A Book Review: 'Anxious People' by Fredrik Backman
I really love Fredrik Backman’s writing style. Especially when you start to learn more about the discipline of writing, character and plot development - he is an absolute genius of words and connection. And I cried at the end, which is always a great sign of connection to characters.
I read this book over the holidays when the idea of self help books sends me cross-eyed, truly. I even read chapters and finished it on a roadtrip from Colorado to Texas. Somehow, some way, I am able to read books in the car - I should mention it was a hardback, this was not audible style.
The book is not a plot I would usually grab - shared with most summaries online reading ‘would-be-crime’ or ‘attempted bank robbery’. I know crime novels and podcasts are all the rage and I am a hard pass. Even the language of ‘anxious’ in the title was not as appealing in the time we are living in. Then I read about 8 anxious strangers connecting in one apartment and hard truths being revealed, there was my hook.
I loved reading ‘A Man called Ove’ and ‘Britt-Marie was Here’ and ‘Beartown’ is sitting on a bookshelf somewhere in this cabin waiting TBR. So I know Fredrik’s style of writing and you know what he does so well? He has these one lines usually amidst a dialogue and it hits you, you relate, you feel, you are in the story now. He write human nature really really well.
Okay, so how do I get to the book and less about the author? Right.
I am going to be pretty vague here as there are a lot of plot twists I do not want to spoil or giveaway. The book is about an attempted (cough failed) bank robbery by a person who escapes the scene only to dart into an open house of an apartment with quite the mix of humans in the space. Well let’s heat things up and this immediately turns into a hostage situation as the failed bank robber sorts a plan. Along the way to this planning, we meet the characters in the apartment. A rich woman with secrets named Zara, a lesbian couple pregnant with their first child, an older retired couples figuring the next stages of life together, an elder woman who find hidden wine in the apartment, a real estate agent, a weird guy in a bunny suit with no pants (I know, weird but makes sense when you read it) and of course, the bank robber.
What I love so much is everyone in this book has a chapter, a scene, a story to share. Just like we as humans do. And the nod to the title, aren’t we all a bit anxious? Anxious to fit in, anxious to know we are loved, anxious to know what is next, anxious to succeed … anxious to ______ (you fill in the blank).
Some of my favorite lines from the read that are just so F. Backman:
“They say that a person’s personality is the sum of their experiences. But that isn’t true, at least not entirely, because if our past was all that defined us, we’d never be able to put up with ourselves. We need to be allowed to convince ourselves that we’re more than the mistakes we made yesterday. That we are all of our next choices, too, all of our tomorrows.”
And I read this one three times over:
“The truth of course is that if people really were as happy as they look on the Internet, they wouldn’t spend so much damn time on the Internet, because no one who’s having a really good day spends half of it taking pictures of themselves. Anyone can nurture a myth about their life if they have enough manure, so if the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, that’s probably because it’s full of shit.”
Here, last one, a zinger:
“It's always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is.”
A great read. If you are looking for fiction, getting lost in characters and a dynamic plot line, this one is a great one.