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Jan 20, 2021sandraperkins rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I loved this book so much that I read it twice! As I read it the first time, I was a bit impatient with some of the characters, who appeared to be unusually obtuse and difficult. But I kept reading anyway, and I am so glad I did: the ending totally blew me away! Not only did the author tie everything together in the most satisfying way, but he also showed that the characters had depths that I had missed when I first judged them. One moral of this story is: Your first impression of another person may be totally wrong. Do not give up on them! Keep listening! If you have heard about this book, you may have heard that it is about a group of people at an apartment viewing (what we would call an open house) who are taken hostage by a failed bank robber. Technically, that is true, but this book is SO much more than that! Even the author has trouble telling us what the book is about. Mr. Backman’s writing style is not everyone’s cup of tea, and of course, his work is translated from Swedish, but he is constantly foreshadowing and summarizing. Please bear with him, because he has a lot to say in this book. Here are the opening two paragraphs of the book, to give you an idea: “A bank robbery. A hostage drama. A stairwell full of police officers on their way to storm an apartment. It was easy to get to this point, much easier than you might think. All it took was one single really bad idea. “This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So it needs saying from the outset that it’s always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is. Especially if you have other people you’re trying to be a reasonably good human being for.” Mr. Backman then presents a list of all of the things we are all supposed to be able to cope with these days, and it is humorous but overwhelming. He points out that we are all doing everything we can just to get through another day, and we think everyone but us has it all figured out. The reality is that everyone is stressed and feels like an imposter at least some of the time (and often most of the time). Warning to all of you in the financial industry: Mr. Backman is not a fan of banks, and he clearly thinks it is horrific that when the economic recession of 2008-9 happened, the people who suffered and lost everything were regular people who trusted banks and financial people, while the people running the banks and other financial institutions got off scot-free. But I think the most important lesson of this book is connection. When I started reading this book, I thought these characters were all disparate people with nothing in common, but that turned out to be wrong. There were all sorts of connections. And new connections were formed during the course of this book. That is why I had to read this book a second time. When I got to the end and saw where the author was going, I had to go back and see how he set everything up. And it is brilliant!! I enjoyed reading this book the first time, but I truly savored every word the second time. I saw all the clever things I had missed on my first reading. And I wept at the end, even though it is not sad—I promise you that it is not sad. It is wonderful! In Anxious People, we not only get to know the people taken hostage in the apartment, but we also get to know the policemen (father and son) who are trying to resolve the hostage crisis. Everyone is more complicated than they first appear. Is that not true of every person on the planet? Some readers might pooh-pooh this book as a fairy tale. Perhaps they are right. I prefer to think of this book as showing that while we may all be idiots, we can rise to the occasion when the chips are down. We are never better than when we reach out and help others who are hurting or in trouble. And THAT is a message we need to hear today and every day!