Anxious People: A Novel

Author: Fredrik Backman

Backman sets up the story in the most farcical way possible. A bank robber failed to rob a bank and accidentally created a hostage drama. A few pages in, I thought this was going to be some kind of comedy and almost abandoned it. I am really happy that I stuck with it as the book is so much more than the story that unfolds as you turn the pages. 

The investigation into the hostage crisis is carried out by father and son policemen in the local police department. One thing that was evident early on in the book is that Backman is very observant of human behavior and draws out the distinctions between the generations — father and son policemen — very nicely.  The prose is evocative of life in small town Sweden with descriptions like “The air passes through the old policeman‘s throat as roughly as a piece of heavy furniture being dragged across an uneven wooden floor.” 

He is just as comfortable critiquing that posts on social media don’t reflect reality, by saying “so if the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, that’s probably because it’s full of shit."

In every couple of chapters he introduces new characters and engages them in light banter that reveals their personality and shares some of their wisdom with the reader.  He must collect a lot of random information as I discovered many little useful Nuggets of wisdom. This line about “eggs last much longer than you think” made me google it and I found it to be quite true.

If you throw your eggs out once the date on the carton has passed, you may be wasting perfectly good eggs. With proper storage, eggs can last for at least 3–5 weeks in the fridge and about a year in the freezer. The longer an egg is stored, the more its quality declines, making it less springy and more runny.

Little pieces of wisdom like “You end up marrying the person you don’t understand. Then You spend the rest of your life trying.” make you stop and look at yourself in the mirror.

What are you waiting for? Grab this book and fasten your seatbelt.