[music]
There was something about this book that made you not want to open it so bad.
I don't know what it was. There was a dark force surrounding this book that when you go near it,
it moves away from your hand. Could not wait for it to end the moment it began.
Obviously, it wasn't horny at all. Thank God, not that I wanted it to be, but just not usually my type.
Children's book for adults. If you want to get an understanding of this character,
it's just like, imagine Larry David, but all of the humor is stripped away.
[music]
Hello everyone and welcome to Mean Book Club. This week we read a man called
Uva by Frederick Bachman. Notice how we said it right this time?
Did we? If you heard Uva. So if you heard the promo, we might have said all of them.
Because we're American geniuses.
I'm a problem to get something that is, you know, un-American effect.
Right, and it's just that I'm so used to being right and smart, so I just went with it.
Didn't think I needed to look it up at all. No. I'm glad we're talking so much.
I'm glad we're talking so much about that name and not the author's name, which I
probably butchered, but you know, moving on. You think it might be Bachman?
No, Fredrick could be Fredrick. What does that have to Swedish people say that name?
Frederick, Frederick, no, no. Oh, interesting. To learn he's Swedish. I got the sense that the book was
foreign. Maybe by using dollars. They were not using-- They were using Kroner, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I, you know, I knew that was certainly not my currency.
Was this, was that also arrogance?
These books, American areas. Yeah, we looked up the conversion rate of Kroner to dollar because I
wanted to know what I was dealing with and it's nearly one to one. Oh, that's so much to do.
What's the point just use ours?
Just kidding. Make it easy for us. All right, well anyway, we are Mean Book Club.
reread books that you tell us, you know, your book club made you read and you're very angry about it.
Please do this book. They are New York Times bestsellers. As always, we are your host. I'm Sarah
Burton. What's up? I'm Clara Morris. Hello. I am Johnis Graybess. And I'm Sabrina B. Jordan.
Sometimes we do the last names. Sometimes we don't. It's true. Yeah, I try to follow suit.
Yeah, I can't. It is the consistency is not there and I know that's on me. But anyway, Clara,
why are we reading? Why did we read this book? This book was recommended to us by J.B. via the Patreon
who said, I'm writing to request a man called Uva for a future episode. My husband and I read it on
a rep on the recommendation of a friend and independently came up with the descriptor children's book for
adults. I cannot fathom what people are getting out of this. Yeah. So we read that. We said, thank you
for your patronage by doing the book. Yeah. That's why we're reading it. And are we happy about it?
Maybe not. Listen on, find out the game. Don't say no cliffhangers. So how did you guys consume, read,
inhale this book? This was an audiobook from the library for me. Well, how little journey? Got it from
Libby was listening on three times. It's not that long. It's like 10 hours long was listening on three
times speed could not wait for it to end the moment it began. So then I was like, maybe I'll watch the movie
and just I'll have a similar to it. And then I just like couldn't bring myself. Well, first of all,
I couldn't find the movie because it's actually a man called auto. That's the top hang one. That's what made me realize
the Swedish there is the Swedish version. All of that became too much. I just started listening again.
But that was your breaking point. You've got two different movies. Yeah. And I know. Because if you
want to, if you're going to watch a Swedish movie, you're going to be reading it. So you know,
absolutely exactly. And so then I never, I got too far into listening to it. And then I thought I
would never watch this movie in my life. Okay. So you, you listen to it was the answer. Yeah. Okay. Great.
I have a similar answer to go ahead. Let's hear it Sarah. I hope it's slightly more interesting
journey than the one Sabrina shared, but I guess I'll see you. Yeah. You'll find out. I first, as you
guys know, I went to the library, thought I checked out audio book, but it was an audio CD. So you couldn't
figure out how to consume that. No, but that, listen to that. I ended up getting a book thought, this is
good. I'll definitely read a book. Didn't open it. Did not open it. I realized was not going to
consume it that way. So then I did go back again and find an actual digital audio book. And I did
finally was able to complete the book. You haven't returned any of those items that you got a room
and you sleep just by going back. Yeah. I mean, they, nobody's nobody's asking for these. Okay. Nobody,
nobody wants these. They auto renew. Even the library layer. Oops. Someone checked out all our copies of
maybe I do have to wonder what they think of you. It's like she needs it. It's different.
Fuck it loves this book. I also read it from the library and I had a similar experience to Sarah.
There is something about this book and I'm calling out the jacket designer. This is a very quick
judgeable by its cover. Yes. There was something about this book that made you not want to open it
so bad. I don't know what it was. There was there is a dark force surrounding this book that when you
go near it, it moves away from your hand and gets shuffled underneath another pile of books. It is
so unappealing to open. What's that? It was no trouble to read the opening. That was the problem.
The book cover appears to be a man just staring out into the sky. And I thought it looked like a cat
was pissing on his leg but it might just be his tail raised in a certain way. It's probably his tail
because the cat is not a good guy. Yes. There's not too familiar with cats either.
It's upon the mess. It's an amaze. Yeah. This cat definitely looks like it's pissing.
That looks intentional. It looked intentional. What about it? Sabrina just for the listeners?
Yeah. As a cat. Oh, no. You would describe how it's pissing. That's it. Okay. I take it back,
actually. You think it's the tail? That tail, I thought it was this other leg. That's what I'm saying.
Yeah. That's a bag jacket design. So his tail is sort of curved around the V's leg in a way that
makes it look like it's up on its left hind leg and it's right is raised to the sky.
Like a dog would be to be fair. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, it's, yeah. Okay. We're not not plus a jacket.
