After a hours-long ordeal, the hostages are released. The robber takes the people there hostage. The robber flees into a nearby apartment building and into an apartment showing. The robber goes into a bank to demand a small amount of money, only to learn that it is a cashless bank. The story, told achronologically, opens by explaining that, on the day before New Years Eve, there has been a failed bank robbery in a small town. May this man never stop writing.The one-sentence version of this is that Anxious People is about a group of people held hostage after a bank robbery who get to know each other, and they end up helping each other and helping the bank robber to find her way out of the mess. Riveting and jovial while not shying away from the hard truths of life, Anxious People demonstrates Backman’s ability to make even a would-be hostage situation one of the most entertaining and profound encounters to read about. what I loved most about this book was how it made me question how far I would go for the people I love. Backman knows how to capture all the little moments in life we never really think about, the connections we make and take for granted instead of seeing them as the blessings they are, the kindnesses and cruelties that have become the norm when really, they should stand out, for better or for worse. And it’s one hundred percent because of the characters. Backman manages to make the ordinary feel extraordinary, imbibing seemingly drab topics with passion and fervour and it works every single time to leave me absolutely entranced. And even if you don’t agree with them, you at least understand. He somehow manages to make everything sound hilarious while also creating moments and characters that change the way you view the world because you’re seeing other people’s perspectives. Backman has a way with words that always leaves me reeling.
It’s like he’s hiding in our brains, snagging our worst nightmares and most hopeful daydreams and shoves them into characters that will then make you question why you haven’t robbed a bank yet or gone into the real estate business (okay maybe that’s going a bit too far but you get my point, right?). Backman excels in Anxious People the way he has excelled in all his previous releases and it’s because of one thing: the way he writes the most painful truths, the way he uncovers what we all think sometimes, but would never dare speak aloud. I wonder if I will ever pick up a book by Backman and not be completely baffled at the synopsis only to fall in love with the book on the very first page (chances are slim, to be honest).
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