Anxious People Paperback – 6 July 2021

I think this has to be one of the most charming, witty, poignant books I’ve ever read. Perhaps it just found me at the right time, but I was totally absorbed from the first page through to the last.I adore the writing style. It’s informal and easy to read, yet incredibly clever and thought provoking. And funny. And sometimes sad.But then maybe I’m just another idiot trying to muddle my way through life.If you are too, then maybe you’ll love this book as much as I did.

Quick easy read.

I really enjoyed this. From the setup you know it's not a serious thriller, but it did make me laugh out loud, a lot. The dialogue is hilarious, though there some good thoughts on life and even suicide. Very thought provoking at times, and if you do read it, make sure you read the authors thanks. The first thank you made me cry, you'll know why when you read it.What a great bloke he must be, you can easily imagine spending an afternoon getting more and more drunk with him and laughing your head off.

I read Anxious People, and while it had received a lot of hype, I have to say that it didn't quite live up to my expectations. The story itself was interesting, but I found that it lacked the depth and complexity that I was hoping for.While the characters were well-written, I didn't find myself connecting with them in the way that I had hoped, and I felt that some of the plot points were a bit contrived.Overall, while Anxious People is a decent read, I don't think it quite lives up to the hype. If you're looking for a thought-provoking and deeply engaging novel, you might want to look elsewhere.

The unusual narrative style of this story was arresting from the start – with characters deliberately obfuscated and obfuscating – and it was a little startling for the first few pages as I was trying to get a feel for who everyone was and what was happening, but it didn’t take long for the rambling, conversational style of the narration to become one of my favourite things about this book.Other favourite things included the humour, the pathos, the initially ridiculous but eventually incredibly relatable character, the riddle-in-a-mystery-in-an-enigma plot that felt so intricate and interconnected and yet was somehow very easy to read… everything really. One minute I was laughing at the silly police interview dialogue and the next I was nodding enthusiastically at a description of the difficulties of adulthood and its many responsibilities.The coincidences in the plot are not meant to be believable or realistic, but they make for a very satisfyingly neat finale and are balanced by the realism of the pain, worries and fears of the small cast of characters. The story hangs around a banking system and a bridge, but its heart is the despair and kindness of ordinary, everyday people.This is one of those books that made me immediately seek out everything else the author has written to add them to my wish-list and also create a mental list of people in my life that I need to buy copies for as soon as possible (three so far, and counting!)I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a unique, people-centred locked-room mystery that really gets how hard modern life can be for all sorts of different people and reasons.

This book was a slow starter for me but I am SO glad I carried on, to begin I thought it was overly predictive and cheesy, however it soon evolved into one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I've ever read and has actually somewhat shifted a positive change in me as a person. Would definitely recommend.

Absolutely loved this book. The characters are so well written and their stories so cleverly interweaved. Yes it’s a heartwarming easy read - I actually struggled to put it down - but it doesn’t make it any less intriguing or lacking in twists and turns. There were a few times where I was taken aback by its profound nature and I’m not ashamed to say, I was reduced to tears more than once. Just a beautiful story about people.

What a story. One of the best I ever read. Captivating and funny. Sad and real. Amazingly enjoyable, brilliant characters.

Buena historia, me gustó mucho pero hay mucha lectura introspectiva que te desvía de la historia, eso no me agrado tanto, pero la historia es buena.

Estou muito animada para ler esse! Chegou bem rápido e gostei da versão de capa comum! O meu não veio com aquele adesivo chato da Netflix, então fiquei feliz ahhaha

I highly recommend this novel for its writing craft, but also because it's fun, funny and inspiring. What I really enjoyed most about this book is how it’s so enjoyable you can forget all the work that went into making it and just enjoy the ride.Reading it is like getting hugged by a kind aunt or uncle who knew you as the confused and anxious child you once were. The bugger-nosed child who didn’t know how to fit in and is now an anxious adult who still doesn’t know how to fit in. It is a story about how each one of us can – out of love or confusion -- convince ourselves to implement a really bad idea. And how sometimes, that can be okay.There are so many beautiful, insightful lines:<blockquote>“Julia frowned so hard and so thoughtfully that she got a whole new hairstyle.”“…the people we argue with hardest of all are not the ones who are completely different from us, but the ones who are almost no different at all.”“She gathered the wreckage of her feelings into an expression of derision and went back into the apartment.”“…if people really were as happy as they look on the Internet, they wouldn’t spend so much damn time on the Internet, because no one who’s having a really good day spends half of it taking pictures of themselves.”“The real estate agent looks at him, and thinks he looks like a person who’s had his sense of humor amputated.”</blockquote>It is a story built layer by layer, each one filled with really deep yet funny thoughts about the human condition.It is about a robbery that becomes a hostage taking. But that makes it sound like a Hollywood shoot-out, and it isn’t. All of the characters are both protagonist and antagonist. Each gets time to develop, has their own anxiously lived life, and finds a way to grow. In this way, the novel captures that Tolstoy mantra quite well, “The best stories don't come from ‘good vs. bad’ but ‘good vs. good’.”Backman uses missing information to create little twists and turns that surprise and delight throughout. There’s one zinger right in the middle that is so surprising, it will have you re-reading the first half to see how he did it (no spoilers here!). He also nails the cliffhanger ending to keep you turning to the next chapter.I wasn’t fond of the chapters written as police interview transcripts. These are pure dialogue, giving us an opportunity to hear the character’s voices, but we miss out on their physicality. For me, they read flat. But that’s a quibble.Anxious People is a gentle, fun and funny story about the weird world we live in, how each of us faces challenges and we all need a hug.

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🌻 They say that a person’s personality is the sum of their experiences. But that isn’t true, at least not entirely, because if our past was all that defined us, we’d never be able to put up with ourselves. We need to be allowed to convince ourselves that we’re more than the mistakes we made yesterday. That we are all of our next choices, too, all of our tomorrows 🌻This book was a birthday gift from a friend i love very much. It came to me at a time when i hopeless and was looking for something to smile about. It was the first book picked up after a long long time and happy to report it was worth it. I'm not going to lie and say this is an easy book to read. Because Backman has a point, "no one and nothing is as they seem " and he drives it home repeatedly with every incomplete reveal. The first half will test your patience, because the narrative has no set time-line, it's non-linear and it waves back and forth between the past and the present. Frankly, i found the characters quite annoying. But once i got to the second half, the speed picked up and timelines became crystal clear. After that i didn't even want to put the book down and drink water. The characters became people i see on the streets daily, like friends, like people i love. It was charming, sad, hilarious and had me right where it wanted. Entranced.For me, Backman is a magician. Because weaving sensitive topics such as sui**de, love, loss, parenthood and grief in such a way that the reader ends up laughing and crying at the same time seems like quite an impossible task. But this book for me has struck that fine balance. It's a beautiful reflection of humanity. I feel like this is going to one of those books that's going to stay in my heart for years. Looking forward to reading more from this author.