But we know we eventually got there. We made it to the book. So Sabrina, do you want to sum it up
for the listeners who don't know what the hell this is? Sure. Also the man on the cover looks 105
yourself. Yes. Also that. Yeah. I was picturing Tom Hanks, not somebody that old. Yeah. The
old. The main character, he's 59. Like I couldn't, I, I, the whole time I was picturing somebody who's
like 80. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We could be like his 50. Yeah. 59 is a bit his forced retirement. Yeah.
It was nice to picture Tom Hanks though. Well, you know, it does make it a little bit more palatable.
I don't know that anything could make this book more palatable.
Except you're being a different book. When Sabrina takes something, she comes for you know,
it's very rare. I thought maybe Clara would like to read the summary. Oh, I would. Thanks.
I think my glasses on. Yeah, you better. Because when she doesn't have the glasses on,
it's hard. She's trying to give it the respect it deserves the glasses. Yeah. I wish she gave
all the summaries the recipe. A man called Uva thinks he does everything right and everyone
else is a complete idiot, which makes him insufferable. He might as well die early in the book, but
unfortunately for all of us, he doesn't die until the very end. Also, there is a cat. Okay. It's a good
description. That's the entire book over and over and over again, like a hundred times. And
then that's the book. Because he's also just trying to kill himself a bunch and he keeps really
not falling through it. It does get frustrated. I kind of wish he succeeded the first time.
A rare sort of emotion to have about a main character. Do we have a pair? Anybody have a pairing
or a John, do you have one? I have a recommended pairing. I do. Oh, okay. Okay.
John is judges. It is a Greek liquor called Uzo. And I think you probably know right away why I think
that because you did not pronounce the name. I didn't know how to pronounce the name. And I was like,
why does this name remind me of a liquor that I also don't really know how to pronounce not a
hundred percent content? But it is a liquorish flavored liquor. Oh, gross. Okay. Yeah. I agree. That sounds gross.
Okay. Well, let's put the different culture than your own respect. Let's put the poison of liquor. I
know what will. I thought that the worst candy. It has its own Wikipedia page as most objects do.
And I was like, what is a good cocktail to make with Uzo? Uzo? Uva. And the Wikipedia page said,
there really isn't one. If you want, sometimes in Greek people make something called an Uzi,
which is just a disgusting sounding name. Uzo. Uzo, Martini. So I guess you can think about
doing that. If you want or just have a shot, um,
cheers in Greek, whatever in Greek chairs is. I used to know it. Salud? It's salud a lot of places.
I don't think so. No, no. Oh, it didn't help when I searched for it because it's
the Greek. I'll just all move on. Um, let's talk about the author, uh, Fredrick Backman. We'll try
that couple of different. Yeah. Okay. I find one that I'm fine with that. He's a Swedish blogger,
columnist, and novelist man called Uva was his debut novel. He was born in 1981, so he's not that much
older than us, but this novel debuted in 2013 in English in English 2012 when he first did it.
So it was younger than all of us. He's younger than us when he had his debut novel, but not in his 20s.
No, no, no, no. Okay. Um, early 30s though. Early 30s though. Yes, so impressive. Yeah, it's sort of
interesting the way he got his inspiration for the book. So he read an article about a man named
Uva who had a fit while buying tickets at an art museum, you know, supposedly it was too much money
or something like that. Um, and then Backman instantly related to the man and claims to be not
great at talking to people. And so he started writing blog posts under the heading, I'm a man called Uva.
And uh, just doing like fiction kind of stuff, talking about pet peeves and little annoyances and what
he doesn't like about the world. Uh, eventually he realized that his writing had potential to be a character in a book.
So it was, so that's kind of cool that it was just like a blog entry. He was just having fun with a blog.
Who didn't have fun with a blog back then, huh? Yeah, it feels like it. 2012.
Feels like it. I was seriously. Bye, bye. Okay. Well, some of us wish blogs were
still alive and well, but not necessarily. Did you have a blog? I did. What do you blog about?
What did you log about? Little joky things, little joky things. What was that?
Twitter? The name of it just like, uh, watch, I'm gonna look it up now. Yeah. Sure. I think it was a
Tumblr, Clara Morris or something. The title was called Watch Me Dive. Oh nice. Wow. I definitely had a
Tumblr that had done. I had a punny title for my blog page as well. That's not really a pun though.
Watch me die. Yeah, like, yeah, like, Sabrina. Watch me. Watch me die. I know. That's not what it was. It was like,
like, like a kid being like, watch me die. Watch me die. Uh,
because also that it was Simpson's reference. Our list is okay. Mine was upon the mine was
bested by and then my little tagline was we do not sell electronics.
Oh, best did buy. Oh, best. Yeah. Like, you're bested by something. Oh, okay. Okay. All right.
I guess I would say it's all right. A lot of words.
Look, that's what a pun is. Look, I'll share this. I had one that I really didn't write much in,
but I can remember the title. It was like, the concept was there. There was no follow-through.
And it was epic wraps as epitaphs. And oh, that's a word play. Yeah, it was word play,
but did I go beyond that now? You're neither a rapper nor a eulogist. Yeah. No, but I had,
I had the idea that it'd be fun to combine the two. They can't believe me. That has never
read my blog is what I'm getting from this. I bet I, I bet I followed it. Okay. I can't access it now,
which is a bummer. Oh, no. Yeah. Okay. I'll try to, I'll try to find it. Oh, wow. Oh, well,
well, I didn't, okay. Well, you didn't turn your, you didn't turn your blog into a best-selling novel.
