Ep. 14 - A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

A book about the worst man in the world honorably fighting against the horrors of socialized healthcare. It's easy to see how this became a best seller.

Join us as JC drops more Kendrick references than Chloe can handle and we champion justice for the clown community and the violences committed against them by the institutions of cantankerous Swedish men. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:07

I'm sorry, what?

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Welcome to whatever guys.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

What's up? It's me, it's Chloe. It's Colliterature. We are back.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

And I'm JC.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Who cares? We're back. JC never lets me introduce him in the way I want. Uh uh. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

You go too far into the episode. You're gonna like start, you're gonna be like, oh, also JC is here. Anyway, what did you read this week?

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Yeah, yeah, as as is my right.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

As is your right as a woman. As a woman. As a woman.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

JC's been reading books for us.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

I have.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

I've been trying to read books.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

For us.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

For for myself.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

And for yourself. I As is your right as a woman.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

My right as a woman. JC. Before we get into today's book, I would like to talk about what you've been reading recently.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Oh, nice. Oh, well that's perfect. I have something um yeah, I guess off the top of my head. Not that I plan for anything. I've been reading uh or I recently read Palo Alto by You said that crazy style.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Palo Alto.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Well I had to because you always make fun of the way I pronounce Palo Alto.

SPEAKER_03 1:12

That's it's not Palo Alto.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Um anyway, um Palo Alto by Malcolm Harris, which is about the uh kind of generally the history of Silicon Valley. Um it gets it it gets into like um the origins of like Stanford University and Stanford University's part in, for example, like um the uh conservative movements of like the 1920s and 30s um with like uh Herbert Hoover. Nice was like um one of the first graduates from Stanford, um, big con guy, conservative guy, not convention.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

Convention.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Uh Herbert Hoover famously going to Monster Erotica Con.

SPEAKER_03 2:00

Yeah. He really likes to swamp monsters.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

I saw GM Fairy. I don't know what Herbert Hoover sounded like. Good enough. He kind of sounds like JFK.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

Sure, why not?

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Um, but then it gets into like the um, you know, kind of how like um Stanford brings up like uh or the Stanford University in proximity to Stanford University, uh brings like um early aviation stuff, which later brings in um like a lot of like military infrastructure post-World War II, uh with the stuff like ARPANET. Um, and then it uh gets into um how like people leave these military uh installations, and then it kind of brings in this big tech sector, which becomes Silicon Valley. Um it's really cool, it's really interesting. Malcolm Harris is very um he has a very wry style of writing um nonfiction, um, which I for the most part enjoyed. There are some moments where like um I felt like a little bit he's doing too much, like um Jim from the office, where he he's like mugging at the camera.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

As someone who is married to someone who is from Silicon Valley.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 3:13

Did it make you want to visit it more or less?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Um, I don't know that it made me want to visit it more or less than I already do. Um what I found interesting is it may it kind of recontextualized the way I think about Silicon Valley. And I mean we were talking about this just like earlier today, but um, you know, for example, during the like 2000s and 2010s especially, um Silicon Valley was this like um deep entrenched pocket of like liberal politics. They're like they're all like Obama guys. Um, but something Malcolm Harris talks about in the book and something we talked about today, um, is that like Silicon Valley like tech CEOs aren't like meaningfully liberal in like their personal politics, they went along with liberal politics because that was something that uh at the time that was something that was reaching out to them and creating policy that benefited them. I mean, like Obama never heard a TED talk that he didn't want in his administration.

SPEAKER_03 4:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Um, so I I think it just kind of recontextualizes that that like it's not like they don't have like an actual principles or or like um liberal pol or liberal or left politics. What they have is a single-minded desire for profit and profiteering, um, and the Obama administration, liberal politics gave them the opening to do that because a lot of the stuff they were into was uh immediately rejected really harshly by conservative politics of the time.

SPEAKER_03 4:59

I know also you were reading it, you turned to me, you'd be like, Oh, that's why your mom is like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Yeah, yeah. So there's um there's like a bunch of stuff. Like, for example, um uh because you your mom is kind of like uh the earth is overpopulated person. Yep. And like that's why she thinks that like global warming or whatever is happening. Yep. And um, that's um there's the book Population Bomb, um, which the on which Malcolm Harris talks about. The this kind of like it's like a quasi-eugenicist movement that runs through Silicon Valley and was running through Phil Silicon Valley in like the late 60s into the 70s, which is when your mom would have been gaining political consciousness.

SPEAKER_03 5:39

Right. She was um she would have been like in point time.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Yeah, she would have been in like her um around when this was happening. She would have been in like her teens into her twenties.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

Yeah. Yeah. It's uh it was a lot of fun for you to be like, oh, that's why you're like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

Oh, okay, I get it. You just grew up in a weird cultural bubble.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Yeah, so it's um I mean it's like it's like 600 pages. Um, so it's kind of a it's kind of a big and a kitten squisher. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um but I yeah, I highly recommend. I think it's really interesting to again kind of explain a lot of the like um Silicon Valley's um or like this industry's connection to anti-regulation policies. Um it it really contextualizes it's written before like Trump 2 and um Elon Musk, but like it really context helps contextualize it in a prescient way. Anyway, what have you been reading?

SPEAKER_03 6:34

I just finished Save a Horse Ride a Cowman by Emily Antoinette, uh like the day before it came out. So I'm kind of aging this pod episode. Um I love Emily Antoinette. I met her at Monster Rotika Khan, she's great. I have two of her special editions upstairs. Love that, very excited. Uh, it is a cowboy minotaur romance. Emily Antoinette is very good in her writing. I would say she's kind of like Tiffany Roberts in the fact that like you know if you're picking up an Emily Antoinette, you're gonna get a good book.

SPEAKER_04 7:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

Um, but what I wrote about on my Bookstagram and in a lot of my reviews for this was I was really shocked at her world building. She like clearly put so much time and energy into like setting up a history for this world that is like discussed. I can't express this enough, maybe a few paragraphs.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Oh really?

SPEAKER_03 7:25

She discusses like there's like hints at like, oh yeah, because they would talk about how like there was a world before Minotaurs, and then like the shift happens. I'm like, what the fuck is this ship? And then like there's a talk later where she's like, Oh, do you like feel weird about stars? Because like Minotaurs came from the stars. He goes, No, like I'm sure like some people do, but like our families have been here for so long. I'm like, oh my god, what is going on? And then like one of them's like, Minotaurs bake this luck cake, it's part of our culture. And one of them's like, Well, not really, because you know, we were all so dispersed during the shift that it really depends on where your family actually landed. And it's like, oh my god, we have cultural differences from she set up like slurs for minotaurs.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

That's funny.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

Where like someone uses one and gets kicked out of this like ranch that they set up. And I'm like, oh my god, this bitch has got like Minotaur history, Minotaur cultural integration.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

What are the Minotaur slurs?

SPEAKER_03 8:15

A hornhead.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Um cancelled, cancelled better. She said it, she said the H-word.

SPEAKER_03 8:20

Yeah, I know. And it's kind of like, oh my god, like she put so much thought into this.

SPEAKER_04 8:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

And like this character is constantly like thinking about like the ways in which the world never really adjusted for minotaurs like it did for humans. Like the doors are always too small and beds are too small and shit like that, even though they've been around forever. Um, and so I just I really like that she was just like the shift, and it's like, what the fu and that there was no explanation until like maybe 200 pages later where she's like, Yeah, and they don't even refer to it as the shift, they're just like, Yeah, when the stars, because Minotaurs are from stars, and you kind of have to put it together. I just love it that she like very clearly, you know, has like notebooks upon notebooks of like information she's thought of. She has her maps of like everything, and she has character art. It's just it's a lot of fun. There's so much like thought put into it that you can't help but like just fall into it. It's been a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

District 9, but if you could fuck the bugs.

SPEAKER_03 9:16

What if the bugs had big fat monster cocks?

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they don't in that movie. No, it's kind of a it's kind of like an allegory for apartheid, by my recollection.

SPEAKER_03 9:26

Okay, well that's not monster cock.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

That's that's not monster cock. Is it that? Is it is it kind of an allegory for for apartheid?

SPEAKER_03 9:37

I'm sure it's some sort of racial allegory, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

But like I'm not gonna I'm not gonna put any money down on things that I am not sure of. Emily Antoinette, come on the pod.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Yeah, come on the pod and talk about your racial allegory.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

What I really I want to make JC read uh an Emily Antoinette because uh she has uh oh god, I I just forgot the name of it. The one about the raccoon that steals panties, and I'm just big JC shit. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

No, that's not a JC shit. No, I I I follow the law, R. E. panties.

SPEAKER_03 10:10

He's not digging in trash of a raccoon.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Truly no theft happening for raccoon panties. And my feelings towards any type of panties.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

Anyway.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Anyway, I read a book for us.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

But tell me about it, panty boy!

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Alright. Uh I read A Man Called Ova by Frederick Bachman.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

Um didn't a book or a movie just come out about this?

SPEAKER_01 10:37

It did. I also watched that for this.

SPEAKER_03 10:40

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Um that one's called A Man Called Otto.

SPEAKER_03 10:44

Because you can't have anything be Norwegian.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

You can't have it be Swedish. Ew. Uh Frederick, it's written by Frederick Bachman, uh, who is a Swedish writer. Um, this is his first novel. Before this, he mostly does like um newspaper and magazine work.

SPEAKER_03 10:59

Um You really be choosing bitches where it's like their first novel.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

This was on my list of books I want to read. Um, I don't know why. I think I saw this online and thought it sounded interesting. I don't I don't remember what prompted me to put this on my list, but I know it was on there. Um and then uh I I started uh looking into it. Um I because I mean like we talked about, I was like, oh yeah, like this book is in like the genre of like um grumpy man uh gets like a a like a quaint neighbor and uh learns to like love the world again or whatever. Or whatever. I was like in a movie, I was like, there's like a bunch of movies in this vein. And you were like, isn't there a movie of this? And I was like, no, no, no. And you're like, yeah, with Tom Hanks. And I was like, no, that's a different movie. And uh and you looked it up, you're like, no, it's the same movie. You were tricked by the uh the difference between Ova and Otto somehow.

SPEAKER_03 11:58

Yeah, I don't know how, Mr. Yeah, I understand things. I love you're like, look up a book immediately. You like pick up a book and you're like, this actually had six adaptions. The first one was in 1912, and you didn't do it for this one.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

So well, there is another movie adaption, but it's in uh Swedish, and I didn't watch that because I don't speak um Swedish.

