Review: Anxious People by Backman

 

Anxious PeopleAnxious People by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5ish. Backman's writing is worth five stars, his ability to take you inside the skin of each of the characters and laugh and cry and feel queasy under the skin right with each of them is simply brilliant. This story wasn't as strong as the others I've read from him, which is why I bring it back down to a four. That said, I couldn't put it down (almost literally) for the final 120 pages.

"It just hurts so much at times, being human." (98)

"Limes seemed to be such a popular adornment at apartment viewings that it's tempting to think that if real estate agents were banned, the surface of the earth would become covered with such a thick layer of limes that only young people with very small knives and an inexplicable fondness for Mexican beer would survive." (129)

"When snow arrives autumn has already done all the work, taking care of all the leaves and carefully sweeping summer away from people's memories. All winter had to do was roll in with a bit of freezing weather and take all the credit, like a man who's spent twenty minutes next to a barbeque but has never served a full meal in his life." (230-231)

"He says you end up marrying the one you don't understand. Then you spend the rest of your life trying." (247)

"The new year arrives, which of course never means as much as you hope unless you happen to sell calendars." (329)



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