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what happened because it was better than this. Okay, so he was
rejected a lot before somebody was like, okay, it's good. Somebody said, like one publisher said,
we like your novel. We think you're writing as a potential, but we see no commercial potential in
this and he like really uses that as a little feather in his cap these days. Uh, Ova became a blockbuster
in Sweden. It sold more than 840,000 copies. It was adapted into a stage production and an award-winning
Swedish film, which we discussed earlier, Flamick Sabrina. And then it reached, it was pretty recent in
the US. I didn't, it was like 22. Yeah. Something like that. Translations of the book have sold in 38
languages, including Arabic, Turkish, Latvia and Thai and Japanese. And there is a very passionate
following in South Korea. And even the Korean publishers like, we don't know why. People really like
this. The book was published in English in the US in 2013 and it's spent 42 weeks on the New York Times
Best Cellar List. Oh, yeah, the Tom Hanks movie. That's the one you want. Well, that's the one
Sabrina wanted. I assume that's what you want, which I guess again is American arrogance.
I don't know what they changed. Well, I'll tell you they changed the name for auto. And it's in Pittsburgh,
which I thought John on my like, and Sabrina my like, yeah, yeah, I think I saw it to Ford.
I love that they changed the name away from Ove because they were like too difficult for Americans.
They wouldn't possibly be a good old American name, more American.
It's true. A car. Auto. Auto Washington.
And that's the background. The end of the background. Okay, I rich deep dive Clara. Thank you.
You're welcome. All right, all right. We'll take a quick commercial break. We'll be right back.
[Music]
And we're back. All right. Let's dive in. Watch me die. Watch me die. Oh, man, since you guys like
wordplay so much, I'll share some really, I think samples are really fun wordplay in the book.
I know I would love that. I would love that. I just want my blog wasn't a pun. I don't like wordplay, but go on.
But you guys are going to just die when you hear these. You're going to just dive.
Auto. I mean, now if you use Ove, watch Ova.
Ova, Ova walks into an electronics store because he needs a new computer and he asks for an Opad.
Okay. And then they're like, we don't have, I don't know if an iPad's right for you, sir. How about
Macbook? And he says, "A Macbook." Come on. Pretty good stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I think that only works in writing
and the character is doing it out loud. So you think it won't work, but I mean, I guess it does work
because he sold more books than me from his blog. Yeah. I feel like he, if you want to get an
understanding of this character, it's just like, imagine Larry David, but all of the humor is stripped
away. So this whole book is just like, what if Kirby or enthusiasm existed in a humorless vacuum?
It was like a morality play where you were supposed to be transformed into a good person.
Can you imagine that? Oh, I'm shivering. Yeah. Yeah. And I also just like, I really do think this
because the Ova character is like 59. He acts like he's like a curmudgeonly old man that you expect to
be like 80 plus that you expect to be like he's losing it. You know, just like he just doesn't give
a fuck anymore, but I'm like 59. I mean, you learn his life has been tough, but still life expectancy
and sweet it. Maybe it's real low. I feel like it's got to be better than you. Well, let's check it in.
I would imagine, but and when was the book written? Clara? 2012.
2012 came out of 2012. So we've got to go back to 2012, which I assume the life expectancy was
higher than it is today. Yeah. It's currently 82 in Sweden. Okay. What's it in the US?
Right. Check it out. It better not be near my age.
I don't have a 70 77. Wow. Wow. So they have five years on us.
It did, did had did dip. There is a dip for everyone in, you know, COVID airtime.
Why? What happened? Oh my god.
You might be wondering, listener, why we're allowing so many loosey, goosey tangents. And it's
just not that much in the book. It's very repetitive. The book is extremely repetitive. It's like
uva, could try and kill himself up, but somebody's knocking on his door and they need him to fix their
in our radiator. Yeah. Yeah. He's so bad because he's going to run real bit. Yeah. He's mad because
they don't drive a sob and so he's like, I just got to get back to killing myself. But now I'm going to
try a new way to do it for some reason, even though I had it all figured out. Yeah. He just needed to
buy better rope after the first one. Yeah. I mean, I get that one. That was tough. I thought the
second one where he was going to come to himself in the car seemed like it was going to work fine.
He just got in a rabbit. So he already had the tube. We can tell this story. He's killing himself
in the car. It's happening. A woman knocks on the door and needs a ride to the hospital or
husband's hurt and she's bringing all her kids into this car that clearly spelled it like it's so
clear that he was trying to kill himself. And she was like, we watch my children. Yeah.
Instantly. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if I would trust a man you're trying to know. And she kept
being like, what were you doing? What were you doing? It seemed like she knew he was trying to kill
himself. Yeah. Yeah. But she never. Well, she was due to the neighborhood. So maybe, you know,
from wherever she was from, it just wasn't a thing in her car. Yeah. There was this heavy racist thing
going on, which was like, oh, this foreign woman has no boundaries. And that's why she can, she
just barges in. She doesn't have the like, respectability of white people, I guess. Yeah.
And that's why she could get through his harsh exterior is what it felt like the book was. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Great. I agree. I did wonder if maybe she like had been raised outside of human society though.
She just continued being nice to him and like, acting oblivious to the very like mean things he was
doing to her and her husband to a point that it was either like, either you're like intentionally
trying to fuck with him at this point by being overly nice or you were raised by, I would say like
the opposite of wolves. What is the most civilized animal that you could have been raised? Adolfing?
I don't know. Dolphins. Like government. Yeah. Researcher Dolphins. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe she knew the
big twist that was coming at the end. Oh, right. Right. Good point. Good point. Actually, he's nice to them.
No, he's gonna die. He had a bunch of money. Oh, nobody knew about his left it to her kid.
