Anxious People ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
REVIEW:
All aboard the Backman Train! Next stop, Neuroses.
As someone who's lukewarm about this beloved author, I picked up Anxious People with a bit of trepidation. I get that he writes quirky characters. Sometimes they work for me, and sometimes they don't. A few chapters into his latest, I was ready to bail. I'm so glad I stayed with it though, because my heart warmed as the story unfolded.
On the surface, this is a novel about a bank robbery gone wrong that led to a hostage situation. (It's like Backman is in on the joke: "Hey, I'm from Sweden, how clever would it be to write a book about Stockholm Syndrome?") But as you peel back the layers, it's really an exquisite character study about people just trying to do the best they can in a difficult world.
Speaking of people, there are only two of them on the U.S. cover. That seems like an odd choice, because this definitely is not a two-person romantic tale as that might imply. Do yourself a favor and look at the covers from the other editions around the world below the synopsis. It's fun to see how the publishers felt this release should be marketed in various territories! I guess us anxious readers in the U.S. just need something that hints at love. Which one makes you want to read it the most?
PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:
A poignant, charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined
Looking at real estate isn't usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can't fix up their own marriage. There's a wealthy banker who has been too busy making money to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can't seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment's only bathroom, and you've got the worst group of hostages in the world.
Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises, these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in a motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.
Humorous, compassionate, and wise, Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious of times.