Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman

 

Characters
Bank Robber and Hostages	Others
Bank Robber   Zara – bank manager, received letter from man who jumped from bridge 10 years ago   Roger Anna-Lena   Julia - pregnant Ro   Estelle – owner of apartment Knut – husband, deceased   Lennart – professional disrupter   Real Estate Agent	Bank Robber: Two daughters Ex-husband   Nadia – psychologist, saved from suicide by Jim, followed for 10 years by Zara   Jim – father, police officer Jack – son, police officer Mother – deceased, priest Sister – addict   London – bank teller at cashless bank being robbed   Man who jumped from bridge, wrote letter to Zara who turned down his loan   Stockholmers

For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from hardback edition.

1.       The author goes out of his way to not identify the bank robber as male or female.  (See the description of the marriage break up on pages 55 and 56.)  Were you surprised when the bank robber turned out to be a woman?   Did you catch it when you read the pronoun “she” on page 204?  Why did the author add this twist?  Would it have made a difference to the plot of the story if the bank robber was male?

2.       Discuss Zara and her problems.   Should someone have been able to help her earlier or was she too clever to let anyone know what was really going on with her?  Should she have felt guilty for the man’s suicide?

3.       What difference would it have made in the story if Zara had opened the letter ten years earlier

4.       As you read, did your feelings change about Roger?  The author wrote that he was “…incredibly angry.  A man can end up like that as a result of the things old age takes away from him, like the ability to serve a purpose” (page 166).  But on page 173 Roger waited 20 minutes to give his parking space to a young father and on page 167 “he said three of the hardest words an older man can say to a younger woman. ‘You’ll manage it.’”

5.       Discuss Julia and Ro.  Could you relate to Ro’s concern about being a parent?

6.       Were you surprised that Jim helped the bank robber?

 

7.       The novel was first published in Sweden and there were multiple references to Stockholmers.  Do you think people from different countries read these parts the same?

a.       “a symbolic word to denote all the irritating people who get in the way of our happiness” (page 156)

b.       “Everyone is someone else’s Stockholmer, I guess” (page 229)

c.       “’Stockholm’ can also be a syndrome, of course” (page 157)

8.       The other term the author used often to describe people was “idiots.”     The author wrote, “People want to be good. Deep down. Kind. The problem of course is that it isn’t always possible to be kind to idiots, because they’re idiots” (page 101).   How do you think the author would define an idiot?  What did you think about this term as you were reading?

9.       Suicide (man on bridge and Nadia) and addiction (bank robber’s mother and Jack’s sister) played prominent roles in the novel.  How well did the author address these issues?  Regarding teenagers, how accurate do you think his description was of Nadia’s feelings on pages 98 and 99?

10.   Besides telling a story, the author addressed many current issues and dilemmas.  What did you think of the following?

a.       On page 52 he listed things we all understand we should never do (kill, lie, steal, throw stones at birds) and then gave exceptions (killing Hitler, lying about eating children’s candy, throwing stones at swans).

b.       “always be nice to other people, even idiots, because you never know how heavy their burden is” (page 101).

c.       “People want to be good…The problem of course is that it isn’t always possible to kind to idiots, because they’re idiots” (page 101).

d.       Having money enables you to buy distance from other people – first class plane seats, more space between tables at fancy restaurants, larger houses with large yards.

11.   What did you think as you read the first page?   Do you think you read it differently now (in midst of the COVID pandemic) than you would at a different time?

12.   Why do you think the author never gave the elk, the frog and the monkey names other than their nicknames?

13.   Did you like the author’s style?  For example, he often wrote directly to the reader such as in chapter two, page 4.

14.   What were some of your favorite parts of the book?

15.   What do you think you will remember about this book after some time has passed?

16.   Why did the author write this book?   If he was trying to make a statement, was he successful?