You always have to be careful to be nice to people in case they have a lot of money. Yeah. That is the
reason the only person that was ever nice to them. And you know, there's some ways to tell you
you can look at them and you can look at what they're wearing. You can say, does that look like a cost
money? What kind of car are they driving? Like they're wasted at term. And that's you don't have to be nice
to everyone. But like in general, yeah, be nice to people who have a lot of money. You can target
your niceness. Yeah, certainly. Certainly. And this is your back. I got an anecdote. This is guy in the
neighborhood who lives near the park and always just high and stuff. I'm nice to him and it's boring.
And once he was like, you want to see my backyard? And I like expected there to be,
it's just a regular backyard. You're just kind of proud of the landscaping. Yeah. Wait.
Whoa. What is happening to you? And then did he offer you candy? No. No. He gives bubbles.
He gives bubbles. He gives out those bubbles things to Veda and stuff. But wait, it's just an old man who
gives bubbles to children. Yeah. And then that was there. It's fine. And then
both of you. Yeah. The both of you. Well, he was, he didn't have, he didn't, I had already said,
yeah, sure, being nice to a lonely old man. And then the lonely old man one day was like,
oh, I want to leave my house to the neighbors next door. It's like, well, what the fuck?
I'm the nice one. I guess they are too. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's happened on the clarinet.
Now that you say that I would play in all of you, also he is playing all of you. Yeah. Is a renter.
Who am I going to leave my house to in this housing market?
Well, you guys didn't turn around pretty quick on his, he's dangerous when I said,
a house was up for grabs. All the same thing is if there's money at stake, then we can turn.
We can be nice. It's the same lesson. Yeah. We're just listening to a while for God's sake.
I feel like we should also say that Ova, like why he was trying to kill himself was because his
wife died. And it seems like she was a wonderful human who didn't, he didn't deserve.
It was almost as if a child had an imaginary friend, like that kind of niceness to him.
I was confused for the, because they were talking, because at first like he's taught, it seems like he's
talking to her, but then it's revealed that she's dead. But then I really revealed though. It's like,
she's obviously dead. Yeah, but I thought he was like carrying around like a, I don't know why I
thought this, but I thought he's like carrying around like a stone or something and talking to her.
Like I thought he was like crazy in a way beyond. Oh, I think you're brain tried to make the book
more fun. Yeah. Maybe, maybe. And then they were like, and then it, but then later when they were
like talking about the wheel imprints, I thought like, oh, he's wheeling around a really big stone.
He's pretending to be his wife. And then it was like, no, those are just imprints because when his
wife was alive, she was in a wheelchair, but yeah, so it's just the book I wanted first the book I
got. Yeah, that's so funny. It's like, well, a stone can't walk. It's heavy. So we got a wheelchair
yeah, I just wanted to be so much weirder. It was a weird choice to not just like to slowly reveal
things about the wife that didn't really fucking matter. I guess her being dead mattered, but like
that she's in a wheelchair was revealed so slowly. It was like seeing, because Clara, he didn't see
wheels. Yeah. So for him, that's like the 20th thing you're going to say about it.
Gotcha. Oh, I see. I see. Although there's that one character who was fat. Was that Jimmy? Yeah,
Jimmy. And he's described constantly as being like, you cannot be, you have to be reminded that he
is food on his, on his shirt. It's coming. It's coming down his chin. He was a person. So we were talking
about how there were these things in the book that were like slow roll reveals that were also
like yes, you didn't need them to be slow rolls like for example, at the beginning of the book, he's
talking about this book. He's so carefully placing in his ceiling and how he just got fired and
and it's like supposed to be a mystery. What he's going to do with the hook. It's like, I know what
he's going to do with the hook. Like, this is not a mystery. He's definitely setting this up that
he's going to kill himself. And then you know, he almost tries to a lot of times bad rope.
You'd think like if you're so bad at killing yourself, it would, and you wanted to kill yourself,
like the self esteem issues would compound, but doesn't seem to bother him that he's not good at.
Yeah, you're right. It is because he's someone who like prides himself at being a hard worker and like,
yeah, good at fixing things and the fact that you're right. I would think he
claims other people for always, but that's not really depression now. Is it with depression,
you sort of blame yourself for everything? Day research blogger. Also the amount of times people
are knocking on his door. It's like, that's not realistic. I would be horrified if someone knocked
on my door that much. I like visits to the door. What? I don't even answer it. It's not something I want.
Sure. I always answer. Is it actually selling you stuff? No, it's usually presents for my neighbors.
No, sometimes just bring me a packet. Is this just a recent thing?
No, we kind of like always give little gifts to each other in the building. Sometimes you
will have like a bone for willow, baby clothes have been coming. Is this real? This is real.
How do you get that? Your neighbors in your building have been just dropping off baby clothes? Are they
like old baby clothes? Are they like, hey, I was going to donate these, but I'll just donate them to
John's door now. No, brand new. No, for me. In little gift bags for the baby. And in you, given them gifts,
I give them candy at Christmas time at Halloween. I put it into the picnic paper. No, it's a couple
different ones. Sometimes the neighbors next to us want to borrow $20 to and they knock on the door
and then we give them $20 and then a couple days later they knock on the door and they give
them $20 back. Sometimes they need to borrow tools and sometimes they can't they buy $20 because
they can get in their front door. So then they come into our apartment and they go out into the
backyard and then they climb in through the window to get back in. I don't like any of this.
I don't I don't feel by the way of this relationship. I don't want any of it.
People who are doing that are your neighbors. Uh-huh.
