Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

SPOILERS BE HERE

Is this my favorite book I read this year? Is Fredrik Backman my current favorite author? I think the answer is "yes" to both of those questions.

Wow. I don't even know how to put into words my feelings about this book. It was so unexpected. Well, maybe not unexpected; I expected it to be great, as most of Backman's books are, but I didn't expect it to be so simultaneously humorous, heartbreaking, encouraging, and mystifying. I loved getting to know all the characters and felt for them all in different ways. Zara pushing people away and letting that letter eat way at her; Julia and Ro loving each other despite their massive differences; Roger and Anna-Lena supporting each other in their own small ways that are actually huge; Jim and Jack (who I kept getting confused) tamping down their affection but doing everything with the other in mind; Estelle's loneliness. I loved how their stories intertwined and how they lifted each other up by the end of it. It restored a little of my faith in humanity.

And, of course, the bank robber. The way everyone immediately wanted to help her. Picturing her struggling through the weeks leading up to the present time and worrying about her kids. Her complete desperation. Her conversation with Jim in the hallway. And the fact that I thought she was a man until it was otherwise revealed. I literally went back and flipped through all the pages, searching for clues to her sex and wondering how I could be so sexist (they did say "he" once when questioning the realtor but she never confirmed the bank robber's sex, and London going off about gender probably should have tipped me off).

I just loved everything about this book with very few exceptions (the narrator-driven chapters talking about people being idiots and other such things were a bit much and Lennart was...there). It's one I'll probably buy, along with Backman's other works, because he really is an outstanding storyteller.

Completed: 30 December 2020
Rating: 5/5
Recommend: 100%

Comments

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