Anxious People

I read everything. Anything that comes my way, on a voracious journey to find books that make me FEEL. Once, in a great while, comes a book like this. A book I can read again and again, and the feel is always there. Mr Backman is an author for our time, of our time.

I\’ve listened to A Man Named Ove, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, and Us against You, written by Fredrik Backman and assumed I would love this one as much as I loved all his others, in fact I would consider him one of my favorite authors. Sadly, sadly this book was painful to listen to. A big part of the problem was the narrator, Marin Ireland who has done a fine job with some of his other books, but in Anxious People the voices she uses for the dialog sounds like she\’s narrating a children\’s book. It felt like every single conversation was a misunderstanding and I became increasingly frustrated until 5 hours into I couldn\’t stand it any more, give up and returned it. Shaking my head over the great reviews for this one.

Anxious People is Fredrik Backman latest book. He has a way of telling stories like no other author I have read. Even with an expansive set of characters, he is able to make each one unique in their own way. Essentially, this book is what it means to be human. My first introduction to Fredrik Backman work was through \”A Man Called Ove\”. I was moved by Fredrik Backman writing about loneliness. It tells a beautiful story about a grumpy old man named Ove, and his unintentional friendship with his neighbour called Parveneh. It is a tale about friendship, love, and loneliness. Anxious People is about life and idiots. In our current western society, a lot of the medium we consume tells us we have to special. Tik Tok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Movies, TV Shows, and companies all are selling us individuality and perfection. It could be certain products to make us look a certain way, videos that show off the perfect family, or the perfect life, or products that make us unique. We hear comments \”once in a lifetime experience\”, \”limit edition\”, or \”it is life-changing\”. If we are boring, we are uninteresting, if we are unhappy, we are ill, and if we are lost in life, we are a failure. However, Anxious People reminds us that we do not have to be perfect. We find perfection in imperfection, we find happiness in the mundane, and we find love in the unexpected. This is all of our first-time experiencing life. We did not have practice before-hand, and there is no course guide on how to do life. It is up to us to figure that out, and of course, we are going to make many mistakes. Some of us make some really bad choice. However, we all do deserve a second chance to try again: this time, a bit wiser. In the end, we are all just a bunch of idiots trying our best, and that is all we can really ask for ourselves and for each other.

Another hit by Fredrik Backman. I love his whimsical & humorous writing style about real subjects. This book had it all, I think I had every emotion at some point while listening to this book. It is about idiots, or maybe just real people and the choices they make good or bad (his words not mine) 😉 At first I hated all of the characters and wanted them all to just shut up and by the end I adored almost all of them and their quirkiness. I feel like Backman does an amazing job at showing us the characters faults and then making us see they are just normal people like me & you. Marin Ireland is perfect for Backman\’s work. She embraces the writing style with her narration and enhances the experience. I don\’t know if I would enjoy his book as much with an average narrator.

The first few chapters I was struggling to get through because the characters were not very likable. I am so glad I did continue to listen. It is a good reminder to be kind to others. We have no idea what burdens they are carrying.

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