SPEAKER_03 12:16

That's pussy shit.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

It's pussy shit in this.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

You love languages. You didn't learn Swedish for this. My brother would have learned Swedish for this.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

No, he wouldn't have. No, he would have started and then quit. Oh anyway, um so yeah, so there is a so there is a movie. Uh it's directed by Mark Forster, who also directed Monsters Ball, Quantum of Solace, and World War Z. Or Zed, if you so desire.

SPEAKER_03 12:42

Ew.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Um and like I said, it has Tom's Tom Hanks in it.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

And Tom Hanks' ugly son.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Tom Hanks' uglier son.

SPEAKER_03 12:52

Tom Hanks has three sons and one daughter. Everyone's hot except for the one in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

It's really devastating for whatever his name is.

SPEAKER_03 12:59

It's something stupid, too.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Like Henry.

SPEAKER_03 13:03

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Henry Hanks.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

Henry Hanks.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

Devastating name. Probably.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Um, so this book originates in uh Frederick Bachman gets famous in Sweden for having a blog called A Man Called Ova. Ew! That's big Jordan Peterson energy. He's on Quora.

unknown 13:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

He's answering he's just answering questions about cantankerous Swedish men.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

That's just called a Swedish man.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Um he uh it's so this originates, he was like, I don't remember where he says he was, but there was like a guy arguing with like a ticket seller, and he was arguing about like how he felt the social convention of selling tickets should be and how much they should cost, and this inspired him to write this blog from the point of view of a cantankerous man named Ova. And then he uh I guess gets a book deal out of this, and he writes a book.

SPEAKER_03 14:07

The fact that this got a fucking publishing deal and my sweet, sweet monster peen bigger.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

That's so true, dude.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

Girl, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Um So the the book itself is split into two sections. A lot of times they alternate, they don't always, but a lot of times they do alternate, um, between like a contemporary plot line and then like a um a series of flashbacks throughout Ova's life. He'll like think about kind of poignant moments within his life uh that very conveniently create kind of like a chronological timeline uh for his previous experiences leading up to contemporary moments in this book. Um anyway, so the book opens with um a man called Ova. He's called Ova, and uh he's at like Best Buy or like an electronic store, and he as somebody who's been to Best Buy with you and your mom, this felt very triggering for me. Fuck I had a real trauma response to this. But he's like, he's like holding an iPad and he's like, Is this iPad good? And the cashier is like, Yeah, I don't know, I guess. And he's like, people like it. He's like, but is it good? And he's like, I kind of don't understand your question. And Ova starts yelling at him. He's like, but is it good? Is it a good iPad?

unknown 15:31

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

He keeps saying, Is it a good rectangle? Which makes him sound like an alien. Um and uh the like cashier like calls his manager and the manager's trying to talk to him, and he's uh being annoying in a way that I don't love right off the bat. Um anyway, and then and then you finish that, that's the prologue, and then you get like a three weeks later, or three weeks earlier. I bet you're wondering how I got here. You love books like that. I love uh I bet you're wondering how I'm got how I got here. Um and then uh we're introduced. Ova is a 59-year-old retiree.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

A 59?

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Yeah. Uh this this is like kind of a big part of the book. Is um he's he's 59 years old. He was recently forced into an early retirement. Um he were I think he works for like a housing administration. He like builds public housing or something for the state or whatever. I don't I don't understand Swedish housing politics, so I don't know.

unknown 16:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Um and the book doesn't like do any background legwork to help me out.

unknown 16:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Because that's not like what it's for. It's like for like a Swedish audience. They're they're like, yeah, I know what the housing council is.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Um so he's been forced into an early retirement. He hates it here, he hates being retired. Um he exclusively drives Sob's, the car. Um, that's like a huge chunk of the book. Again, I don't in the movie Otto, played by Tom Hanks, is like a I think he's a Ford guy or a Chevy guy. Again, I don't know cars like that.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

Um we must scrub everything Swedish.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Um, but yeah, it kind of they do scrub a lot of the Swedishness of it. The movie takes place in Pittsburgh. The book takes place somewhere in Sweden. They never actually specify. It's kind of a uh it takes place in kind of like uh uh an ambiguous area of Sweden. Yeah. That you're meant to understand as, I think like a suburb. Whatever, who cares? Um But once the movie contextualized it, this made me feel so um like offensively American. Um once the movie contextualizes it by being like, yeah, he's like a big Ford guy, I was like, oh, I understand. Okay, I get it. I understand exactly what's happening, I understand exactly what type of guy he is.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

That is so aggressively American. Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

I I have like cousins who are like aggressively like Chevy guys.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

Do you really?

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Yeah, I have a I have a cousin who one year at Christmas, I was very I was pretty young, um, and my dad, uh my dad made fun of me for it for a little while. But I have a cousin who uh was like, yeah, Fords break down so much that uh he said he knew a guy who his Ford broke down, and rather than even try to like get it towed to like an uh to like a mechanic, he just cranked on the e-brake and then set the thing on fire and then went to the nearest Chevy dealership. And I remember asking my dad, I was like, why would he do that? There's like trade-ins, you can like sell you can like sell a broken down car. That's you you are you can do that, you can like get money back. And my dad was like, Yeah, because the story's fake. This is like a fake story that your cousin told. Your cousin, your cousin Jason is not telling you a real story.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

Not your dad having to be like, your cousin lies. What do you mean you didn't realize that?

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Yeah, well, I was like 12, so I was like, and my cousin is like 12 years older than me.

SPEAKER_03 19:02

Your cousin is a 30-year-old man.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Yeah, so he's like, you know, to me, uh at 12, like 24 is like aggressively an adult.

SPEAKER_04 19:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Emphatically adult 24. Um, and so I was like, Yeah, I guess Jason kind of knows everything in the world. Anyway, there's like these really long stretches of the book where Ova is marking time by like what model sob he just purchased. He what how often is he buying cars? This is okay, this is crazy to me. I guess a person who don't got it like that. Umova buys a new car every three years.

SPEAKER_04 19:35

What?

SPEAKER_01 19:38

I don't know how much sobs cost, but like I'm thinking enough, apparently. They gotta crank up the price on those. Because he's because like throughout at the in the during the book, he tells like a teenager he's like, Oh, you have to buy a new car every three years, because after three years, that's when like you get all the problems. I'm like, Do you just not like fixing cars?

SPEAKER_03 19:59

Is this like a He's one of those people who like when the car runs out of gas, he just throws it away.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

He pushes it into the nearest lake and goes to get a new sob. Um, he's the neighborhood's head of council, uh, so he spends like a bunch of time in the first chapter, which by my understanding is basically like an HOA.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

As someone who has HOA beef.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Do we?

SPEAKER_03 20:21

I do. You don't. I have HOA beef. I don't like I don't like our HOA finance manager.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

Fuck that bitch.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Oh, because she's too old.

SPEAKER_03 20:31

Because I that too. Now I'm now I'm mad at OVA. Which I'm with you. This makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Um, in the movie, it's basically the HOA. Again, they kind of have to like translate Swedish stuff to American people.

SPEAKER_03 20:43

Because God forget Americans have to like try to like adapt to a different thing. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

It's all gotta it's gotta be in Pittsburgh, a thing all Americans understand as a place.

SPEAKER_03 20:54

They want they were so they were beating their shit so hard to make this a Academy Award-winning movie.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Yes, yes. They wanted it to be. I mean, that's why they have Tom Hanks in it. Tom Hanks is uh I'll I guess I'll talk about this here. The casting director of this movie is a coward. Ooh, JC's got feelings. Because whoever whoever like casts Tom Hanks in this role is a coward because Tom Hanks is not believable as a cantankerous old man. He's like one of the most famously charming, delightful actors in Hollywood. And so, like, it's really hard to believe him as like someone grouchy. I think Because, like, you know, obviously, by like the type of story this is, you know he's going to become decidedly ungrouchy by the end of the movie. Yeah. And so, like, they're prepping you for that, but like they're too pussy to actually make him any kind of unlikable.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

I think they just should have gone aggressively Swedish still. Like, I know that that would have been Swedish. It would have made so much more sense. She could have had so much more fun with it. I don't Okay, I wanna say something, I wanna say something.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:11

Okay. He feels like such a like life handed to him type of guy.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

He's had it too easy.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

He's just he seems like he's lived such a nice charmed life.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:23

That I'm kind of like Wow.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Yeah, Tom Hanks kind of had a silver spoon in his own.

SPEAKER_03 22:30

I don't know if that's true.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

I'm sure he's a good thing. It's very too easy for Tom Hanks.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

I'm sure he didn't, but like.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

His brother died.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Okay, and I don't know if that's true.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

I'm just wanted to see how you would react. But yeah, so like through like during sections of the movie, he'll be like, yeah, uh, he bought like uh he bought the Saab uh XR17, and I I I guess I'm meant to know what year that is. I don't. Um you would if you were I wouldn't know it if it were Ford or Chevy.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

Okay, well your cousin might. My cousin might, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Yeah, if they put it in Chevy terms, my cousin would know for sure.

SPEAKER_03 23:05

So you just don't it's just this isn't for you.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

Um but so like the a lot of the first chapter, the the kind of like um principle getting everything set up is uh set through um Ova walking through his neighborhood, um, and and kind of like um he like yells at somebody for driving through the central plaza, which I guess you're not supposed to do. I have no concept of what any of these houses look like or what this plaza looks like. So to me, I'm like, yeah, sure, you can't drive in there.

SPEAKER_03 23:34

Yeah, don't drive you're thinking like the central garden bed.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

I'm like, yeah, whatever. Yeah, I guess don't drive in there. Um, but again, I don't know what it looks like. Um he uh uh he like yells at people for not like properly locking up their bikes in the bike shed and just kind of like leaning it against the side of the shed. He's like, that's not allowed. He's a real stickler for the rules throughout the book.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Yeah. Oh, he's autistic.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

And he's autistic.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

My bitch got tism.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

He has executive dysfunction.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

Stop it.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Um anyway, uh he goes back to his home and he's kind of like thinking about himself and his life and whatnot. Uh, and then uh he hears something scrape against his house. Uh it's his new neighbors, and they don't know how to back up a trailer, and he does like uh your generation doesn't work does doesn't know how to do hard work anymore.

