My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry is a novel about an almost 8-year-old girl Elsa and her adventurous mission. Elsa is a different kid. She is smart and intelligent. She is super close to her grandmother and after her death, she gets a hint to go on a mission. Elsa is supposed to give apology letters from her grandmother to everyone who was hurt by her in any way. Elsa is a big fan of Harry Potter and her grandmother’s fairy tales about the Land-of-Almost-Awake. The novel presents a parallel narrative about Elsa’s real life and the fairy tales. As the novel proceeds, the reader realizes that the fairy tales and its characters are taken from Elsa’s real life.

The novel is set in Sweden and there are references to the magical kingdoms created by Elsa’s Granny. There are many characters in the novel including Elsa’s parents, neighbors, and her grandmother. Elsa lives in a building. Almost everyone living in the flats is part of the story. Backman’s character Britt-Marie is also among the residents. The novel can thus be read as a prequel to Britt-Marie Was Here.

Although there are many characters, Backman does not develop his characters. The protagonist is unlikeable for different reasons. She is too smart for her age which I totally understand as she is a different kid. The thing that disturbed me the most was the temperament of the child. She is extremely rude and disrespectful, mostly for no reason. She reminded me of John Green’s teenage philosophers.

The other characters lack depth. Backman does not develop Granny’s character that well either. The whole premise of the novel is to tell others that the grandmother was sorry but for what? There are barely enough reasons to justify the whole endeavor. I finished the book and I still don’t understand what was grandmother sorry for. There was no justifiable backstory and absolutely no emotional connection to the characters.

The novel deals with themes of familial conflicts, female empowerment, and human imperfections. The novel focuses on the impact of imagination in our lives. However, the lack of character development negatively impacts the themes. The themes are there, but the story is not executed properly to convey these themes. It is like having the ingredients to make the dish but ruining it by following the wrong steps.

The novel is written in the third person narrative. The narrative style is a bit off, it is clear but uninspiring. There are surely interesting excerpts in the novel. The narrative is mostly humorous as is the case with Backman. It is witty and sometimes thought-provoking. I am mentioning some of my favorite quotes from My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry down below that will give you a slight idea of the novel’s narrative style:

“Having a grandmother is like having an army. This is a grandchild’s ultimate privilege: knowing that someone is on your side, always, whatever the details. Even when you are wrong. Especially then, in fact.” (p. 45)

“The mightiest power of death is not that it can make people die, but that it can make the people left behind want to stop living.” (p. 219)

“Because sometimes in the tales, the only thing that can destroy a terrible dragon is something even more terrible than the dragon. A monster.” (p. 229)

Despite amusing excerpts, the novel lacks appeal. The plot is highly repetitive. A single scene is dragged over multiple pages. Mostly one chapter refers to only one important scene, the rest of the details which are mostly related to the fairy tale are not only unnecessary but boring as well.

The overall impression of the novel is not as good as most of Backman’s work. The attempt to merge fantasy with the real life of characters is surely the worst idea. The fairy tales take up most of the sections and are not really that interesting. The characters are poorly written. Backman’s novels have amazing statements and excerpts but in this novel, all the beautifully written passages seem unnecessary.

Also, there are lots of swear words in the narrative for no obvious reason. I did not find even a single character to be relatable or likable which is so unlike Backman as I love his character development. I think the decision to include the fairy tales made the novel quite baseless.

The book can be read for the few passages that are beautiful and have that peculiar ‘feel-good’ vibe. But other than that, there is nothing the story can offer.

I intend no hate to the author or to the book. This is my honest book review of My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry. I did not like the book for the lack of character development, repetitive plot, and unlikeable characters. But it might work for you, who knows?

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry might be okay-ish for new readers as it has extremely easy language and there are no tough literary devices that need to be dissected. It is a plain story of a kid who is saying sorry to everyone on behalf of her grandmother. There is symbolism and reference to secret language but it does not go well with the main plot of the novel. I would surely have loved it more if there was something important in Granny’s past that would have made the ‘sorries’ worth all the effort.

Reference:

Backman, Fredrik. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry: A Novel. Simon and Schuster, 2016.