You sound like actually you could you should be relating to Ova because it sounds like you have
very similar neighbors to what he has. Yeah, I guess so. I would like more I would do like more
like sort of dinner parties the way the nice lady next door sent over the Persian food. I would
do that. Saferon rice. You'd send over the I would like it to be sent to me more. Oh, yeah. Okay. I don't
cook. Clara. I don't cook for myself. I was certainly don't have enough to do a neighbor.
All right. Yeah, you want Pervana to be your neighbor. Okay. All right. I don't know where to go
with this. I feel uncomfortable but you seem to be happy with it. So I don't know how to do it.
Yeah, I like it a lot. Okay. You know, maybe the dog.
Right. Dog draws people in. Um, I think it was me.
There's my $20 thing. If somebody if I just
wait for me, $20 cash for, I mean, I don't know. We're not. Sometimes you need to borrow something
like a couple of sugar, $20 cash. A couple of sugars. One thing, $20 cash. It's like, go to the ATM.
But the fuck are you doing here? Why am I just going to know you? I'm trying to laugh. Yeah, I like that.
These people use Venmo. Okay. I don't either. They always bring them money back.
But how do it just going to be one of those like, uh, fat in the pig stamps where they ask for more more?
Yeah, yeah, they ask it like, oh, they're the big, they give it back. You're the pig. Okay.
They give it back. They ask for a little more. They give it back. That's for a big amount. You never get that back. They're in the wind.
Thanks for telling me that I was, I'll look out for being fat and, um, so far I've just been fed corn.
And it's the same amount of corn every time. And then I, you know, ex assets, there's been no $20,000.
$20,000, $20,000, $20,000, $20,000. I didn't know actually what Matt's capable of, to be honest, you might.
All right. Anyway, the book. Yeah. So it's, it's a, is he, is he fucking neighbors, man? Who?
Yeah, the, the Parvana, she, her husband, she's pregnant. Her husband, her, it's himself. So now she has to learn to drive.
Yeah. They're the one with the litter of kids. Is that the term? Yeah. Two, two is a litter.
And she, for some reason, wants, uva, the, the teacher, it seems like a really bad idea, like the least nurturing most store patients.
Won't teach automatic only will teach her stick shift such an asshole. Yeah. It's like, that's not the car and car she drives.
She should probably insist on driving in her car. Yeah, yeah. It didn't make sense to me. Um, and he has a weird thing.
We have to hear about sobs so much. And that's fucking book. Uh, it doesn't even exist anymore. No, it does not like he's, he, he, yeah, he put his money down on the wrong horse.
Like, honestly, I was like, he's like, Volvo BMW, I'm like, better cars. They still around. They didn't go bankrupt. You picked the bag.
But sob is Swedish. So I guess that's it's kind of like that of, you know, that's why I said I wondered if they changed it to Ford and auto version because it feels like a, you know, country pride in this brand.
Right. I don't know a lot of, I've never really met a person who is like really into sobs or.
That's what actually funny enough, my good friend Megan, I heard father was a sob dealer, which is probably why I know they went out of business.
For them, but she had a sob. She had a sob in high school because of it. And it was funny. It was a funny old car.
But that's still different than someone being like, my sob is my life. Yeah. I work on my sob in my free time. Yeah.
When you say the name of the type of car, I'm found out already.
Yeah, I care a lot in it over and over again, like also just felt like things, like the same paragraph repeated a million times in this book.
Just like over and over again, how it's like, well, that's how he defines personality. Like all you need to know about him is that he cares about his sob. And as though that was like a really.
And then I was like, yeah, I'm telling you it's a personality trait because I'm telling you it's a personality trait. And over and over again, I was like, yeah, very tell don't show which you know comes up a lot in these books.
I'm also very tired of the guys of Carmogen, his wife's an absolute angel.
You know, it's just like, I've seen that so many times and the truth is probably that he remembers their relationship in more rosy colors than it had.
She wasn't that great.
I bet she was it was like heavy sigh.
You can't just shut people out.
This woman, this woman, gotten an accident when she was pregnant, lost her child, lost her legs and then taught hits with ADD.
Sorry, because that's like really what it says.
And, you know, very trouble, very troubled with.
And she dedicated her life to it. So she really is that wonderful drama. How dare you.
It has a set a little bit like I dedicated my life to a cause and it's like, whoa, what's your why that's really incredible? What's your cause? It's like people with mild, milky colors.
It's true.
Black toast and tolerance. Yeah.
Black toast and tall.
Yeah.
You're like, uh, they need a lot of help.
Look, they need help.
Every issue needs a champion. Okay. I'm glad that lactose and tolerance has a champion. I'm glad that ADD has somebody out there working for it.
But let's hit the big ones first.
And we got to talk about this cat because I feel like.
Oh, yeah.
You either maybe it just the way the cat was, well, first of all, the cat was treated horribly.
Even for someone who's not a cat person.
I was like acknowledging that. I'm shocked. He just let the cat out to die in the freezing cold.
And that was somehow supposed to be sharp, which was to then let him take care of the cat.
It's a straight cat that he seems to have some sort of rapport with when he sees it in the alley.
But it's also seems like this main g sick,
or patched cat. Um, and another neighbor has a dog and throws rocks at the cat, which is too much.
Yes. Yeah. Definitely.
Kill that person.
No, like not to be extreme, but.
It pissed me off because it seemed like it was trying to be like dog people are like this, throw rocks at a cat.
And then it was like, you know, and it was very anti dog.
It was.
The dog is, yeah, peeped on his slate.
Okay.
It sounds like the dog is peeing on a street and you're mad about it.
You're on repeat your house dog peep.
The other thing about the cat is just that it acted in a way that I don't, I don't think many cats act like the cat.