SPEAKER_03 24:34

Ova, you left your job at 59.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Well, he was forced out. He wanted to keep doing his job at 59.

SPEAKER_03 24:39

If you were forced out, it's because you were bad at your job.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

You're bad at your job.

SPEAKER_03 24:42

Dead ass.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Um They run over his garden and they hit his house with a trailer.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

Good for that.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Um their names for at least this first section of the book is the pregnant woman and the lanky one. Um so that's yelling at a pregnant woman? Oh, oh, he's mean as hell to this pregnant woman. Um, they also have a seven-year-old and a three-year-old. Um he backs up the trailer for them, and he's like, Oh, like you're so useless, you don't even know. You're like a beta cuck.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Not the beta cuck.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

I mean, like, Ova doesn't know those terms, but like, that's the vibe. He's like, your generation is so lazy, the ancestors would be so disappointed.

SPEAKER_03 25:22

Oh, not the that's another cousin reference. You don't know it because you're uh you're just listeners, but that's a reference to another cousin conversation JC had.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

I have a lot of cousins, and they all have ass politics. Um anyway, um the neighbor is uh he keeps calling her Arab, um, which is so, so funny. Um, she's Persian. There's like a this is something I know for stupid reasons, but there's like a a big uh Persian community in Sweden, or in like uh cities in Sweden. Um I only know about this because uh there's a hockey player named Mika Zabanejad.

SPEAKER_03 25:59

Oh no, the other autism is coming out.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Um and I was like, why he's f he's from Sweden. He's like a Swedish hockey player, but his name is Mika Zabanizad, which I as a 16-year-old understand as a s as a Persian surname. Um that's really did. I was um trying to teach myself Persian.

SPEAKER_03 26:22

Yeah, JC was a big language freak.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Yeah, he was. Um I was like, hey, that's a Persian surname. Uh so I looked it up. So that there is anyway, he call he constantly calls them Arab. It's so funny. I'm I really love the joke. Um they bring him saffron rice as like a nice thing to do. Um, and he's and he's like, oh sick, thanks. And then he puts it in the fridge and we never actually see him eat it. I don't know if he does.

SPEAKER_03 26:49

Probably not, because he's a bitch.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Because he's a bitch. And probably too much spices for him.

SPEAKER_03 26:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

Um there's a chapter where Ova talks to his wife about stuff. Um and he he uh gets like really petty about buying flowers because it's on like a it's on like a bank card type thing, or like a card on an account. Um so there's like a surcharge for it, and he's like yelling about the fact that there's a surcharge for the card. Um but like he they're like, oh, like if you just buy two flowers or two things of flowers, then we waive the surcharge because it's like a minimum amount of money for the card.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

This is how it is at most places.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Yeah, I know. He gets really petty about this. I can't I'm I'm really trying not to put down every time he gets like insane and petty about how much stuff costs. It's huge chunks of the book.

SPEAKER_03 27:43

It's just that's so boring. That's so boring. I don't want to hear my dad complain about Gifford books.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

There's like sections where he's like, Yeah, I'm not like paying this much money for parking, and you're like, God, shut up. Don't care about this. Um and then he brings them to his wife's grave, and this is how we find out that his uh wife's dead. And he kind of he kind of like talks to like the memory of her. Um I read a version of this from the library, and it had like a bunch of like Oh, the notes in it. Yeah, it had notes in the uh in the margins, and the um the person who read this before me, who was marking it up in the margins, like did not like I knew immediately, like the moment he's talking to his wife and he's like buying flowers, I'm like, Yeah, this bitch is dead, and he's like grieving.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

But like he's stupid bitch.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

He like he's like, Oh, is he like hallucinating her? And he's like, No, he's doing a grief thing. Um, but I do like that he thought that this was gonna be like a Shutter Island style book about this Cantanchra's old ass Swedish man.

SPEAKER_03 28:48

Um that'd be a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

That would be pretty funny. Anyway, we get to like some memories. Uh his wife is delightful, and nobody understands why she would be with someone like Ova.

SPEAKER_03 29:00

He has a huge penis.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Yeah, he's he's cocked out. I mean Um That that's like a big thing throughout the So like when we get through the like um memories, at no point is Ova not like this. He's kind of just this is something that I thought was, and I don't think that like I don't think it's like good or whatever, or it's like good writing or understandable if someone's like a huge cunt to everybody they know because they're like grieving. Um but like I don't know. The fact that he's just always like this and also grieving just kind of made me be like, oh sure. So like so he's never been like this, he's never been not like this. Um he's always been kind of selfish and mean and petty to other people. Uh and he just like his wife was just kind of different. I she was hot is what it what it is. We'll get to that.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

What?

SPEAKER_01 29:56

He kind of just like sees her on the train and he's like, damn, sh uh shoddy a baddie.

SPEAKER_03 30:00

Oh, she knocking things off the counter with her hips.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Precisely. She's she's got wide hips. Um he remembers that his dad never beat him, which is a thing specified in the book.

SPEAKER_03 30:14

Why?

SPEAKER_01 30:14

He's like, really love that my dad never hit me once.

SPEAKER_03 30:17

Okay. But then why are you like this?

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Yeah, then why are you a bitch? Maybe your dad should have hit you.

SPEAKER_03 30:23

Right? Maybe then you wouldn't be so fucking miserable.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Um, yeah, why are you such a bitch if your dad never even hit you? Um, his dad works at the rail yard, uh, and Ova sometimes goes with him after school, and one time he finds a wallet, and uh another character named Evil Tom.

SPEAKER_03 30:42

What?

SPEAKER_01 30:44

Uh not his name, his name is Tom, but uh his character is so comically villainous that I'm like, yeah, Evil Tom is the character's name because that's the that's that's the way to really identify how like um the book throughout the book, like other characters, because that it's it's there's a lot of characters in this book, so like the book kind of like really like play in Ova's internal monologue really like plays up some of their like more defining character moments, um, because they all have basically the same Swedish names. Um so like the book really has to make sure that like you can remember who all the characters are.

SPEAKER_03 31:21

Um this is the comically evil.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Yeah, so you have evil Tom. We'll get to more of the others. Um uh uh evil Tom thinks that they should um keep the wallet forever and spend all the money in it because he loves um money and greed and uh uh villainy.

SPEAKER_02 31:40

Um Biblically evil type character.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

Yeah, biblically evil Tom. And that's a sin. That's Tom. Tom is saying.

SPEAKER_02 31:47

It's a reference!

SPEAKER_01 31:51

Um and but Ova says they should turn it in to like the station master, and they do, and someone's like, Oh my god, you return my wallet. Um, you're like a beautiful soul or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 32:02

Uh yeah, a poor beautiful soul.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Yeah, without the money. By the way, you can take the money and just return the wallet. What are they gonna do?

SPEAKER_03 32:09

JC is comicly.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

I'm greedy. Um I I mean, like, to be honest, every time I lose my wallet, I do kind of expect to find it with no money in it.

SPEAKER_03 32:21

No, you just never fucking find it.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

That's not true. I find my wallet. As someone who lost my wallet on the train, they returned it. And I like I said, I was expecting someone to just like take. I guess, okay, to be fair, I don't have that much money in my wallet.

SPEAKER_03 32:35

You're kind of poor.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Yeah, what? They're gonna take like the four ones I have in there.

SPEAKER_03 32:39

He's poverty mogging. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

I'm poverty maxing. They're they're they're uh they're money mogging me by taking my four by leaving my four dollars.

SPEAKER_03 32:49

Yeah, they're like it's not even like.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

I don't even need this four dollars. That's what they're saying to me.

SPEAKER_03 32:54

That's so embarrassing. He's only got four dollars.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Um we return to the present. Uh Ova finds a bike that isn't locked in the shed, and uh like a teen boy or like a younger man, maybe like 19. They never actually say how old he is. Um he's called like the young man or like the the boy or whatever. Um, but like Ova's like despite being 59, like comically old. He's like comically old man coded.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

Oh, he's like your dad for real for real?

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Yes. Um, and so like it's hard to tell how old anybody is because Ova is simultaneously almost 60 and 100,000 years old.

SPEAKER_03 33:32

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

Um Ova's like, no, you have to like put the bike in the shed, and the kid is like, oh, like I'm gonna like fix it for this hot bitch I like. And Ova's like, oh, as you were.

SPEAKER_03 33:44

Um Ova, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_01 33:46

Um, I don't really have anything to say about that, but it just comes back later, so I have to talk about it now. Otherwise, later a plot point won't make any sense. Umova hangs a hook in the middle of his ceiling. There you get like a very long impatient uh bit where he like carefully measures to make sure it's perfectly centered in the room. Uh he gets a knock on the door. It's uh his neighbors, the pregnant woman and the lanky one, whose names are actually Parvana and Patrick. Um and they bring him Persian cookies. Uh in the movie, by the way, uh I don't remember what their names are. Um, but they're like a Mexican couple.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

Um like that. They said we can't sell that they're like good Muslims.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

We can't sell that they're scary Muslims. We have to sell that like you can love your Mexican neighbor. That's a thing that I feel like many people understand intuitively.

SPEAKER_03 34:45

No, they need a movie about how racism is bad.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

They gotta make sure you understand, hey, you can't be racist to your Mexican neighbor. You have to love them.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

You can't be racist to your Persian neighbor.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

That is allowed. Um, it is funny because um they have like a moment where like part of the comedy in the movie is like she starts like explaining like her her like vague ethnic background. She's like, actually, my dad is from El Salvador, but he moved to Mexico, and my mom is uh like Dominican or whatever, and she also moved to Mexico. So like I was born and part and raised in Mexico, but like my parents are not from Mexico, and um I this the I this d I did find this a little charming because that is what it feels like to talk to my coworkers who are like from Central America. Tom Hanks is not believably angry about this, but Otto is upset about having to hear this background on Central America and like Central American migrations or whatever. Um, because he's a bitch and I I don't like this character, I don't find this character charming. A big thing that I think the movie has a hard time with, to me, um, and uh among several things, is the mov because the movie takes place presumably in 2022 when it comes out, um or like in like the late 2010s when it's presumably filmed. Um it um like I I have a hard time believing that Ova is like this type of or Otto is this type of cantankerous old man, but he's not MAGA He's like he he has like this ty this level of like um uh of like grumpiness and cantankerousness and hatred for like the modern world, but also he's like entirely politically disengaged.

