A review by kdickerson38
The Answer is No by Fredrik Backman

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

5.0

Touching, witty, absurd, relatable, and memorable; I'm obsessed with Backman's quirky characters and hilarious stories; the MC reminded me a lot of Ove in A Man

Called Ove by the same author; this packed a powerful and entertaining punch for a short story; (secretly love Linda/Head Three).

Quotes I highlighted:

• Lucas is happy. This is a very provoking thing to the world. Because people aren’t supposed to be happy, they’re only supposed to want to be happy, because how otherwise are you supposed to be able to sell things to them?
• All he did was to remove the one thing that makes almost all people unhappy: other people.
• He works well in groups as long as it’s groups of fewer than two people.
• Lucas may not be fond of people, but he is very fond of the way they cook pad thai.
• Being smart is the worst thing one can be in modern society. All it ever means is more work.
• Because Lucas is making the mistake of thinking that the board wants to solve the problem. But people actually almost never want to do that.
• “I just wonder who is ashamed to talk about their feelings. I’ve been on the internet, and it seems to be the only thing people talk about there . . .”
• And my son had been rather impatient asking when I was coming home, because he had no clean underwear, because my husband doesn’t know how to work the washing machine. Or the dishwasher. Or the vacuum cleaner, even though that was my husband’s Christmas gift to me . . .”
• “How do you put dishes in a dishwasher . . . wrong?” Lucas asks. “Isn’t that obvious?” both women ask in unison.
• Lucas scratches his hair thoughtfully, before he says the most absurd thing he has ever heard himself say out loud: “Come in. Let’s talk about it.”
• Don’t look on the internet for someone who is exactly like you. Look for someone who isn’t. Love is not to never fight. Love is always making up.
• Lucas is happy. It’s not as hard as one might think to become, the hard part is just to keep being it. It’s hard because it’s so easy to get in your head that if you are to be happy, you have to be happy exactly all of the time. And who in the world has the energy for that? Happiness can be exhausting. Honestly, it’s most often enough to just not be the opposite.
• If you want to see normal people turn into power-hungry dictators in five minutes, all you have to do is say the magic words: “We’d love to hear your suggestions!”
• Because the doctors and nurses understand very well that all the modern pills and treatments are surely great, but sometimes what people really need most of all is a prescription for a break.