Anxious People Book Review: Everybody has a story. Or rather everybody is story. People are an amalgamation of countless lives, a universe in themselves. And so, each person is a story and an anthology of many stories at the same time. With each person being as different as the other, there is but no chance of predictabilities, in the person and in their stories. And each person in this modern-day race of “killed or be killed” is a mere nobody struggling to survive, to amplify and illuminate the various stories they carry within.
Stories that scream to be let out, to fly without being locked in the dungeon of everyday economy of modern life. Such are the stories or rather, people, who are unraveled, carefully, piece by piece in Swedish author Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People. Without further ado, let’s dive into the warm, fuzzy world of Anxious People Review without any spoilers!
Anxious People Book Review – Anxious People By Fredrik Backman
Anxious People explores the lives and anxieties of seven people trapped inside an apartment as hostages with an armed robber and there might also be a bunny somewhere. Yes, a bunny rabbit…trapped in the toilet. That’s it. That’s what the story is about and in Backman’s words, “This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots”.
It is a story about idiots, idiots who are as real as people as one can ever read in a piece of literature. Idiots, who are more than what they seem on the surface, who are as anxious and as human as one could possibly be. This book is life itself and every single character, from a major to a minor character, is a thinking-feeling person with a whole lot of stories within them.
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Its difficult to contain Anxious People in a category precisely because it defies all categories there are, and perhaps that’s what the goal of the book is, to convey the idea that one person, a human being with their billion stories, cannot be contained in a category. It is a comedy, a sort of a thriller, a “who dunnit” while at the same time a heartwarming tale of healing traumas, rekindling relationships and most of all, of a tryst with humanity.
Anxious People is not only a physical manifestation of a laugh-out-loud axiom but it also nurtures and portrays deeper secrets and grief that comes along the journey called life. And so, it makes a reader laugh at a page and weep at the next, a smile that appears is purloined by sadness in an instant. For instance, in one of the scenes where Julia, Anna-Lena and Estelle are discussing about their families, the book describes their conversation:
‘How old are your grandchildren?’ she asked.
‘They’re teenagers now’, Estelle said.
‘Oh, sorry to hear that,’ Anna-Lena said with feeling.
On the one hand this hilarious response by Anna-Lena is an epitome of relatability while on the other hand, on the next page, Backman writes about the loneliness of old age, the grief of losing someone you love, when life becomes not a roller-coaster but a Sisyphean myth, “it was something to do. And a person needs that.”
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Moreover, the entire book features one-liners which are not only relatable but also comforting, as if you are not the only person struggling to match the pace of life but are amongst and amidst billions of people who feel the same. One of the wise lines in the book say, “When you’re a child you long to be an adult and decide everything for yourself, but when you’re an adult you realize that’s the worst part of it”.
Anxious People is, then, a book that is so full of people and their stories that it smothers you, for the better of course, like a big warm hug from fictional strangers who you think you have known all your life. The people that you want to keep re-reading about, their lives that you want to keep revisiting in a hope that they touch yours. And it makes all the difference one fine rainy day of your heart.
JAL Rating – Anxious People Book Rating
Backman’s fantastic book deserved more than 5 stars and more. Grab your copy on Amazon! Share your thoughts about our Anxious People Review in the comments!
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