SPEAKER_03 36:33

Well that's the thing with these movies. I mean the Oscars, which is clearly going for. It's all about like saying looking like you're saying something when you're saying nothing, and like if they went too MAGA with it, it would be too honest of a representation of like a type of person, but if they just like pretend like that it doesn't even happen, like this is they're doing like 2000, I guess 2's 2000 before 2001, uh like conservative.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

Where like you're disagreeing on like on yeah, on like economic policy. Yeah, not like he would be like the most aggressively racist guy.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Yeah, not like he he like opens the door and it's like a Mexican couple, and he's like, Yeah, you should uh get out of here.

SPEAKER_03 37:19

He's already got his gun out.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

Go back to where you came from.

SPEAKER_03 37:22

Yeah, how are you gonna have a cantankerous old man and not give him a gun?

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Anyway, uh Ova uh exits this interaction, introducing his neighbors, uh, and he hangs himself. Don't meet too, king.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

That's how I deal with social interaction as well.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

By the way, uh uh Chloe put this at the beginning, uh, trigger warning for suicidality.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

Nope, I'm leaving it right here.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Uh there's a lot of suicidality in this book. Uh he uh throws a noose over the hook and he hangs himself.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

How's that work out for him? Considering you're not at the end of the book, I think it's a book ends.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

It's truly 31 pages long. Uh anyway, uh he like I I I'm guessing like in the period of time where he's like um turning purple or whatever um on the end of the noose, uh, he remembers his father died. Um don't don't and he he took his father's job at the age of 16. Sure. I don't know how child law child labor laws work in Sweden.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

Um child labor laws.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

Yeah, apparently. Uh he works at the rail yard. Um someone steals money, and it's obvious everyone's like, oh, it can only be one of two people, and it's either Ova, who we all agree is a beautiful soul and very trustworthy, or evil Tom, who is um grinning evilly and um twiddling his fingers, counting his evil Tom! Yeah, counting the money in his hands as he goes, Yeah, I think it was Ova. Um, so it's either so uh it's obviously Evil Tom who steals this money, um, but they're like, Well, Ova, you're like a witness who do you who who stole the money, and Ova's like, I I'll never tell. Um I I'm too honorable to t to tattletale um for no reason. I don't understand this type of honor. Um and evil tom, of course, goes in, he's like, Yeah, it's that little ho-ass bitch, Ova. He's actually not honest and honorable and trustworthy. Uh he's actually a lie, a bitch and a liar. Uh, and they go, Well, we have to believe evil. We unfortunately must trust evil Tom.

SPEAKER_02 39:41

Uh we're with my family. You are evil Tom.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

I'm evil Tom.

SPEAKER_02 39:47

When we're with my family, you're like, Chloe said she fucking hate you, and also she thinks you're fat. And I'm like, no, I wouldn't.

SPEAKER_03 39:53

They're like, Evil Tom seems kind of legit over there.

SPEAKER_01 39:56

Yeah, I'm I'm I'm grinning evilly.

SPEAKER_03 39:59

Do we learn anything about evil tom outside of like I would love to know what evil tom is doing in his day-to-day life.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

Now, what's his life like?

SPEAKER_03 40:07

He's evilly holding babies and evilly changing diapers.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

Um, anyway. Yeah. Uh anyway, Ova obviously loses his job. Um, but you dumped it, you deserve it! Yeah, just I mean, like, yeah, at that point, just say Tom. Yeah, well, it was obviously Tom did it.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

Evil Tom? Yeah, I think evil Tom did it.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

Evil Tom may have done it. Um, so uh, but the director is so impressed by Ova's um morals and principles and honor and trustworthiness that he's like, I have a different job I can give you. It's night janitor.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

That would never happen.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

Directors never do that. Directors hate when you're honorable and have principles.

SPEAKER_03 40:46

They hate when you're not work that way. God forbid you want to help people. Get fucked. God. Okay, okay. Uh, I'm gonna say something, it's not gonna go over well.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 40:58

I'm glad he's trying to kill himself.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 41:02

He sounds annoying!

SPEAKER_01 41:03

Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 41:04

How do you go from being honorable to just racist?

SPEAKER_01 41:07

Anyway, um, well, I guess we'll find out.

unknown 41:10

Shut up.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

The answer is grief. His wife died.

SPEAKER_04 41:14

I don't care.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

His wife died in an unlocked. It unlocked the level where you get to be racist.

SPEAKER_03 41:21

He became evil Tom.

SPEAKER_01 41:23

Yeah, he's evil Ova now. Evolva.

SPEAKER_03 41:26

Not the Evovla.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

Um, anyway, the rope snaps. Um in the middle, I guess. How old is this rope?

SPEAKER_03 41:33

Give him a we don't even story this rope. Trying to kill yourself. What are those things? The sour straws you like.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

And he's trying to kill himself with kazoozles. Yeah, anyway. Um, anyway, uh he so obviously he doesn't die. Uh, and he immediately just like decides to go outside. Which is like, I'm unplugged. I guess I gotta go hang out in my community.

SPEAKER_02 42:12

Which people obviously what's too inside of depressed people's love is sunshine.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

Yeah, sunshine and interacting with other people. Yeah, if I try to kill myself and it like immediately doesn't work, I'm not like I'm going to bed. The day is done. There's no more day left to happen.

SPEAKER_02 42:27

What do you what do you mean I gotta go yell oh my god?

SPEAKER_01 42:31

Yeah, so he goes he uh he goes outside. Anyway, uh earlier in the book, he like his neighbor asked if uh was like, oh, like our radiator's not working, and he's like, You have to bleed it. And she's like, I don't know what that is. And he's like, never mind, I have to go in inside to kill myself. Um so uh his his suicide attempt uh obviously doesn't work.

SPEAKER_03 42:51

Obviously.

SPEAKER_01 42:52

And so um he has to go back outside and he's like, I guess I'll go help this bitch uh bleed her radiator. Um which is really uh he like looks at uh his neighbor Anita, um, her husband Rune, which I think in Swedish is pronounced Runa, but it's spelled like rune. Um he's room. No, rune, like R U N-E.

SPEAKER_03 43:15

No room.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Oh, it's he it's kind of room for him.

SPEAKER_03 43:17

He's kind of room.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

It's kind of rune for him. Um anyway, uh Rune has like mega dementia and um like doesn't even know that Ova's there. Not mega dementia. He has like this type of dementia where he like doesn't even recognize that somebody's there, which is like a look, I've I've spent a lot of time as like a child where where like every grandparent I had got like dementia.

SPEAKER_03 43:39

Okay, you don't gotta brag about it. Oh you like grandparents?

SPEAKER_01 43:44

I I remember my great grandmother having Alzheimer's.

SPEAKER_03 43:48

Oh, your great grandmother? Yeah. Girl, I didn't even know my grandparents. Girl.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

Anyway. Uh anyway, uh this guy doesn't know that Ova is there.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

Um, which is really funny. Um You get the sense that they have like some hostile history. And we'll get a little more. Yeah, him and this uh uh demented man.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

You can't have hostile energy with someone who's why don't you say something about it then?

SPEAKER_01 44:16

No, why don't you say something about it? No, girl, you can't why don't you say my name and my relationship to you right now, bitch, pussy?

SPEAKER_02 44:26

You can't have hostile relations with someone with dementia like.

SPEAKER_01 44:32

I mean like hostile history. You won the beef.

SPEAKER_03 44:37

You won the beef.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

Look, uh look, all I'm saying is the moment he got dementia, that was kind of your um It's kind of ruined for him.

SPEAKER_03 44:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:46

That was kind of your family matters by Kendrick Lamar.

SPEAKER_03 44:50

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

That was kind of your TV off. That was the that was the Kendrick Lamar song.

SPEAKER_03 44:54

Stop talking about Kendrick Lamar in relation to old white Swedish people with dementia.

SPEAKER_01 45:01

Um anyway, uh Over rem Ova remembers getting a letter that his father's house is supposed to be torn down um because it's like a big, ugly building in the middle of their town that sucks. And they're like, Yeah, we're gonna tear it down and put up um modern housing.

SPEAKER_03 45:18

Oh, not a five over one.

SPEAKER_01 45:20

And Ova's like, like I cannot let this happen. So he like moves into the house. He um he does the like old man version of go on YouTube to look up how to do DIY stuff. Yeah. Where he just like walks onto a construction site and is like, Can I may I please have one job? One job, please. And they're like, Yeah, sure. They don't ask, like, do you have any construction experience? Because he doesn't. That's what he's here for. Um anyway, so then he like gets a construction job, he learns how to do construction stuff, and the construction stuff he learns how to do, he then comes home and does it to his house. Um, so he like fixes up the house, um, old man style. Which by the way, this is his second job because he's also night manager, so that or night janitor. Night manager. Uh so that means that like during the day.

SPEAKER_03 46:09

So this is happening in a memory. This is not like congruent.

SPEAKER_01 46:11

No, this is no no no. Yeah, sorry. This is uh this is in the past. Uh I don't know why I did this, but in my notes, every um in the past chapter it begins with overremembers.

SPEAKER_03 46:24

That's how it's written.

SPEAKER_01 46:25

Yeah, that's how it's written. That's why I keep saying stuff like overremembers that his dad died, overremembers that his dad never whooped his ass.

SPEAKER_03 46:34

Oh thinks back and goes, Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:36

Oh yeah, my dad never kicked me. Um anyway, uh so but he has his day job, which is construction, he has his night job, which is janitor, and also he's like basically building his house from the inside out.

SPEAKER_03 46:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 46:54

Um anyway, uh the the suits, this is what he calls like bureaucrats, um, the suits uh get like upset with him that uh he's like fixed the house that they were planning to tear down. Um I don't know why, just like go in and inspect it. I don't again, I don't understand like Swedish bureaucracies, um, but this book hates Swedish bureaucracy. Um I don't really have any strong opinions because I've never dealt with it. I'm sh yeah, I'm sure it's probably kind of annoying. Um anyway. So they they hate that he's fixed up the house. Um and then um it's kind of implied, but never directly stated, that um the suits burn his house down.

SPEAKER_03 47:44

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

They like set fire to the house.

