Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
Four Stars
Best for:
People who like a mystery that doesn’t involve figuring out who killed someone; people who are interested in exploring people beyond what they choose to share.
In a nutshell:
Someone has robbed a bank, run, and is now holding hostage a group of folks at an apartment viewing.
Worth quoting:
“If the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, that’s probably because it’s full of shit.”
“Most people never become individuals to us. They remain people.”
Why I chose it:
Two for one sale, and it looked interesting. To my delight apparently it was made into a Netflix series, which I plan to check out now that I’ve finished the book.
Review:
This book was an unexpected delight. Some things I was able to sort of guess, but for the most part, it just revealed itself and its messages slowly.
The book employs a bit of a Big Little Lies mechanic – witnesses are being interviewed before we learn who most of them are, and they are telling us information that only makes sense later in the book. The story goes back and forth between the events of the day — the bank robbery, the hostage-taking — as well as back in time a bit.
There are a lot of characters, and as expected, none are quite what the reader expects. They are complex individuals who are dealing with their own shit. And, at least initially, most of them come across as PROFOUNDLY annoying.
I listened to the audio book, and the actor did a fantastic job, because for awhile the title applied to me as I listed to some people using extremely annoying tones. Like, just bang on, to the point where I wanted to reach through my headphones and shake the characters to try to get them to communicate honestly, like human beings.
Without revealing too much – there’s a bank robber, two cops trying to catch the bank robber, and a real estate agent, two couples and two individual at the apartment viewing. There is also a therapist, a bank teller, and a priest. As one expects, we start out with just the amount of information you might have about other people at an apartment viewing that one only expects to interact with for a few minutes. There’s the couple expecting a baby, and the couple looking to buy the place as an investment. There’s a very rich person, and a very elderly person.
But once they’re stuck in the flat for hours in a hostage situation, we learn more about them, about the things and events that have led them to this moment. And this knowledge isn’t limited to just the hostages – we learn something about everyone involved, and what we learn relates to an exploration of what right and wrong really mean.
This book would be five stars for me but the very end seemed unnecessary. Don’t worry, the resolution of the situation is very satisfying, but there’s a couple of chapters at the very end that, while sweet, seem to be almost part of a different book. I’d say its to make up for some necessary withholding of information earlier in the book so as not to give away the plot, but it doesn’t quite work for me.
What’s next for this book:
Recommend to others.
