Is The Story Of Arthur Truluv By Elizabeth Berg A Frederick Backman Copycat?

We’re talking about the book club pick for June

For wanting to make a series about the books my library picks for Book Club, I’m doing a shit job going to Book Club.

You guessed it, I didn’t go again. I’m in a musical this summer, and Thursday nights are rehearsal nights. But May’s Book Club gave me an idea about this book.

Back in May, before I left Book Club that night, the librarian told us she hesitated about picking Elizabeth Berg’s The Story of Arthur Truluv. She worried it’d be too similar to Frederik Backman’s A Man Called Ove, and we wouldn’t enjoy it as much as other picks.

I’m tired of speculating. Since I didn’t go to Book Club this month, we’re comparing the two books! Let’s see how similar they are.

What Is The Book About?

Every day, Arthur Moses packs his lunch and spends it with his wife at the cemetery. She’s been gone for six months, and Arthur finds himself lost until he befriends a teenager named Maddy.

When Maddy runs away from home, Arthur takes her in and lets her stay there in exchange for helping with the chores. When his next-door neighbor moves in too, the three of them form a makeshift family as they prepare for Maddy’s baby.

I’ll save us some time and have you click here and here for my thoughts on Frederik Backman’s A Man Called Ove and the article comparing the book to the Tom Hanks movie. You guys like it when I talk about this book, and like me comparing it to the movie more.

Is my librarian right? Is The Story Of Arthur Truluv a copy of A Man Called Ove? Let’s find out!

What Makes A CopyCat?

As we talk about these two novels, I find myself asking, “What makes one story a blatant copycat?” Is it the same characters? Is it the same plot? Or is it something I’m not thinking of that makes it so?

When I was in Middle School, I discovered anime. One of my favorites became a show called Outlaw Star. It was one of the more adult anime I’ve seen, and I loved the characters.

Not long after watching Outlaw Star, Fox started releasing trailers for a little show called Firefly. The two shows had glaring similarities, going as far as fanbases accusing one of copying the other. But when you sat down and watched both shows, you noticed they weren’t copies of one another.

Yes, they had similar characters, and some plot points were similar (looking at you, naked woman in a box trope!). But did that mean the shows were copies?

As similar as the shows seemed on the surface, the two shows turned into different entities. Had Firefly kept going past the first season, it would’ve turned into something that rivaled Star Trek or Star Wars. Most of the actors had atrocious Chinese, but I loved how they incorporated it into the show.

Are Ove and Arthur Truluv the same? Let’s compare the two, and then you can tell me what you think.

Let’s Talk About Our Protagonists, Ove, and Arthur

When you look at the basic stuff, Ove and Arthur look like carbon copies of one another.

• Both men are widowers.
• The books start around six months after their wives die.
• They both have a heart condition.
• They both struggle in their ways.
• They both befriend a young pregnant woman.

When you read both books, Ove is the more believable character. It doesn’t mean Arthur is a bad character. Arthur and Ove are the difference between nice and kind.

Arthur Truluv is a pleasant man. He’s nice to everyone he meets, and he offers his friends a home when he senses they don’t have anywhere to go. It sounds like he’s kind, but I’d say Arthur is more generous than kind. His age could’ve been a factor in his generosity, but I think he was a pleasant character.

The problem I had with Arthur was he was too perfect. An eighty-five-year-old man going around doing nice things for people because he wanted to be nice? The man is giving, and he’s generous, like I said, but I wouldn’t say he’s kind. He was too pleasant for me.

As for Ove, he had more layers to him. Yeah, he was a grump and not afraid to get into fights at fifty-nine. But he didn’t give as a way to show he cared. When he talked to people and learned about what happened, he did what he could to make it right. When a gay teenager came to his house after his father kicked him out, Ove had a drink with his father to tell him to accept his son for who he was. Ove met the kid one time, and he did what he felt best for the kid. Say what you want about his attitude, but he made sure you knew he cared.