SPEAKER_03 47:46

Famously what people in suits love to do.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Uh yeah, 100%. Uh Ova is is like running in and out. He's like trying to like grab shit from inside the house. He's trying to put out the fire. Um, the fire department shows up and they're like, Yeah, sorry, your house is kind of like on this like county line. Um, so like we're kind of in like a bureaucratic standstill firefighting wise, because um, we're trying to decide which county your house is in, so whose fire department has to respond to this fire? Um, and then they just let the house burn down.

SPEAKER_03 48:19

Okay, how does this happen in the movie?

SPEAKER_01 48:21

Uh in the mov I'm trying to think. I don't think this moment happens in the movie. I don't think they have this m this scene.

SPEAKER_03 48:27

They're like, we can't talk about American bureaucracy.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

Well they they talk about no, the uh the the evil the bad guy of the movie is this like um real estate developer that wants to buy the neighborhood and um uh re like knock all the houses down and rebuild like a new neighborhood. Or like a like big condos, basically, is like the bad guy of the movie. Um we'll get into it later, but the bad guy of the book is basically um uh the the people who I don't again, I don't understand Sweden. Um but the like people who come and uh help you do any kind of like um they're like medical assistance services is the bad guy of the nurses the um yeah, we'll get to that later. Um but um it in this moment when as Oval watches these um fire departments fight over who's supposed to stop his house from burning down, a thing that doesn't seem like it would happen.

SPEAKER_03 49:34

No, this isn't like New York in the 1800s.

SPEAKER_01 49:37

Yeah, this isn't like um My understanding for like any kind of emergency services is they don't tend to do like a lot of fighting over whose job it is to do it.

SPEAKER_03 49:48

No, famously any bureaucracy would come after the emergency is solved. That's why when you get into an ambulance because you're dying, they're not like, Do you have your insurance card?

SPEAKER_01 49:56

Yeah, by the way, uh break out that break out that sweet C card.

SPEAKER_03 49:59

You can actually be in the ER for days before they'll be like, Do you have insurance?

SPEAKER_01 50:03

Yeah, by the way, do you have insurance and also pay for this?

SPEAKER_03 50:05

And even then they're like, if you don't have that, like we'll handle it. Just like let us know.

SPEAKER_01 50:11

Uh anyway, um, back in the present, Anita, the neighbor, um, tells him that uh the town council like voted. Like the town voted, there was a vote, and um she they've they've rendered her, they've uh determined that she is incapable of taking care of her husband with dementia, Rune. Um and they're like, uh uh we we have to take him to a home. And she's and she's like, I don't what am I supposed to do? And Ova's like, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 50:47

Oh no, not you having state sponsored health care for older people.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

Um Anita's like, oh my god, they're gonna take him. Um Ova throughout the book basically stops people from taking stops like um this like he calls him like the man in the white shirt. Um, but it you you you assume he's like part of like the medical service. He's there to take Rune to the home, and Ova keeps stopping him by being like, Hey, you can't drive your car in this plaza. You can't drive your van to transport my former friend.

SPEAKER_03 51:22

I thought it was your former op!

SPEAKER_01 51:23

Well, it's both. We'll get to that.

SPEAKER_03 51:25

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 51:25

Um my former friend slash op, my friend of me, uh, to the home. And this just every time they're like, sorry about that, and then they leave. Um, but they'll also like the guy driving the van is like comically evil. He's he doesn't get the comically evil Tom. He doesn't get the he's it's evil Tom. He's like, hee hee he um So we we get like this throughout the book, uh the this like it this basically stops him, but he is evil. We'll get more into this later. Um And then uh he tries to kill himself again. Um he goes into his garage and he runs a tube from his uh exhaust pipe into the window.

SPEAKER_03 52:09

And then he's sure that will kill you nowadays, but haven't they like kind of like eliminated the ability to do that in cars?

SPEAKER_01 52:14

I don't know. I've never tried to kill myself this time.

SPEAKER_03 52:16

I'm really certain they got rid of that ability to do that in cars. Sure. Um and so if anything, it's actually like a real like sob.

unknown 52:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 52:24

Why haven't you updated?

SPEAKER_01 52:25

You haven't even updated? No! Um anyway, so he um he runs a tubing through his window and he's like, Yeah, I guess I'll just like I I guess I'll just like let exhaust run me into oblivion or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 52:38

Um Why would you do that when you could just go to Kansas and find all the big trucker boys?

SPEAKER_01 52:41

That's right. Um, and then uh he hears like a big sound and it's um his neighbor Patrick fell off a ladder um and needs to go to the hospital, and Parvana can't drive, so they need to all get into his car.

SPEAKER_03 52:56

Um not a sub, well, at least it's new.

SPEAKER_01 52:59

Well, this one's this one's not new. We'll get to this later. There's so much kidding to things later. You keep jumping on stuff. Shut shut up! Shut the fuck up! No, I'm just kidding. Um, but so he basically uh like at after his um wife dies or whatever, he stops getting new cars. Oh blue! Anyway, um this is like a real weakness in the movie, where in books things are like kind of abstracted, and so like in a book, if someone like puts a notebook down, the notebook kind of stops existing until it's interacted with again. It's kind of in this like Schrdinger space of both existence and non-existence. Okay. In a movie, you can see everything in the scene. Yeah. Um, so when when Otto tries to kill himself this way, and then his neighbor falls off the his roof and uh has to go to the hospital, they like knock on his garage door and he opens it, and it's like an empty garage except for his car and a bunch of plastic tubing with like tape all over it. And like, you're like, oh no. If I'm in the situation, I'm like, hey buddy, um we need like a ride to the hospital um for both me and you because the moment we get there, I'm 5150 and you're ass.

SPEAKER_03 54:17

Dead ass.

SPEAKER_01 54:18

Yeah, like dead ass. Yeah, hey, I can see that, and that's killing yourself.

SPEAKER_03 54:21

Yeah. You're gonna be in trouble.

SPEAKER_01 54:25

Um anyway, uh, he remembers people from the council dabbing on him about the fact that his house burnt down. They're like dabbing on him? Yeah, they're like, your house burnt down about that suck shit.

unknown 54:39

What the fuck?

SPEAKER_01 54:40

Yeah, we're building super modern housing there. Suck it, bitch. Yeah, oh you put so much work into it, dumb pussy. You're dabbing on Yeah, they're uh they're really making they're really getting his ass on this. Um And that they by the way, they pay him out. That was always the plan, is they pay him out for like the market rate on the property. Um which is like I understand that like he's grieving, and so like the fact that they're like, Yeah, we're gonna knock down like your uh a standing memory to your father and put uh shitty housing up is probably upsetting, and then like getting like you even with the payout. Um but like I don't know. I have a hard time being like, Oh, poor Ova, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 55:26

Yeah, I mean they might be like stunting on your ass, but like they're still doing the correct thing.

SPEAKER_01 55:33

Uh anyway, he goes to work and he sees Evil Tom, and evil Tom is like, Wow, even your dumb bitch pussy dead father didn't manage to burn down his dumbass house.

SPEAKER_03 55:44

Evil Tom! What the fuck do they?

SPEAKER_01 55:46

Evil Tom, you can't say those things.

SPEAKER_03 55:49

Evil Tom, you're getting my ass.

SPEAKER_01 55:51

Um anyway, Ova beats the shit out of Evil Tom. Um he like kicks it, he like kicks his shit in. Um and uh uh loses his job, of course. Um, because you can't like beat people up, but Evil Tom doesn't actually say Ova beat my shit in. He's he's like he they he beat him up so hard it put honor into his brain. He's like, I deserved this severe beating. It's me, honorable Tom.

SPEAKER_04 56:25

Shut the fuck up.

SPEAKER_01 56:27

It's me, ass whooped Tom. Anyway, then he quits his construction job because why does he need that now? Um he has no house to build.

SPEAKER_02 56:34

Um You do have a house to build from the ground up, bitch!

SPEAKER_01 56:38

Well, they paid him out, that he doesn't own that house anymore.

SPEAKER_02 56:40

Get a new lamp!

SPEAKER_01 56:42

Yeah, they paid you out. Look, all I'm saying is like, uh is like the like every like, oh like here's how you get rich quick is always just like buy property and then sell it immediately.

SPEAKER_03 56:53

Yeah, it sounds like you could really just do that.

SPEAKER_01 56:55

Yeah, just sell that, use that money to get a new property, fix it up, you have a construction job, fix it up, sell it. He's a house flipper now, that'd be funny. Um but like he's like so beloved and honorable that all of the construction workers are like, here's a special tool belt we made for you because we love you. You're kind of all of our collective son, I think.

SPEAKER_03 57:19

I kind of want to kill Otto. Ovo, whatever we're calling him.

SPEAKER_01 57:23

Um he joins the military, but during the um uh during the uh like medical screening, they discover his dick is too small to join the military. What? That's not true. That's fake. Actually, he just has a heart condition. Um but I thought it'd be funnier to write my notes that his wiener's too small.

SPEAKER_03 57:42

So you like to lie. I do, I love dishonorable JC.

SPEAKER_01 57:46

Dishonest JC, evil Tom. Um uh and then he lives uh an angry wife uh until one day he meets uh Sonya, who he will eventually marry. Uh anyway, back in the present, Ova uh drives everyone and they're like, Yeah, yo, your car smells mad, like exhaust. Have you been trying to like kill yourself in here? And he's like, he's like lol, that's crazy. Um he goes to the hospital. He like he's like a huge bitch over how much parking costs at the hospital. He like goes back and forth with everybody about it. Parvana is just straight up like, okay, I will go pay for the parking. My husband is uh in this we had to go to the hospital for him, by the way. Um, but yeah, I guess I'll run downstairs and pay for your bitch ass parking. Um, so she does that. Um and then a clown shows up and he's like, Yo, what's up? It's me. I do clown shit.

SPEAKER_02 58:43

I'm sorry, all I can think about is the emotional support pony.

SPEAKER_01 58:47

Oh, the one that like plays PC. Um The clown's like, I do clown stuff, is that something? And Ova's like, please go away. And he's like, uh the girls seem to love what I'm putting down here, and it's clown, it's clown shit.

SPEAKER_02 59:01

What do you mean girls seem to love?

SPEAKER_01 59:03

The the because the the daughters are there, the neighbor daughters are there. They're seven and three. Um he's like, they love clown stuff, and they're like, We are we as children are delighted by this clown. Big fan of this whatever this clown is putting down. He's like, Do you guys want to see a magic trick? And they're like, Yes. And he's like, Can I get a he's like, Can I get a coin? And so Ova hands him, I had to look up how much all the money is, because Swedish money is fake. Um and so he hands him a five kroner coin, which I looked up and is 54 cents. Um and the the clown like makes it disappear, and then he hands him back a coin and Ova punches him in the face for quote unquote handing him a different coin.

