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A review by emmalong
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
5.0
HO. LEE. SHIT. Friends, I have found a new addition to my favorite books of all time.
We follow the timeline of hostage situation taken place in an apartment open-house after a bank robbery. The people taken hostage are, in my opinion, immediately unlikable, forced, and ridiculous and you sit there thinking "people like this don't ACTUALLY exist." But the more I followed the story, the more I came to ADORE the characters and realize they're completely valid and honest characters. This story is so funny, much more than I expected. I read A Man Called Ove months ago and liked it but didn't love it so I didn't have super high hopes for this book. But wow, it took me off guard in so many fun and heartwarming ways. Seeing the characters connect was such a great experience and I loved seeing them find common ground even among their disagreements. Backman perfectly combines flawed but perfectly human characters, humor, and the human condition into one flowing storyline.
It really emphasizes that we're all humans and we didn't ask to be here, we didn't ask to be adults, we didn't really ask for all of this responsibility. When you're a kid you think, "being an adult has got to be the best thing in the world," and then you get there and there's so much to consider. So much that you think you're going to drown in all of it and how are you going to stop it and how will you have time to fall in love, find a career you want, raise children, teach your kids the right things (including how to swim), and there's just not enough time and not enough guidance to make the right decisions. We all make it through in our own beautiful and stumbling ways.
I absolutely adored this book. I can't think of a better way to have written it, explained it, set it up, or developed the story. In my opinion, it is perfect in every way.
PS the fireworks??!?!?!!? cmon I was sobbing.
We follow the timeline of hostage situation taken place in an apartment open-house after a bank robbery. The people taken hostage are, in my opinion, immediately unlikable, forced, and ridiculous and you sit there thinking "people like this don't ACTUALLY exist." But the more I followed the story, the more I came to ADORE the characters and realize they're completely valid and honest characters. This story is so funny, much more than I expected. I read A Man Called Ove months ago and liked it but didn't love it so I didn't have super high hopes for this book. But wow, it took me off guard in so many fun and heartwarming ways. Seeing the characters connect was such a great experience and I loved seeing them find common ground even among their disagreements. Backman perfectly combines flawed but perfectly human characters, humor, and the human condition into one flowing storyline.
It really emphasizes that we're all humans and we didn't ask to be here, we didn't ask to be adults, we didn't really ask for all of this responsibility. When you're a kid you think, "being an adult has got to be the best thing in the world," and then you get there and there's so much to consider. So much that you think you're going to drown in all of it and how are you going to stop it and how will you have time to fall in love, find a career you want, raise children, teach your kids the right things (including how to swim), and there's just not enough time and not enough guidance to make the right decisions. We all make it through in our own beautiful and stumbling ways.
I absolutely adored this book. I can't think of a better way to have written it, explained it, set it up, or developed the story. In my opinion, it is perfect in every way.
PS the fireworks??!?!?!!? cmon I was sobbing.