My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry – Fredrik Backman

100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: Seven-year-old Elsa is an outcast among her peers and counts her grandmother as her best friend. After her grandmother’s death, Elsa finds she is responsible for resolving some unfinished business involving colorful real-life characters and a fairytale world.

Expectation: A classic underdog overcomes Backman story.

Reality: A scattered and boring effort that showed glimpses of promise but never fully delivered.

Recommended For: Hardcore Backman fans only.

Why I Read It: It had been on my TBR list for almost three years, and I mostly enjoy Backman books.

My Take:

I’ve read a fair amount of Fredrik Backman, and he’s responsible for one of my all-time favorites, “Beartown,” and a smattering of mostly entertaining but flawed efforts, like “A Man Called Ove,” “Anxious People,” and “Us Against You,” the Beartown sequel.

From a publishing perspective, “My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry” is smack between “Ove,” which is a mostly tight narrative focused on a single character and his past and present experiences, and “Beartown,” which introduces a cast of memorable and flawed individuals struggling with a “he said, she said” crime.

“Grandmother” brings in some of the stronger elements of each of those stories — past trauma, regret, failure and, ultimately, hope — but in many ways the story feels like a test run for how to structure an effective, interconnected story with multiple characters and points of view.

Let’s just say, Backman got much better at that type of storytelling with more practice.

For the most part I was confused what has happening, because there are too many characters. The confusion is amplified because the story flips between the real world and the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, fairytale worlds developed by Granny to help Elsa cope with her anxiety and social isolation.

This is fine in theory, but each character has a fairytale alter ego and, it seemed maybe because of the audiobook format, that Elsa used the names and personalities interchangeably so it was really difficult to keep track of what was real or made up.

When the story is anchored fully in the real world it’s the strongest. The relationship between Elsa and her grandmother is a joy to read — especially if you had a special bond with a grandparent and miss them dearly.

The broader characters, Elsa’s mother, Ulrika, and the neighbors in their condo — Britt-Marie, Alf and the “woman in the black skirt” — all had interesting backstories that I wish would’ve been given more page-time instead of the boring fairytale worlds.

Just as Backman explored the loss of a partner in “Ove” and toxic masculinity in “Beartown,” here he dives into trauma that’s out of your control. Many of the adult characters suffered great losses – a sister in a car accident; a spouse and children in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; a whole squad during a nameless (likely Afghanistan) war.  

These individuals were all saved by Granny in some way, and her encouraging Elsa’s quest to “apologize” to each of them helps her understand that the grief of losing her won’t be easy but you can survive it — if you only ask for help.

Unfortunately, the emotional punch is lost between some zany subplots and too much world-building for the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas. If it wasn’t for how deep Backman goes with some of the characters’ trauma, I would’ve thought this was targeted to young readers. Honestly, I just ended up bored.

Joan Walker does her best with the audiobook narration by trying to infuse a unique personality into each person. But, I just wanted the book to be done so listening to it at 2x speed doesn’t allow you to accurately judge her performance.

I’m going to be taking a Backman break after “Grandmother,” but if you’re a fan of his, I’d temper your expectations going in – especially if you’re accustomed to his later, better works.

Rating (story): 2/5 stars

Rating (narration): 3/5

Formats: Audiobook (SIL’s library)

Dates read: May 13 - 18, 2021

Multi-tasking: Good to go. No matter how much you concentrate it will still be difficult to follow.