SPEAKER_03 59:51

Ova. Ova, I don't think he needs to kill himself. I'm pretty sure someone will do it for him at this point in time. He's like really out here making enemies.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:00

Um, in the movie, they do a better job at making this moment. In the book, you're like, what the fuck? He's like, yeah, I guess I'll like kick someone's ass for f over 54 cents. Um in the movie, they give him like a an emotional arc with this uh with this silver quarter. Um that uh the silver quarter uh he was it was I don't remember exactly. The movie's stupid, and I stopped paying attention at a certain point. Um the movie is aggressively dull.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:33

Um an academy award, it has to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:37

Um anyway, uh the the movie has like um like the day he meets his wife, he has like a quarter in his pocket, and he's like, uh here's a fun fact I'm autistic, and I know that quarters made before a certain point are made with silver instead of like nickel or whatever. And she's like, Oh, that's freaking sick nasty. Here one second, let me put this pussy on your taste buds.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:57

Um disgusting. You're disgusting.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:01

She said her words, and I'm like She did not. That's what she said. It's a very stark and disgusting moment of the book. You're like, I forgot.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:09

And Tom Hanks movies tend to go.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:11

I was like, damn, this is extremely graphic and sexual. Um but yeah, so they give him like so like when the clown is like trying to give him a different quarter, Tom Hanks is like, I'll kick your ass over the they do really neuter Otto in the movie. Uh he does not punch the clown in the head. He like grabs the clown like loosely by the front of his clown vestment.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:34

His clowniform.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:36

Yeah, his clown of form. Um, and he's like, Give me my quarter. And he starts like going through the clown's pockets. This makes the clown cry and like a really disturbing the clown starts crying. There's like, I think it's meant to be played for comedy that like um because par Parvana or whatever her name is in the movie comes back uh both in the book and the movie. She comes back, a clown is crying, uh, there's like a security guard there, and uh Parvana's like, oh my god, what did my uh literal children do? And they're like, No, your children are uh beautiful and delightful. We love them here. Um your old ass friend is a bitch, and he needs to leave this hospital immediately.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:14

Why is there a clown there? I'm still kind of mad about the clown being there, if I'm being entirely honest with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:20

He's clowning.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:21

Okay, here's the thing about hospitals, right? They're really stressful and you're sick. I don't want you playing to my face with no goddamn coins.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:29

No, I think it's fine.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:32

When you go to the hospital, I'm gonna hunt down that fucking emotional support pony. I'm gonna fly him from wherever he is, and I'm gonna make sure he plays that piano right in your face.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:40

Well, because hospitals are like specially designed to really up your stress in like a way that no other place is. When I went to the hospital when I cut my hand, um, because I like, you know, jammed a knife into my hand so hard it hit the place.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:53

He's trying to kill himself in a really rapid way. Much like Ova.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:57

Yeah, Ova style. I tried to kill myself. Um, but I I had to go to the emergency room, and uh the lady doing my intake uh was like taking my blood pressure, and she was like, Oh, like your heart's really racing. And I was like, Yeah. And she was like, Are you stressed? And I was like, Yes. And she goes, and she she went, I kid you not. She went, What are you stressed about, baby? And I went, I went, I don't know, kind of all this. And she went, Mmm, COVID. No, bitch, the hospital. The fact that I'm currently within the hospital. This is like hospitals are like everybody in the hospital doesn't understand that it's stressful for you to be in the hospital.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:36

They're just used to being stressed out all the time.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:38

Yeah, they're like, Yeah, this is like a base level stress for me. Uh anyway, uh so he he punches the clown in the head. Nice. Um he remembers that he met Sonya uh while he was working on the train.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:51

Um weird job does this guy keep getting.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:55

Uh he works on the train.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:57

I was gonna ask, what did he study? Then I was like, oh, he just a straight out of high school type of boy.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:02

In the in the movie, he does they do have him go to college and he like studies like engineering, I think. Um that's really funny.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:09

Because they couldn't imagine someone just going to high school having a good life.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:13

Oh, I almost forgot. In the movie, when he uh tries to join up in the military and they're like, sorry, dick too small.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:18

Um That's not what happened! You're lying!

SPEAKER_01 1:04:21

You're lying, dishonest JC. Um when he's trying to join the military in the movie, he's explicitly trying to go to V The Vietnam War is happening, and he's like, one one one-way ticket to Vietnam, please.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:35

Suspicious.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:36

Uh, it's truly psychotic. The book is like kind of entirely divorced from history. Um, so like at no point can you tell like what year it's supposed to be. So like when he like tries to join up in the military, you're like, sure, whatever. But like in the in the movie, they're like, one, the time for Vietnam. Which I would love a version of this where it's He's trying to kill himself in Vietnam. His it's uh Tom Hanks's ugliest son trying to go to Vietnam to try to do like a forest gump type situation.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:08

Tom Hanks.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:12

I don't remember his name, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:14

Who cares?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:15

Anyway, um, she's delightful. She's like, What are you doing on this train? And he's like, Oh, I um I'm in army. And she's like, Oh, nice. Um, because he he's like, working for the military is kind of more honorable and fuckable than working for the railroad, which I heavily disagree with.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:32

Um, anyway, they go on a date, and um he he's like, by the way, I do have to admit, I'm I don't actually work for the army. And she's like, No, I know, because you were going home at 5 p.m. when people with jobs leave. People don't like get off work from army.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:49

And she still fucked him.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:51

Yeah, she did. Uh uh, Ova takes a train somewhere, I don't remember where, um, and a Guy faints and like faints and then falls onto the track. Um, and Ova's like, uh oh, and like nobody nobody like jumps down. Everyone's like, oh my god, uh everyone's uh startled. In the movie, it nobody jumps onto the track to help him because they're all on their damn phones.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:17

Are you fucking kidding me?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:19

They're all they're all like taking pictures and videos of this guy's uh uh unconscious body on the train tracks as the train pulls in. Uh and so anyway, Ova jumps in there and he helps the guy get onto the platform. They like pull him up onto the platform, and then Ova stands on the tracks and makes direct eye contact with the conductor. And then he like thinks he's like he has like time to think about it, and he's like, uh, this is like a really disgusting and gross way to go out. Like my my like guts and body are gonna be splattered all over the front of this train, and that's not hot and popping for my for my wife when I see her in heaven.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:56

Um famously, how you go to heaven is yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:00

It's kind of how you die. Uh he's like, this is really gross, and also it's gonna be like really upsetting for everybody on this train platform. So he like at the last possible moment decides to get back up onto the platform.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:09

This kind of pisses me off.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:11

This is really funny to me. Um he finds a stray cat to snowdrift. And his neighbor is like, oh my god, we gotta help the cat, and he's like, nah, the cat's fine. He's like, cats um cats love sleeping in snow drifts. It's kind of one of their favorite things. They can actually uh handle really low temperatures way better than we can. Like, if I fell asleep in a snow drift, I would certainly die. But this cat's 100%.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:42

Wait, one second, let me write this down real quick.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:45

Um anyway, uh Parvana and uh one of their one of the other people that live in their neighborhood, Fat Jimmy.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:52

Um yeah, you told me about this guy off the pod.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:55

Uh yeah, well, he his name's not actually his name's Jimmy, um, but I'm I'm going to call him Fat Jimmy so you can kind of get a sense on how many times Ova's internal monologue makes a hilarious joke about how fat Jimmy is.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:09

That's really funny.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:10

Uh it's so funny, dude.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:11

That sounds crazy funny.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:12

Oh, it's it's so hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:15

Dude, it sounds like it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:16

Um anyway, uh, Fat Jimmy is like, yeah, I guess I'll put uh the cat uh all over my uh my disgusting huge fat tummy um to warm it up. He's I don't know if you know this, Ova. This is a line from the book. He goes, Us fat guys run hot. Which um Frederick Bachman sniping me from Europe. Yeah, I'm I'm currently sweating because there's like a little bit of sun is shining through the window on me. Um I could Don't admit that.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:43

Keep that on the DL, homie.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:45

I could I could totally warm up a cat with my disgusting fat tummy. Jimmy's got like the cat up in his uh fat rolls.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:52

He fatly is warming the fat cat tummy.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:54

No, no, no, the cat's not fat. The cat is very thin because it's a stray, but he's fatly warming it in his disgusting fat tummy. Um and then uh he's like, by the way, now that I've put this cat truly on every part of my body, my disgusting fat body, I should probably admit that I'm extremely allergic to cats. Um, and they have to take Jimmy back to the hospital. Um, but Ova's not allowed to come inside because he's like banned from the hospital for due to clown punching. Um Ova remembers he used to be friends with Rune and Anita, because Anita and Sonia were friends, and they're like pregnant together, and they lived in the same neighborhood, which at the time only had two houses, Ova's and Runes. Um, and uh they uh Rune's like a Volvo guy, and so like him and Ova Disgusting. Him and Ova kind of have like a tense friendship over the fact that like there there's like during these chapters of like Ova and Rune's friendship, it's like uh uh oh like Ova got like the Saab QRX and at the same time uh Rune got the uh uh Volvo 113 uh uh uh Tinder.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:06

The Tinder?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:06

Of the Tinder. Uh or what the or what the fuck ever? I don't know. There's all these things are dumb. I don't know these. Um they like make themselves like the head and vice head of the HOA. They're doing all this kind of shit.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:18

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:18

Uh anyway, whatever. Um a journalist calls Ova and is like, hey, can I um interview you due to um saving that guy from the train? And Ova's like, fuck no, bitch.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:32

Chill and normal. Great, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:34

Um at one point, I didn't I don't think I put this in my notes because it's such like a nothing plot point. It just happens. Uh Ova locks her in his garage. She like comes around to try to be like, Please can I interview you? And he's like, Yeah, one second, go into my garage real quick, and then he locks her in there. Um and Parvana is like, is there a lady in your garage? And he's like, Nah.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:53

The suicide garage.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:54

Yeah, it's filled with exhaust. She's like, Please help me. I'm not like I can like feel my consciousness fading. Um, anyway. Um the the white shirt in the white van comes back, and Ova tells him to fuck off. Um, and he's like, Okay. And then he reveals he's like, You can't keep doing this, Ova. And Ova's like, how the fuck do you know my name? And he like slams his truck van into reverse and leaves.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:24

