maybe next year.
The synopsis from Goodreads:
From the author of the internationally bestselling A Man Called Ove, a novel about a young girl whose grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters, sending her on a journey that brings to life the world of her grandmother’s fairy tales.
Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy, standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus-crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.
When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s letters lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and totally ordinary old crones, but also to the truth about fairytales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.