I could go on forever about the differences between the two characters, but there are two more people we need to talk about.

Let’s Talk About Our Female Leads

Arthur and Ove befriend Parvaneh and Maddy, two young pregnant women in the books. I could go on, but the more I think about it, the more their pregnancies are the only things the two women have in common.

Parvaneh is Ove’s neighbor in A Man Called Ove. If you don’t recognize her, it’s because her name was Marisol in the movie. In both the book and movie she’s an immigrant married to a tech-savvy man who’s not bright when it comes to handywork. They have two adorable daughters who adopt Ove as a grandfather.

She’s the person Ove needs to get him out of his slump. She senses he needs someone to help him, and she learns how to help him in his way. She doesn’t take bullshit from anyone, even Ove. It makes their friendship fun to watch.

And then there’s Maddy. She runs away from home when she finds out she’s pregnant and stays with Arthur until the end. She expects the worst out of people and can’t understand why people don’t like her. She’s lonely and confused.

And I’ll say something that might piss off a reader or two. Maddy’s pregnancy made no sense. How she got pregnant is a stretch and the kind of joke you see sitcoms make. Her pregnancy is the only evidence of Arthur Truluv blatantly copying Ove.

Arthur and Ove aren’t copies of each other, but Maddy and Parvaneh are. Maddy didn’t need to be pregnant. Having her run away from home would’ve done more for the story than a botched Spermketball session.

The Theme Is Similar,But Does A Better Job Of Showing The Difference Between Nice And Kind

I don’t know either author, but I can guess at the theme they both attempted. They wanted to show kindness in their ways. However, they ended up showing us the difference between nice and kind.

Arthur is more nice than kind. All of the characters, except Maddy’s crush, are nice. Even the cat goes through a nice streak after Arthur accidentally ignores him. The conflicts in the book weren’t big deals. They found nice ways to deal with them and moved on with their lives.

Ove showed you didn’t have to be pleasant to be kind. The characters were more believable, and some scenes in the book made me laugh. During one scene, I had to put the book down so I could let myself have a proper belly laugh. It felt wonderful.

Yes, I did like Ove better than I liked Truluv, but that doesn’t mean Truluv’s story didn’t have heart. There was one character in there that felt more original than anyone else. If anything she seemed more similar to another of Backman’s characters.

Let’s Talk About Lucille

In The Story of Arthur Truluv, Lucille instantly became my favorite character. She could’ve been the Parvaneh of Truluv’s world. Her story arc showed the most growth of anyone in the book, and she was a better image of kindness than anyone else in the book.

She went from being a woman self-conscious about her looks to being unafraid to show her age. From thinking she’d never find love to getting it again, and when it ends, she looks for a new purpose to move on. She was the most inspiring woman in the story. And when she finds her thing to contribute to the world, she pours herself into it with wonderful results.

I don’t remember any characters like that in A Man Called Ove. Lucille is the reason I don’t see Arthur Truluv as a carbon copy of Ove. If she didn’t exist, then yes, there’d be some glaring signs. But Lucille gives the story originality.

Final Thoughts

Sure, it looks like the two books are carbon copies of one another. They have similarities, but the two books have their differences.

A Man Called Ove was published in 2012, but it didn’t start picking up until a few years ago. The Story of Arthur Truluv was published in 2017. Any similarities are coincidental. Even Maddy’s pregnancy seems more coincidental than intentional.

If The Story Of Arthur Truluv was published earlier than 2017, then maybe there’d be a case for copying A Man Called Ove. But there are thousands of similar-sounding stories out there. The only reason this one is getting attention is because it was my library’s Book Club pick.

So, I’m an Amazon affiliate. If you’re interested in getting either book, you can click here for A Man Called Ove.

Or, if you’d rather read The Story of Arthur Truluv, you can click here!

If you use these links, I get a little commission, and it would be helpful. Grad school textbooks are expensive, even on secondhand websites!

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