It's a straight cat.
And the cat's like, I love you.
Let me hop in your car and go with you on errands.
I'm just like, what cat is that?
That's not a cat.
Am I wrong?
That's not a feature of a cat.
Cat Swedish cats might be a little bit brown.
Okay.
So no, it's not a feature.
Not to be American cats that I know, but.
I think I love the car.
Let me get in the car and ride with you.
I think let me come with you while you run errands is in a feature of most living things.
I think a dog.
Oh, you're right.
I'm not sure if you're right.
Why did you cut all the cat?
Who is the character that's gay?
Who is the character that he calls that he's like bent?
Who is the character that's gay?
Who is the character that he calls that he's like bent?
Who is the character that's gay?
Oh yeah, that's the first thing we're funny thing.
There's something where somehow a young man is like,
there's something where somehow a young man is like,
your wife taught me back when I had ADHD.
and she was nice, so I thought maybe you'd be nice.
and I thought maybe you'd be nice.
And I was saved my life when I was real sick with ADHD.
And it's just, it's a little too contrived
that all these happens to him right when he's trying to kill himself.
Yeah.
Oh yeah, he's going to jump in the way of like a subway trainer,
a trainer something, but then someone accidentally falls.
Offway convenient.
The answer then he has to save him instead of the way he's trying to kill himself.
And then he's a hero instead of killing himself and journalism.
And it's just supposed to be like cute.
It's not supposed to be like a commentary on like he doesn't really want to die.
I don't think that it's supposed to be like that.
I think it's just supposed to be cute that his attempts to kill himself.
Keep getting foiled.
It's not like there's some deep psychological analysis going on.
It's just casually throwing around.
So it's just going on.
It's just casually throwing around suicide for fun.
Yeah.
Like it makes it not even feel heavy to talk about in any way
because it was tethered to nearly nothing in the book.
Yeah.
And like really fake character baked wanting to die fake trying.
And that's why it doesn't work.
And I guess I don't know.
We can probably get to the big finale is he's there's a neighbor that he has gone along with for years.
And he's got like dimension his wife.
They're going to social workers are going to come take him away from his wife.
And then he finally is like let me these people I've been battling with for 40 years.
I'm going to.
Help.
Save them so they.
Yeah.
They've taken all the old man is an enemy now that he has dementia helped.
Keep the social workers from taking away.
Yeah.
Because he hates the white.
That's the thing is the white shirts.
He hates the white shirts.
He's hated them his whole life.
Some sort of government thing.
Yeah.
They took him into buying bad insurance once.
And they wouldn't build a ramp at a school for his wheelchair wife.
Which is.
No way something that would happen.
Well, that's how the.
I'm not being callous the book is being callous.
Right.
I'm just.
I'm just matching it center.
Just matching.
Yeah.
I'm doing matching.
And so the way that he tries to keep the social workers from taking the Alzheimer's patient.
And so the way that he tries to keep the social worker.
Is like keeping being mean to the one social worker who comes to the house.
Like it's that one guy's decision.
And if he would just stop.
That's true.
Yeah.
That's like.
Does a bunch of mean stuff to that one guy.
Yeah.
The whole point of him hating them white shirts.
It's like he hates the bureaucracy.
Like.
Oh, they wouldn't let him put out a fire on his house without the proper forms.
It's like.
And then he said, you hate.
I don't think.
Yeah.
He's hurting one guy.
I just send another guy.
Yeah.
We're right.
You see.
But because I'm reason threatening this.
Like as though there had this guy had been an evil villain the entire time.
Right.
And he's finally like they're revealing all this stuff about him.
Like.
We know you did this, this, this, but.
Now.
Yeah.
And they like go hack his email or something whatever.
And then he said, you know,
I'm just going to say,
I'm going to expose this with a journalist.
If you don't.
Let this Alzheimer's patients stay home.
And it works.
Just seems quite unrealistic.
And.
It's kind of interesting because I bet in a few years.
The wife's like, OK, maybe he does need to be.
I know I was like actually it sounds like it's probably really hard.
And maybe he should.
Yeah.
Are you maybe being a little selfish needing him to stay home?
Can you actually take care of it?
It's actually very hard.
I'm sure it's very hard.
My grandfather dimension my grandmother was taking care of it.
And it was like, it was way too much.
And like they had, she eventually moved to a place where like.
It was like kind of like independent living within a nursing home care because.
Like it was too much for her to do it herself.
And she was so depressed about it.
No, having no freedom in having.
Mm-hmm.
Only that him to talk to was sad.
So.
Whatever, but I guess this was written by a 30 year old who doesn't have experience.
Yeah.
It was a lot about old age and dying.
But like I was, I don't know what his personal experience with that was.
Didn't maybe not too much.
I don't know.
Yeah.
It from the book.
I would infer not too much, but maybe.
Maybe that's just his defense mechanism for having experienced a lot of elderly struggles with his family defense mechanism is to.
Right about it poorly.
Yeah.
Let's take a quick commercial break and we come back.
We can.
Well, we'll least do good roots five serve use, but we'll hit on anything else we want to talk about.
BRB.
Sounds good.
And we're back.
All right.
Let's just let's do some good reads five star.
I would love to use this from Melissa loves dogs slash wolf lover.
Okay.
Well, then how could she have liked this book?
Exactly.
She says, OMG, I love this book.
I have laughed until I thought I was going to stroke out.
I was a character.
Everyone should read about.
I would love to meet someone like, he just tells it like it is and doesn't give a crap with anyone thinks.
I loved every little thing about this book.
I only wish I would have started it sooner.
