A review by ericarossetti
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

3.0

3.5 stars. If you’re like me and started out extremely annoyed and disinterested by the characters in this book, I’d recommend finishing it anyway. At first I could not get over several things: the repetitive opening, the jarring switching of narration styles, the ridiculous dialogue, the unlikeable characters, the bumbling policemen duo, the unbelievable witness interviews, the “humor” that was not really funny but more witty to the point of cringe, and the depressing odes to adulthood. For these reasons, while reading the first 2/3 of the book I wanted to quit. I stuck it out and will say that the book redeemed itself in the last third when the characters really opened up, revealed themselves and their endearing faults, connected with one another in an (albeit ridiculous) unlikely scenario, and showed human empathy. Once it got going I genuinely was interested in their stories. There were a few twists/cliffhangers that were unexpected and it was nice that everything ended up fitting together and working out. The last third raised the book overall from one or two stars to 3 or 4 stars for me. (Perhaps 5 stars if I had read it in the original Swedish translation and if I had a simple sense of humor, but alas, I do not speak Swedish and am quite the cynic.)