Sign in with Facebook
Beverly Fox's Reviews > Anxious People
Anxious People
by
by
Wow. What an amazing read. What a great story. What a simultaneously heartbreaking and love affirming look into the human psyche. What a gift from this author who clearly laid his soul bare in the telling. I am completely floored.
At its outset, this story is set up to be about a group of-you guessed it- anxious people who find themselves being inadvertently held hostage by a witless bank robber. The beginning is comical in tone and makes it seem as though we’ll be dealing with a Seinfeld-esque level of neurosis in these characters.
But then it pretty quickly dives into the minds of our characters and we learn that their anxieties, much like anxieties in real life, are grounded in grief, trauma, and how damned challenging everyday can be. First, the police officers investigating our crime: are they any of the stereotypes you might believe about police (especially here in America where our police often fit the terrible stereotypes we assign to them)? Nope, they’re human- just as damaged as everyone else in this story.
Now that that’s out of the way, what about our bank robber? Surely there’s no way you can relate to them, right? Wrong again! Every rationalization you could possibly think of to dismiss this human as too dumb to empathize with is immediately torn down before you see each and every hopeless step that led them to the beginning of this story.
And the people in the apartment? With all of their annoying attributes and terrible behavior in an interrogation room you still end up taking such a deep dive into every one of them that you can’t help but completely and utterly fall in love with them, which is of course the point. But I was NOT prepared for it given how playful the tone is in the beginning.
And at its heart, this story is not a funny one about a bank robbery and a hostage situation. It’s a story about life. And death. And the hopelessness that we all sometimes feel. The kind that leads some of us- the ones unlucky enough not to have someone pull us down from the ledge- to take the leap into oblivion rather than endure the pain of being alive.
No, I did not know that this was a book about suicide when I started reading it. And no, I definitely did not intend to read two books in a row with the same really heavy theme. (But I think it’s pretty telling that this and The Midnight Library both showed up towards the top of the list of best fiction of 2020. Makes you think we’re all- all of us humans-going through something lately.) But I am not at all remorseful for the fact that it is because what it has to say is breathtaking.
Who gets saved? Who doesn't? Who does the saving? Who is responsible for the loss? What makes a life worth living and what ruins one? Through the eyes of these characters with all of their nuanced experiences and perspectives the answers are never black and white. But, as always, love comes close to the truth.
The ways in which these characters love each other. The choices that they make, over and over again, to keep loving each other through all the twists and turns of life. To put up with the stupid bullshit that drives you crazy because of how much your soul lifts when they laugh. To truly see what the rest of the world glosses over. To open up despite the oceans of pain and allow someone in. To connect. That is salvation. Always, in every life. And we see that illustrated so spectacularly in these characters.
Without spoiling anything let me just say that the ending and resolution of all these characters' stories (roughly the last 20 pages) had me sobbing. Like, not tears in the corners of my eyes or even trailing down my cheeks but full-on ugly cry SOBBING. And just in case I had any illusions that the depth of pain and hope demonstrated in this story comes from anywhere other than personal experience? The first ”author's thanks” was more than enough to cure me of that (and make me start sobbing all over again).
I really am in awe of this book. It's a contender for my favorite of all time- no joke. I've never experienced Fredrik Backman before, never even heard of him before this book showed up on the Goodreads list. But now that I know he's out there my life is just a little bit better. And you best believe I'll be reading more from him.
At its outset, this story is set up to be about a group of-you guessed it- anxious people who find themselves being inadvertently held hostage by a witless bank robber. The beginning is comical in tone and makes it seem as though we’ll be dealing with a Seinfeld-esque level of neurosis in these characters.
But then it pretty quickly dives into the minds of our characters and we learn that their anxieties, much like anxieties in real life, are grounded in grief, trauma, and how damned challenging everyday can be. First, the police officers investigating our crime: are they any of the stereotypes you might believe about police (especially here in America where our police often fit the terrible stereotypes we assign to them)? Nope, they’re human- just as damaged as everyone else in this story.
Now that that’s out of the way, what about our bank robber? Surely there’s no way you can relate to them, right? Wrong again! Every rationalization you could possibly think of to dismiss this human as too dumb to empathize with is immediately torn down before you see each and every hopeless step that led them to the beginning of this story.
And the people in the apartment? With all of their annoying attributes and terrible behavior in an interrogation room you still end up taking such a deep dive into every one of them that you can’t help but completely and utterly fall in love with them, which is of course the point. But I was NOT prepared for it given how playful the tone is in the beginning.
And at its heart, this story is not a funny one about a bank robbery and a hostage situation. It’s a story about life. And death. And the hopelessness that we all sometimes feel. The kind that leads some of us- the ones unlucky enough not to have someone pull us down from the ledge- to take the leap into oblivion rather than endure the pain of being alive.
No, I did not know that this was a book about suicide when I started reading it. And no, I definitely did not intend to read two books in a row with the same really heavy theme. (But I think it’s pretty telling that this and The Midnight Library both showed up towards the top of the list of best fiction of 2020. Makes you think we’re all- all of us humans-going through something lately.) But I am not at all remorseful for the fact that it is because what it has to say is breathtaking.
Who gets saved? Who doesn't? Who does the saving? Who is responsible for the loss? What makes a life worth living and what ruins one? Through the eyes of these characters with all of their nuanced experiences and perspectives the answers are never black and white. But, as always, love comes close to the truth.
The ways in which these characters love each other. The choices that they make, over and over again, to keep loving each other through all the twists and turns of life. To put up with the stupid bullshit that drives you crazy because of how much your soul lifts when they laugh. To truly see what the rest of the world glosses over. To open up despite the oceans of pain and allow someone in. To connect. That is salvation. Always, in every life. And we see that illustrated so spectacularly in these characters.
Without spoiling anything let me just say that the ending and resolution of all these characters' stories (roughly the last 20 pages) had me sobbing. Like, not tears in the corners of my eyes or even trailing down my cheeks but full-on ugly cry SOBBING. And just in case I had any illusions that the depth of pain and hope demonstrated in this story comes from anywhere other than personal experience? The first ”author's thanks” was more than enough to cure me of that (and make me start sobbing all over again).
I really am in awe of this book. It's a contender for my favorite of all time- no joke. I've never experienced Fredrik Backman before, never even heard of him before this book showed up on the Goodreads list. But now that I know he's out there my life is just a little bit better. And you best believe I'll be reading more from him.
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
Anxious People.
Sign In »