It's sat in my stacks for a few weeks.
There are some really sad things in the book and I was crying at the end, but they're mostly funny and touching things in the book.
You can't not laugh at uva when he gets going.
I'm not going to give you any spoilers about the book.
I just want to say it's on the list of one of my favorites because there's just something about uva that makes me have a better day.
Five stars.
Wow.
A couple of funny things.
A couple of funny things in there.
She corroborates John's theory that there's something, some aura around the book that makes you not want to read it.
Yeah.
That's true.
Then the other thing I liked was when she says, I'd love to meet someone like him accidentally admitting that no one liked that exists.
I never even thought of something.
This is stereotype.
All right.
This is from.
Good.
Head.
Wait.
This name.
Henry or Shelby.
Shelby trains flying monkeys.
What are with these club?
What is up with these like long ass names?
Okay.
I've always had a thing for grumpy old men.
Not in a pervy way.
You not job.
I've always favored them in real life because probably I'm one of the people who tolerate little bullshit and they fit that for me.
Plus most of them really don't like people.
Uva is my kind of people.
He comes across as a pretty big permuch.
All he wants to do is commit suicide.
People won't leave him alone long enough to do it.
He misses his ongoing wife and doesn't think he has much to live for.
Then the neighbors moving down the street.
I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that.
Wow.
I think I'm pretty good at it.
Interesting that both really long user names also have animals in the name.
Yeah.
A type maybe.
All right.
That's enough for the first.
This book does have pretty.
I mean, hi.
Let's go back and look at this.
It's a 4.38.
Over a million ratings.
So it does have a pretty high.
It doesn't have many one star to star like I feel like people don't usually hate this book,
which is maybe why it's.
Maybe the people don't like it or just sort of sort of boards it out of you.
You know, you're not like up in arms about it.
You're just tired.
Yeah.
I feel like I relate to that.
Okay.
Do you guys want to do hate rates?
Yeah.
I think three out of five.
It was not.
It didn't take me that long to do.
Like we said in the beginning, some of us said in the beginning is kind of fun to imagine Tom Hanks.
Doing it.
Nothing.
I can't.
Like I'm saying, I'm not up in arms about it.
I don't care about it.
So yeah, can I have a middleing one and then a little extra for Tom Hanks.
Yeah, he always gets a little extra little extra.
That's all.
I'm finished.
I will go.
My rating is eight.
Negative.
Breathe out of five.
That is is this the lowest Sabrina has ever radio.
I don't understand.
I did the lowest anyone.
It was the long.
It's just time in my life, even though I was on simple speed.
And it was only actually 10 hours.
Originally, so theoretically, this is probably three hours of.
Three hours.
Three hours of my life.
It was intercom in a bowl.
I was jumping out of my insides.
I needed it to end.
I've never wanted to stop listening to something more.
I think it all negative three.
We're not usually so different.
So, you know, I mean,
we are usually the direction that.
Yeah, felt so not strongly about this book.
I certainly certainly can't give it a negative three.
Yeah, it's just a, it's a three.
It's not my favorite being book club book.
We've ever read read.
It's a monotonous certainly.
It goes to a lot of tropes which are annoying like the.
His wife keeps nagging him about changing these green curtains,
which is annoying on so many levels.
Not least of which is just like change the curtains yourself.
You can change a curtain.
All right.
Well, that's a tall person.
She was in a she was.
Was that.
Are you talking about wheelchair wife?
No, different woman.
Well, okay.
I'm pretty sure it was a different woman.
No, okay.
I never think about it.
It was.
I think about it.
Okay.
I guess that is really frustrating that you've been asking for so long.
Here's, I believe.
Okay.
I'll give.
Awesome.
I'll give the book another point because of my personal failing there.
This.
I might give the book another point because that was maybe one of my favorite things.
I'm going to.
I kind of was.
I'm middleing between a two and a three.
So I guess I'll just split the difference and do do it two and a half.
Same thing.
And it's not like a hateable book, but it wasn't like an enjoyable meme book of book that I'm like, this is funny to read.
You got to read this.
Obviously wasn't horny at all.
Thank God.
Not that I wanted it to be, but just.
No, usually my.
59 so young.
You could've been.
He could've.
He's really strong.
Yeah.
Actually, some ways was described as a very ripped older man.
I mean.
But.
And yeah, but the.
Yeah, it was like.
He was so good at sex and everybody else just didn't.
Yeah, didn't know how to get this woman doesn't know how to get wet.
She doesn't know how to get drilled by the bitch.
Yeah.
What's wrong with her?
What's taking her so long?
Sorry.
That's.
Good.
But.
You guys have some fan fiction on your hands.
Yeah.
He takes that to the internet.
Yeah.
Like I said, it just.
It was so hard for me to pick up and start this book.
I had a lot of trouble.
But I guess I did go through it fast once I got it going, but it was like.
I didn't want to.
It wasn't like I wanted to hear the end.
I just had a time deadline.
I eat this podcast recording.
So.
Well, yeah, yeah.
I don't know if I ever would have finished it if I didn't have this.
This was probably would have been a.
Yeah, I probably would have never finished this book.
So.
Yeah, two and a half.
Well, my friends, it brings us to little fucker of the cast, I believe.
Okay.
Feeling pretty confident.
Well, yeah, I don't feel that angry right now.
I feel tired.
This book made me tired.
Yeah.
Yeah, sorry.
This one might have been a little low-end.
Guys, I think we all kind of had a tough day today.
And you're getting the low key version of the pod tonight.
I think it was a good pod.
It can be.
It's always a good.
Be soothing sometimes, you know, we were soothing.
