My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry
Fredrik Backman
While preparing for my flight to Juneau, Alaska, I picked up
this book as a sporadic moment in the checkout line. While I admit I picked it
up for the wrong reasons (I happened to me upset at my mother, the grandmother
of my son at the time of purchase and thought the irony was good) it turned out
to be a fantastic read.
The story starts out about a seven-year-old girl (almost
eight as she often points out) named Elsa. This is another reason the irony was
good – my son is seven also. Her best and only friend is her eccentric
grandmother of seventy-seven years of age. The bond between Elsa and her
grandma is unbreakable until the unthinkable happens.
In a sudden turn of tragedy, Elsa is left without her best
friend. Her grandmother passed away and Elsa was suddenly left without a friend
or a reason in the world, or so she thought. Despite her grandmother being in
the grave, she sends Elsa on the adventure of a lifetime where she discovers who
she is and who everyone living in her apartment building really is. Fantasy
becomes a reality in a blink of an eye.
This is an easy read for me, but I enjoyed the author’s wit
throughout the novel. His quirky inclusions of nerdy characters like the X-men
and Harry Potter made my day. Being a big X-men fan myself, his comparison of
Elsa’s mother and Grandmother’s relationship to Cyclops and Wolverine’s
relationship made my day.
While this was an impulse buy in the grocery line, with a
25% off sticker, it’s one of the best book purchases I’ve made in a long time.
I ended up finishing it on the flight back to Anchorage. I just couldn’t put it
down. I’m going to have to hunt down other books by this author!