Oh my god, Ova schizophrenic. He was hallucinating the whole thing. The guy from the library book is a honey.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:29

Oh my god, it is Shudder. It's a man called Shudder Island.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:35

A man called Shutter. Shut up.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:38

Um anyway, he remembers going on a honeymoon to Spain.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:41

Um lame. Uh don't go there for your honeymoon.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:45

Spain's cool. I like Spain.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:47

Okay, calm down, bootlicker.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:49

Um, anyway, uh he he like goes to Spain, Sonya's like mega pregnant. Uh she's like so pregnant that she gets that pregnancy thing where you can't walk or whatever. They're like, you have to like get bet forever bed rest.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:03

Yeah, because you're about to drop that baby like a thought.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:05

Um, and then uh so Ova has to like do they they're doing like a bus tour around Spain, and so during like their time they're in like this town where his wife is having bed rest. He's like walking around town and he keeps seeing like Spanish people incompetently putting up a fence, so he puts it up for them Swedishly. Um Spanish people not knowing how to like fix a car because they're incompetent and they do um they like take long breaks in the middle of the day because they're lazy.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:38

Damn, was my mother riding this car?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:41

Uh so he has to like fix their car for them because they're they're too busy taking their midday break. There's siesta. There's fiesta. Um anyway, uh they get onto the bus to go to the next place, and the bus driver is like, damn, I had I straight up had too much kava. Um, and then he crashes the bus in a way that kills babies.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:01

What?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:04

He crashes the bus. Uh Sonia loses the baby and also um uh becomes paralyzed from like the waist down.

unknown 1:13:12

What the fuck?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:13

Uh this is this is like a pretty dark thing to suddenly happen. Um where yeah, anyway, so you kind of get the sense that like they he's throughout the book he's been kind of doing these like before the accident type shit. Um So you wonder you know like something's going to happen.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:34

Um there's like a really funny scene, I don't think I wrote it down, but there's a funny scene where uh Parvana like forces her way into uh Ova's house and she like goes into his kitchen and he's got like a bunch of like wheel tracks through his kitchen and the counters are really low, and she's like, Oh my god, was your wife in like a fucking wheelchair? And he's like, Yes. That's really funny. That's just like a funny thing to have it objectively. Oh my god. This book is I feel like I I feel like this is kind of coming across in how I'm telling this, but this book is kind of just like a collection of shit happens to like a guy.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:14

Yeah, no, it kind of seems like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:16

Because it's not like conceptualized as like a real story, it's conceptualized as like a blog. It it's written like a bunch of blog posts of like, what if what if this cantankerous old man had to like tried to kill himself and then had to drive his neighbor to the hospital? What if this cantankerous old bitch had to try to save a cat and then drive his dumb neighbor to the hospital? What if a clown talked to a cantankerous old man? The answer is head punching.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:43

Apparently, apparently that is the answer.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:46

Um the boy from earlier trying to fix the bike is uh comes to he has like a second job as like a male deliverer. He's like a mailman. And uh uh Ova's like, hey, did you like get your bike yet? And he's like, No, I don't actually like know how to fix stuff. And Ova's like, okay, well, I'll teach you so you can move the bike away. And the kid's like, sick, this will 100% help me get teen pussy. Oh my gosh, he's a teenager. Because he's a teenager. To be clear, that's the bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:14

No, totally.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:15

This will thank thank you, sir, for helping me get some teen teen quim. Or as they pronounce it in Sweden, Kvim. Anyway.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:23

I'm not responding to I'm too I'm too mad at you to respond to you anymore. You're gonna have to finish this up on your own, cause I'm pissed.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:30

I can do that. Uh that's fine. Um, anyway. And Ova's like, okay, I'll do that, but you have to bring like the tools. Cause I want you to have the tools to do it next time. Um, and then Ova agrees to teach Parvana how to drive so he doesn't have to keep driving her and her dumbass husband to the hospital. Um and uh while they're doing their driving lessons, someone yells at her, and uh because he's making her drive manual and she keeps stalling out like at stop signs, which I really identify with, um, as someone who's also not good at driving stick. Um and so uh he gets out of the car and he yells at the guy, and he's like, if you if you yell or honk your horn one more time, uh it's it's one head, it's one clown style head punching coming right at ya. Uh and then he like gets back in the car and he's like uh he's like, listen here, bitch. He's talking to Parvana. He's like, listen here, bitch. He's like, you survived a war, uh and uh you're he's like you survived war and you've had two children, you can handle anything. Now slam down on that clutch, let it out easy, and let's crank that shit into first. Um and I have in my notes um what war is he talking about? What war is he referencing in this context? Is he talking about the Iran-Iraq war in the 80s? Iran hasn't been in other wars since. I looked it up to be like, was Iran in like a regional war that just like didn't make the news cycle in the United States? But like the most they ever had was like um like light border disputes with um the Taliban.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:11

That was a war. The war on it was the war on Christianity.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:14

It was the war on Christianity.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:16

Uh the war on Christmas.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:18

It was a war on Christmas. Um anyway, uh Ova remembers that um basically his falling out with Rune comes because um uh his wife lost her baby. Ova's wife, Sonia, lost her lost the baby and also can't walk anymore. And Rune's wife has a baby and walks great. Um kind of 100% walking style. She's she's like pure wedding around the neighborhood, and that really pisses off Ova. Um walk maxing? Yeah, yeah, she's walk moging uh Ova's wife. Um, and then uh they start they do like passive aggressive neighborhood shit to one another.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:56

Oh good.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:56

Um, and until uh uh eventually they it just like goes back and forth. Um at one point Rune does uh Ova calls this a coup, but he basically does like the HOA version of a vote of no confidence against Ova, and Rune installs himself as head of the neighborhood council or whatever. Okay. Um anyway, uh Rune obviously wins this beef um by dropping the track Euphoria. Um anyway, uh in a serious note, Ova wins because um Rune doesn't have the memory to like fight him anymore. He doesn't he like can't remember why they're fighting. He doesn't have like that hate in him. Uh anyway, uh so he remembers like the rest of Sonya's life. She became a teacher.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:43

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:43

Um, she got cancer. Um Queen. She dealt with the Swedish healthcare system, hence his hatred for quote unquote men in white shirts and insurance bureaucracy. Okay. Um, by the way, I'm just gonna go ahead and say this. The insurance bureaucracy in this book sounds easy comparatively.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:02

I would love to see you try to do American bureaucracy, bitch.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:05

Um Ova um goes into like his shed and he pulls out a shotgun. He's like, I guess I'll just blow my fucking head off.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:12

King.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:13

I guess I'll just blow my shit smooth off.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:15

Hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What are the gun laws in Sweden?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:18

Um, he actually so this is like a really old gun that uh Sonya's father bequeathed him.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:24

Okay, it's not gonna work then.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:27

Um anyway, he's like a he he's like he like th every time like you throughout the book you kind of know he's gonna kill himself because he puts on his I'm going to kill myself suit. Um but he's like, oh wait, like this is going to put my brain matter all over my nice suit. So he takes his suit off and he's like basically naked. Uh then he puts the gun in his mouth, and then there's a knock at the door, and he goes to uh the door and it's the kid from earlier, the kid who's fixing a bike to get pussy. Um, and he's like, Hey, here's my friend that I introduced you for to from earlier that JC forgot to mention. Um which is uh this kid's I don't remember the kid's name, I don't even think I wrote it down. Whatever. Um it's his friend Mirsaad, whose dad runs the cafe that uh the kid works at. Um and Mirsaad is gay and his homophobic Persian dad hates that shit. Um oh, also at this cat in this cafe scene, um Ova is like, yeah, I'd like one black coffee, please. And they're like, I don't know what that is. That sounds fake and that doesn't sound real. It sounds like you made that up just now. Um he's like, uh yeah, I want a coffee-flavored coffee. I'm kind of Dennis Leary in that way. Um, and they don't know what that is, so Ova has to come behind the counter to show them how to use the percolator. Um, which again is just a funny scene. This is a every um I I worked at Starbucks and every man of a certain age does think that like you as a Starbucks employee don't know how to use like a coffee machine. But like we black coffee was one of like the biggest things we sold at Starbucks.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:19

Um like that's just funny that like the idea that like someone would work at a cafe and not know how to use like a coffee machine. Um anyway, uh Mir sad's gay. Uh the kid from earlier is like, yeah, can Meersad stay here? Because he came out to his dad gay style. Um and uh his dad was like, You can't live here anymore, and we don't really have like any other place to put him. Um and so Ova's like, yeah, sure, I guess. For some reason. And then um Ova sees the white van again, he gets really mad, and so he backs the trailer up behind it. The neighbor's trailer from earlier.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:56

Yeah, the one that he was driving.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:57

Yeah, he puts that in there and he like traps the car in.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:00

Um, because he hates government-sponsored healthcare?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:04

Yes, he hates that shit. Thinks that shit sucks.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:07

Um This is big English energy.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:13

Um He he keeps being like, look, like the the bureaucracy on this runs really slowly. Anita has like two more years before they actually like make her do anything. And they're like, oh yeah, like this happened, the the council made this decision three years ago. Um he's like, oh shit, oh my god, I thought we had more time. Hang on, I have like the exact plan that will get us out of this.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:38

Um, but this is not a bad thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:42

And then he uh and then he puts together the Avengers of um keeping an old man from going to a home, uh which is just like his one neighbor that does like cybersecurity, um, and uh the journalist he knows from earlier.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:56

This feels like fighting against the right thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:02

Yeah, right? This is a lot of like this is something I wanted to talk about that it does feel and and and I do think that like there should be like an element of um personal choice to like should your family member go to a home. But like on the other hand, if the primary caretaker for that person is themselves unable to take care of that person, then like it is the responsible choice. Again, as somebody who had several family members go into assisted living, taking care of someone with Alzheimer's is really hard. Um, especially because Alzheimer's does this thing where it makes you like really mean.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:40

Um But yeah, it it feels um it feels insane that this is like what they're fighting against. Anyway, um the guy in the van shows up to go pick up his van. Uh, and then they're like, uh, we we've assembled a crack team here to yell at you and shame you for trying to take this old man.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:59

Um doesn't matter, it's still the right thing to do, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:02

Uh the cybersecurity guy is like, I hacked your shit. Um, and I bet uh I I bet you have like some really embarrassing stuff on your hard drive. Um I don't know what it is because I haven't actually looked at it, which he admits by the way. Don't admit that if you've You stupid bitch. Yeah, don't admit that if you're trying to black don't admit like, yeah, I don't like know what's on there, but I bet it's like something you don't want us to know. Um that's nothing. If somebody was trying to blackmail me and they'd be like they were like, I don't actually know what's on your computer, but I bet it's stuff you don't want me to know. I'd be like, look, uh what's up now?

