This year – today is December 45, 2020, make no mistake about it – is the worst. We’re all a mess and were even before COVID-19 pooped all over our lives. It is unsurprising that Anxious People, authored by Fredrik Backman, is second-most loved book on Goodreads.
A Metaphor For The Shit Show That Is 2020
Picture this: you’ve got a hundred tabs open on your laptop. At some point, the computer gives up and freezes. Most of the time, being a multitasker is a matter of pride. Juggling a plethora of tasks or responsibilities is a coveted trait, but is it healthy? As a working mom, I’m always overwhelmed and losing track of my to-do lists. I freeze in those moments, but there’s no alt+control+delete function attached to my body and mind.
Backman’s Anxious People is about a bank heist revolving around the most incompetent robbers and truly disagreeable hostages. Two opposing sets of people, with opposite goals, stuck together by chance. It is a perfect metaphor for 2020.
Anxious People is Backman’s ninth novel. His previous works, Beartown and A Man Called Ove are bestsellers. Backman’s a master of absurd plot lines. His stories are populated by complex characters, each fleshed-out individuals. His latest offering, Anxious People doesn’t disappoint.
The Dumbest Bank Robber
Set in a small Swedish town, Anxious People opens on New Years’ Eve. A troubled father whose rent is overdue, and he’s about to lose custody of his kid gets desperate. He decides to solve his financial woes by robbing a bank. His plan goes sideways quickly when it turns out to be a cashless bank (what are the odds?)
With no piles of cash to plunder and the cops closing in, Backman’s would-be robber makes his escape. He runs into a building where an apartment is up for sale. On the way, he picks up a toy gun.
Anxious People’s story unfolds within an apartment, where our failed thief takes hostage a real-estate agent and his clients. Lamenting his failure, the robber explains to his hostages, “I’m having quite a complicated day here!” And, so are they.
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The Hostages – Worst Ever
Held captive by our failed robber are a group of people with their own anxieties and fears.
A pregnant lesbian couple, Julia and Ro, are panicked by the idea of raising a child. They’re desperate to get the flat before their baby is born. Anna-Lena and Roger, a retired hetero-couple, want to flip the apartment together to mend their fraying relationship. Zara, a depressed bank manager whose hobby is to attend open houses and dream of a better life. Estelle, a lonely 87-years-old woman, using viewings to meet new people. The real estate agent with no clue about what he is doing.
Backman enjoys the ridiculous, the unlikely, and these characters are all almost too regular for his taste. So the eighth hostage is a man wearing his undies and a bunny head. Bunny-man’s makes his money by professionally ruining apartment viewings (new career alert!)
Each of these eight people come into the flat with a set of uncertainties and problems unique to them. Backman’s characters are not lovable people; they’re barely likeable. At least, not on first sight. In this sense, they’re real and soulfully written. Backman’s strength is to use crazy situations to bring forth the absurdities in real life, and Anxious People does so impeccably. Each character has a compelling backstory and heartbreaking secrets that eventually make the reader relate to them. Which one of us agreeable to the other until we get to know one another?
Our failed bank robber sets into motion a series of events that expose how vulnerable all of them are.
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The Investigators – The Most Incapable Ever
A comically inept father-son duo, Jim and Jack, are brought in to investigate. Even with the would-be criminal locked inside a building, the two cops manage to lose the robber. As parents and children often do, our detectives constantly butt heads and agree on nothing. Jack and Jim have never worked in a hostage situation. Confused, they do what any of us might when faced with a new experience: Google it.
The Absurd Is Realistic
The book’s narration is non-linear (explain what this means), This style makes reading through the pages all the more enjoyable. Anxious People could be a whodunnit or a mystery thriller, or self-help book. The conclusion will depend on how the reader chooses to view it. Backman has a flair for portraying human behaviour in its best. His books are matters of the heart rather than of the head. In the end, I was left with the warm feeling that everything would turn out okay.
The Lesson
Backman’s book Anxious People, with its absurd plot, bumbling policemen, and crazy protagonist, is a lesson in compassion. On the daily, each of us is doing our best to figure out our purpose. Every person we meet has his or her own problems, and simply wants to make their life better. Whether stuck in a traffic jam, or a hostage situation, it’s easy to believe other people are insensitive of my particular plight that they’re somehow deliberately in my way. The more challenging perspective is that, for them, I’m the roadblock.
We disagree on many topics ranging from class, economics, religion, motivations, to competing interests. At the same time, we all have one blind belief in common: Hope.
Hope that we will be loved by another. Our children will get a better tomorrow; that we will find a better job tomorrow. We cling to an irrational belief that everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, then this is not the end.
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The Importance Of Being Earnest
Anxious People resonates because it focuses on relationships, mental health, and how people react in odd, often tricky situations. It stresses the importance of things we’ve only started to appreciate amid a global pandemic. The book lays bare the central problem millennials face: the importance and rigour of authentic and open communication with one another.
At the end of Anxious People, there is no overt message, but there is hope. Compassion wins in Backman’s novel.
Often, life is a war we wage against all odds. Every day is a struggle to survive. The biggest battle we have is often against ourselves. The one where we try to decide who we are, who we want to be one tiny decision at a time.
Does this book have all the answers? No, but that isn’t a bad thing. As Backman says, “Not knowing is a good place to start.”
Anxious People is available on Champaca, Amazon and other leading booksellers near you.
Read more of The Ladies Compartment’s book reviews and essays,
About Fredrick Backman:
Backman is an author, blogger and columnist whose books initially written in Swedish and translated into English and many languages. Ever since he shot to fame with the book A Man Called Ove, he has written more than seven novels. His newest book Anxious People is in the top two of the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards – losing the number one position by only five votes.
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