And I think we just wanted to be together and we wanted to see each other.
And we needed this tonight.
I would say I think that we were.
Yeah, I was being really funny.
Yeah, of course.
Now they know about my blog.
They're going to love that.
Yeah, that's true.
That's a good way.
But you were so funny.
You always are.
Okay.
Wait a second.
I'm just going to say that.
What?
What's the brain and the air?
I said it.
I've got my vote.
Okay.
I'm just confused because.
Did you send another thing to someone else to tell them not to vote for you?
No, I did not.
I just assume it's for God's sake.
It's only been two weeks.
I could imagine my.
Oh, was that like your way?
Were you still remains with Clara?
Was that your subtle?
That was your subtle way of reminding Clara?
It was a reminder.
Oh, I don't.
I don't.
where it linked for life.
(laughing)
So anyway, I'm not--
- I was spending something on you.
The Sarah.
- Sabrina just called me funny.
- Yeah.
- So pretty.
- So it's Sarah.
- Yeah.
- What's for sure?
- This is getting more and more meaningless.
- You had an opportunity to say that I was funny.
- Loaning.
You didn't take it.
- Well, I'm a different friend.
I'm definitely gonna vote for Sarah.
Oh, let me just think back if anyone else pissed me off.
- I was a 'cause I called you out.
- Gaining.
- The wheelchair wife.
(laughing)
- I guess I didn't like when Sabrina suddenly
announced the middle of a conversation
that she had lost the fight.
(laughing)
- I loved that.
- Boy.
- I was going on for so long.
- Okay.
- That's rude.
- Yeah.
- I already voted.
- I appreciate thinking of the listener.
So yeah, it's gonna be Sarah.
- Okay.
- No, it's Sabrina for the thing.
I messed up my vote because I shouldn't vote for Sarah.
She's the one who called John out.
That's so funny.
- Yeah, it's gonna be Sarah.
That was very funny.
But I don't like her suggesting I need to send someone
a very expensive $1,000 gift.
Every time I was gonna knock vote for me.
I don't appreciate the suggestion.
- What John, you did do that.
(laughing)
- I don't need to set that as a precedent.
- We do it a week later for God's sake.
- No, okay, yeah, no, sorry, you're right.
- Yeah.
- If you guys missed last week's episode,
John sent me chocolate cover strawberries
with a note that said, please don't vote for me
for Little Fucker and I won't.
- There, they did it.
- They missed last week's episode.
- They listened to me.
- Yeah, and once again, I will say
John did end up nonetheless being one of the little fuckers.
So I guess I'm once again gonna pat her down.
A little bit because of her story about her neighbors
and she seemed like weirdly gleeful about the fact
that they asked for $20 and sneak in her backyard.
And it was disconcerting for me.
So sneak into the backyard, we let them in.
- And then they sneak into the other car.
- And they sneak in their own home.
- They climb their own.
- They climb home.
- They get into their own home.
- That's odd, that's strange.
They should give you an extra set of keys.
The way every, all these interactions, they're wrong.
So, Johnna really takes the heat off my
going in the old man's backyard.
- Yeah, no, that was also wrong,
but for some reason the one Johnna's
donna stores are sticking with me more.
- Probably because she, they know where she lives
and that's scarier in some ways.
- Okay, so Sabrina,
a little fucker?
Honestly, I'm gonna vote for myself.
- Wow.
- Because I don't have enough candy.
- You aren't paying attention to anything.
- No, no, I am, I am.
I was going to vote for Johnna.
But Johnna's had a hard day, so I didn't want to vote
for Johnna.
So,
- You're upset about not having enough candy.
It should be Johnna.
- Yeah, so I decided I didn't want to vote for Johnna.
- I'm sorry, but I just vote for myself.
- Except that, even though you also are having a hard day.
- All right, I guess that makes me
a little fucker of the cast, but yeah, I feel like that.
- Celebrate little victories.
- Yeah.
- I think I read that on a dog chocolate once.
Sarah was looking down like maybe I upside her.
- No, I think she's reading.
- No, I'm literally just picking dirt from under my nails.
- We can end it that out.
(laughing)
Okay, so gang, we're halfway through the season.
What a season has been.
My goodness.
We're doing it.
We're on halfway, no.
- You forget we're recording the podcast.
(laughing)
- Well, it was a podcast, they don't see me.
- We'll call it out.
- They certainly are narrating it.
- What do we want to read next game?
- Yeah, fuck, we didn't pick it again.
- We're really flying by the seat of our pants.
- How does funness fly?
- It's 17, season 17, senior slump.
- What about the bodyguard by Catherine Center?
- Yes, let's see.
- Let's see what it about that one.
It's top of my stack, I'm so excited.
- All right, that's our next episode, guys.
- What a--
- Okay, the bodyguard by who?
- Catherine Center.
- Okay.
- Apparently a romcom.
- Looking forward to it.
- Yeah, me too.
All right, that's good.
- The Burmese Book Club.
You can find us on Patreon, on all the socials.
Please send us your recommendations.
Please give us money.
Please also give us a good rating,
because that's how people find our podcast.
You can be mean in the comment, just give a five out of five.
I swear to God.
- Wow.
- I'm gonna lose it.
- Fucking lose it.
- All right, so fun.
Love you guys.
- Love you guys.
- Love you.
- Love you guys.
That was me pointed out.
- That was out to the world.
- That was to the world.
- She pointed to her ears.
- She wants us to know it's not us.
- That's what she said.
- Yeah.
- Sure, if you did a couple times to be clear,
not talking to us.
(laughing)
- All right, bye.
See you later.
- Bye.
(upbeat music)