Anxious People (Fredrik Backman)

A lot of people. Many back stories with lots more people. Timelines going back and forth like a see saw. Nothing happens eventually. Or maybe it does. I’m just not sure anymore.

That’s the gist of the book.

Anxious People is a good book but what keeps it from being great is an attempt to cover all grounds, please everybody, represent everyone, break all stereotypes and take care of all feelings. So you have an older couple where the husband is irritating and the wife is a doormat only to find out later that it is not so. And a lesbian couple who seem to be again bickering a bit much but well, they turn out ok too. And there is are a two older ladies who seem off the rocker but turn out ok too. And there are a two of younger women who also seem a bit off but they turn out ok too. And there is a father-son duo who also seem to be getting on each other’s nerves but they turn out ok too. And then there are back stories involving psychologists or psychiatrists or whatever, a wife who was a priest, a daughter who is a junkie, a husband who cheated, two daughters, another couple on the verge of divorce and now i have lost track there are so many of them in this book that i am anxious people now.

The story is largely about a bank robbery that never happened and a hostage situation which is the definition of the Stockholm Syndrome (a joke the author himself makes) where the hostages develop untold affection and sympathy for the hostage taker because the hostage taker needs more practice in the art of hostage taking. This hostage crisis has developed as a result of a bank that never actually got robbed. And a father-son duo who are also police officers trying to manage this hostage crisis that actually isn’t one. At the end, everything turns out right because nothing was wrong in the first place.  

If you are looking for a light read that is also complicated because of an infinite nunber of characters and back and forth in times and places, then this is for you. The writing can evoke a few laughs, there are a few twists which can draw an aha and there are a few teary eyed moments of self realisation and self discovery thrown in too. I cannot believe I am saying this, but I think i will enjoy the Netflix series more because i can just see the potential for slapstick and situational comedy in the premise.