Book Review: Anxious People

By Jessica Oravec

Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman, is about a bank robbery. But it is also about a group of people who help each other in ways that they could not have fathomed. It is about the mistakes we make, and the grief we feel. It is about the anxiety that swirls around us, and the decisions we make when our back is against the wall. It is about desperation, and how a group of idiots can save you from it.

Backman brings together an unlikely cast of characters: a bank robber, a bank executive, an old lady, an irritated pregnant woman and her partner, an unlikely pair of house flippers, a real estate agent whose agency has a ridiculous name, and a man with a very odd job. As this group is held hostage by the bank robber, all their anxieties come to light. But during it all, they form a bond. And in the end, they are joined by another unlikely pair to help save the one of them who truly needs it.

Anxious People will make you laugh at the ridiculous things that some of the characters say and do. It will make you weep over the choices that others made when they felt like they had nowhere to go. And most of all, it will help you realize that you cannot save everyone. But it is enough to save those we can. In a time when anxiety is at an all-time high for many, this book reminds us that we all are anxious about something, so in that, we are not alone.