Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Real estate viewing isn’t often a life-or-death situation, but when a failed bank robber breaks in and holds a number of strangers hostage, it quickly turns into one. A newly retired couple who incessantly searches for fixer-uppers to evade the terrible reality that they can’t mend their own marriage is among the hostages. A young couple who are expecting their first kid but can’t seem to agree on anything is there, as well as a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anybody else.
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
88 used from $3.50
Free shipping
Amazon.com
The worst hostage situation imaginable is created when a woman in her eighty-sevens who has lived long enough to not be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a real estate agent who is flustered but still willing to negotiate, and a mystery man who has barricaded himself in the apartment’s only bathroom are added to the mix.
They each have a lifetime’s worth of grudges, wounds, secrets, and passions that are just waiting to burst. Each of them is just partially who they seem to be. All of them, including the bank robber, is in desperate need of assistance. The plot centres on a bank robbery that was not professionally planned at all, or even poorly. Again, it is not surprising that the heist proceeds in a manner he had not anticipated. A half-dozen people, including a real estate agent, are inside an apartment showing when the thief tries to flee; this results in a hostage scenario, and the plot then takes off. Of course, the reader’s sense of humour will have a bearing on the humour in this story.
He is a writer who is interested in the problems, angst, and issues that everyday people face that never receive satisfactory answers throughout their lifetimes. Backman uses the crime aspect of Anxious People as a front to address a number of amaranthine and universal themes, including depression, suicide, what it really means to grow up, how challenging it is for the average man to live up to the standards set by postmodern societies to distinguish the successful from the unsuccessful, and many others.
In this particular tale of a botched bank robbery that results in an odd hostage situation where the role of perpetrator and victim frequently interchanges, all of the above are conveyed through captivating prose that is full of amusing conversation and observations made by the major characters.
The plot begins when a novice bank robber decides to break into a cashless bank in order to steal the meagre sum of 6,500 Swedish Kroner. When it becomes clear that the bank has no money, he quickly recognizes his error and makes an attempt to flee to an adjacent building. He storms into an apartment where a viewing is being held for potential purchasers in a fit of rage. He initially presents as a menacing figure while holding a gun and concealing his face with a balaclava, but he soon reveals himself to be a fairly unstable person without any prior criminal experience.
The hostages, who are the individuals who just so happened to be in the flat for the screening at that moment, are a very diverse collection of individuals, and each one of them has some particular personality quirks that will be revealed as the story develops. Jim and Jack, father and son police officers working in the tiny town’s precinct, are in charge of the investigation into this mock hostage-taking and are eager for the chance to prove to their superiors and fellow cops in Stockholm that they are capable of handling cases of this size.
