“At the end of your career you’re trying to find a point to it all, and at the start of it you’re looking for a purpose.”
On the surface, Anxious People is about a failed bank robbery, a hostage situation, and the local police’s inability to investigate what happened. It takes place in Sweden, and Backman uses humor to draw us into a story about what happens when a group of people who show up for an apartment open house is forced to talk to each other, show their vulnerabilities and address their anxieties. In actuality, the story is about the foolishness, or idiocy, as Backman calls it, of the human psyche as people navigate life.
Jim and Jack are a father/son police team who play out generational differences in their approaches to interviewing witnesses. They convey many of the inherent problems associated with making assumptions and drawing conclusions based on preconceived notions. However, I sympathized with them since the interviewees/witnesses in their case were purposely evasive and deceptive. The more we find out about the would-be bank robber, the more we understand the dilemma that led to the crime, and eventually, we realize that the hostages hardly see themselves as victims.
Backman creates characters that are realistic, unfulfilled, uptight, and anxious. It is interesting to witness the dynamics that Backman creates for two couples: Anna-Lena and Roger and Rio and Julia. When they share their backstories and motivations for being at the apartment’s open house, we realize that although individuals may be unique, there is commonality and zaniness in how people show their love for each other. It is also amazing to realize what pretenses people develop to avoid conflict in their relationships.
We also see clear examples of the inability to face conflict, communicate, and have relationships when we learn about a banker, Zara, and her life story as discussed with her psychologist, Nadia. Estelle, an 87-year-old woman who is obviously lonely after losing her husband in hilarious when she comforts the bank robber and shares her life with the others, especially the younger women.
The physical bridge viewed from the apartment where the action takes place and two suicides that had taken place on the bridge figure into the histories of some of the characters. The realization of the tragedy of suicide leads to a poignant understanding of some of the rawest emotions, and Backman is great at bridging the themes of loneliness, friendship, secrets, and forgiveness. A reader has to appreciate his style of integrating humor with serious topics to explore and appreciate the universal foibles of human nature.
