Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

 "'We can't change the world, and a lot of the time we can't even change people. No more that one bit at a time. So we do what we can to help whenever we get the chance, sweetheart. We save those we can. We do our best. Then we try to find a way to convince ourselves that that will just have to...be enough. So we can live with our failures without drowning.'"                     -Jack's mother's advice, from the novel

Our book club has previously read two other novels by this author, A Man Called Ove (rated 4.5) and My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry (rated 3). I am very curious to see what the group will have to say about this one. I am rating it a 5; I loved it.

This is the story of a failed bank robbery that led to a hostage situation in an apartment being shown by a realtor. Several anxious people are thrown together in an event that sounds frightening but ends up being, in turns, mysterious, hilarious, and profound. The story is told achronologically (a new word for me) meaning shifting back and forth in time. Probably this author's style would not appeal to everyone but I enjoy it very much. Long sentences, short chapters, and frequent foreshadowing make it very much a page-turner.

Interspersed with the hostage story are narratives of the character's background and police interviews with the hostages after their release. Jim and Jack, father and son respectively, are the policemen/investigators and interviewers. The hostages are unhelpful, even sarcastic; the author tells us they're idiots.

I giggled and LOLed a lot while reading this very unique and entertaining story. At it's more inspiring moments though, it reminds us of our impact on other people and that we all have basic needs and desires and our own burdens to carry.

I look forward to our Page Turners' meeting tomorrow. More then....

============

Only nine of us gathered to talk about Anxious People this morning. The discussion was lively and centered around the quirky style of this author. The average rating was 4.1 with votes from 5 down to 2. Some found it unbelievable (fiction can often be that) and confusing (achrononological sequence sometimes is that). More found it entertaining and fun to read. We decided the characters were interesting, if not entirely likeable, and we seemed to agree the ending was heart-warming.