SPEAKER_03 1:24:35

Now we're should be ashamed though, because it's 70,000 tabs. That is like why you have so many tabs.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:43

Um, so they they do this bit where they uh and then like the journalist is like, yeah, and then he's gonna tell me what's on your hard drive, and then I'm going to report it in the newspaper. And it's like, you're going to report what this what this what nurse has on his computer? What what are you imagining you will find? Just some form of like you think he's like, yeah, this is my corruption tab on my computer. This is my corruption file. Because they're they're essentially accusing him of like base corruption, but like that there's nothing they like, okay, then do it. Um and then uh he leaves. He's like, I guess we'll I guess I'll never come back to take rune away. Um he does try to do a thing where he's like, oh, um, who's gonna take care of rune? This is like the this is like the question we're asking, and they're like, we're going to take care of rune as a community, which is a beautiful sentiment, and I really appreciate it. Not re his primary caretaker, is somebody there to like feed him?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:44

Is somebody there to like because if he like help him get to the bathroom? Yeah, if he like can't go to the bathroom and his primary caretaker also can't walk well, like what is like what you're going to show up, you're like on call, the community's on call to help their neighbor. Um I I think this is something that I I like believe th this is something to me as like a leftist that like I believe in like community, but I also believe that there's like a there's like a limit to community help and community action in these situations. And at a certain point, like the the medical community should be involved in these affairs. And so like to me, like you said, it feels like they're just kind of battling the wrong thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:26

Um anyway, he's like, I guess I'll leave and nobody will ever come get Rune. So all that is to say, I'm not really sure how exactly this would this is meant to have worked, right? Where it's it's one of these things where it's like, is that guy the medical bureaucracy by himself? We're like, what how does this how does this go when he goes back to work? Yeah. Sans this old man.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:52

Yeah, there's just gonna be like a new guy coming out.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:54

Yeah, what what they're gonna be like, uh, oh, where's the old man that is supposed to be in our care now? And he's going to be like, oh, they're going to like take care of him as a community, and also they threaten me with um whatever I may have on my hard drive.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:08

And they're Whatever that means.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:11

And they're like, uh, oh, no, go get that old man. No, why are we wh why are we negotiating with these terrorists?

SPEAKER_03 1:27:20

Yeah. Um negotiate with terrorists.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:24

Anyway, um, Ova with um Gay Mir sad um goes to convince Papa homophobia um that he should let his gay ass son move back in. Uh and he does this mostly through the power of whiskey and being a man. Um he's like, oh, like let's drink whiskey together. Which I don't understand. Mir sat is, as far as I can tell, meant to be understood as Persian, and his dad is like homophobic because he's like a conservative Muslim. Right. I would imagine. Right. How are they drinking whiskey together?

SPEAKER_03 1:28:05

So you know how every Muslim girl talks about how there's always a guy who's like, Sister, you are not, you are, you're haram in your dress. They still like to go out to like titty bars.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:17

His dad is like a his dad is like a Muslim dirtbag.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:21

That's awesome. Uh anyway, um, and then this all brings us back to uh the beginning of the book where uh uh it's three weeks later and um uh he's at Best Buy and he's yelling at the cashier uh fat Jimmy shows up and he's like um oh I'm he's like oh I'm sorry I was fatly in a different department um and uh I'm here to help and actually this iPad is good Ova and we'll get we'll buy it and then it turns out he's buying the iPad so he can give it to um one of Parvana's daughters who's having her birthday party I that doesn't make him a good person makes him an awesome guy no it doesn't he's still a piece of shit uh big facts um and he uh he leaves the birthday party throughout the book he's been like extremely paranoid of burglars in their neighborhood and then he catches some he's like oh my god there's burglars here um he's like so ready to go clown punching mode on these burglars and then they stab him with a knife just die um uh he like uh he like drifts in and out of consciousness and then he wakes up in the hospital um with the clown the clown is there he's like give me a five kroner uh coin dog uh the the community has come together in this time of need uh because Ova almost died um and then we have uh an epilogue um I don't want an epilogue to kind of see where everybody is now do I need it though you do uh by the way I want to throw out here in the movie they do um a really funny thing where they're like oh uh the heart condition Otto has that prevented him from uh going to get to kill Vietnamese people um is uh uh he his heart is too big and beautiful I want to beat up Tom Hanks I get it uh anyway um we have an epilogue uh we're at a wedding um Mirsad is getting married to fat Jimmy who as it turns out is actually fat gay Jimmy or possibly fat bisexual Jimmy yeah don't don't buy your razor my fat king that's right he gets married fatly and gaily um uh uh Ova is his best man for some reason I hate this I hate this so much this is giving big father forgiveness media and that pisses me off um Ova is an important and beautiful social part of the community no he's not uh and then four years later uh he dies which is uh extremely emotionally difficult for everybody in the community that the abusive man died and then uh the book ends with somebody moving into Ova's house and burning it down and uh Parvana is like you have big house shoes to fill she for some reason is not like hey an old man tried to kill himself like 22 times in this house.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:40

I can't JC I literally can't JC this is this is big father forgiveness media shit. If a man does one right thing after years of abusing everyone else it's fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:50

Yeah he's fine. Anyway the book is fine.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:54

The book is fine. The movie was bad Tom Hanks is not grumpy enough he's not cantangerous enough.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:01

The book I would describe because it this was like um this like launched Frederick Bachman has like eight books or whatever. He has like a bunch of books now.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:09

Aren't they all anti-government like this or no he's like if only the good people of Sweden could pay for their services.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:17

But like my understanding is he does kind of write in this like quasi comedic style. Are you trying to go comedic yeah like the book kind of has like a quasi-comedic tone. Every time he tries to kill himself it's kind of seen it's kind of like taken as like comedy I would love to have someone message and be like it's not funny. Actually JC's just kind of fucked it's not it's not meant to be funny at all JC's just kind of JC's fucked up um I mean possibly I took it as like it's like sort of meant to be almost comedic how often he tries to kill himself. But yeah so it's it's it's one of these books um I can't imagine Frederick Bachman's other books in this style because he also writes like um he wrote a book called Bear Town which is I think about uh Fat gay bears yeah it's about fat gay bears it's about uh like a girl who um is sexually assaulted by the captain of their local youth hockey team so funny uh there's one that's about like um like an apartment building held hostage by a bank robber um like I I d I can't imagine these other books in his style but like if you describe like on the face of it this is a book about a man trying to kill himself and accidentally becomes crucial to the his community yeah that would not this is that what it sounds yeah it I'll be honest all of his books sound not it for me but like go off king. I don't know that I would read another Frederick Bachman I don't this this has not convinced me. I can't tell if it's because like you know how like Germans have like a bizarre sense of humor to Americans? Yes. I I I wonder if it's like a Swedes to me just like have like a a sense of humor that I don't understand.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:08

Isn't your favorite boy Swedish?

SPEAKER_01 1:34:10

Karlovakanaskar?

SPEAKER_03 1:34:11

Yeah no no no he's Norwegian they're basically the same they're basically the same not according to him but no I'm aware I know I just created a huge social faux pas by saying they were even a little bit similar.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:23

Exactly but yeah and and that's uh a man called Ova.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:28

Did you like it? I wouldn't say it's for me no did you did you like any part of it?

SPEAKER_01 1:34:37

Um I did at a certain point I did kind of find the bit of um Carl kill Carl Carl Ova killing himself um I did kind of find the bit of Ova like trying to kill himself a bunch of times like a little funny. Wow dark humor um toy but I I don't I don't think like the book the style of the book isn't for me. He's really really mean about this like fat guy in his book.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:07

And now that you're a fat guy you're like I can't I can't deal with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:10

Yeah. Um there's like a there's like a part where like because like s to some extent it's kind of played as like that's just Ova that's just like how Ova thinks about it. But like there there'll be like these moments where there's like narration that's like um Jimmy like bent forward and grabs something from the uh floor of the car down by his feet. Surely an Olympian task for him his fat ass yeah at some point in time it's like yeah at some point in time that's just Frederick Bachman being mean to fat people someday I hope there will be a big cultural shift on the way they talk about fat people and people will look at stuff like that and be like oh that'd be fun yeah for sure yeah I mean that is kind of how I feel when I read like books nowadays is like they'll they'll be like and oh by the way also um this guy's like real fat and nasty and I'm like oh you're a bad writer you're just not like good at writing I think you're just like they're bad writers they're bad people I think it's also really funny because all of my books and I think I we talked about this at Monster Erotica are fat bitches.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:17

Yeah yeah yeah my books are fat bitches and then all your books are like ew nasty fatties. Yeah imagine if you were fat and disgusting well JC I appreciate you telling me about the the little boy who tried to kill himself so hard he accidentally became everyone's bestie. Yeah personally couldn't be me.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:35

Couldn't be you it is father forgiveness media 100% yeah fuck that shit be held accountable for their actions I agree this this this is something where like and you talked about this but like he hasn't like done like a fun I I I I do think I would have like criticized it if he like became part of a community and like changed his personality which does basically happen in the movie. Yeah um and then he uh and and in the movie he explicitly dies because his heart is too big and beautiful um in the book that's kind of implied that like it's because of the aforementioned heart condition.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:10

What type of big ass in his heart grew three times after type shit.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:15

It is um it is really giving like um you know those people who would talk about like the Grinch who stole Christmas and they'd be like in his heart grew three sizes. And they're like that's actually a really serious medical condition. That's just what this guy is yeah that's actually just what happened to this guy is the heart's too big and beautiful and then he died.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:31

Oh duh that's okay that's okay and that's okay and that's okay sometimes you know what not everyone can be offering uh monster smut monster smut and cock and and pussy and stuff that's I mean look none of my books are father forgiveness and as someone who as someone who will never forgive their father that makes them five stars in my eyes.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:54

I agree.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:55

Have a good y'all with you know what you're doing