Wow, that was good!

     MJV sends me books and becasue they are from her I know they will be good.  Needing to finish the Pacific War and Lakota books it had to wait. Once begun it was finished in less than a day! By the author of A Man Called Ove. Fredrik Backman, Anxious People is at least as good as Ove.

     " I read this book because it was a Backman book and I knew I would enjoy it.  I did.  It is not as predictable as I thought, partly because it is framed as a mystery but it still becomes a Backman personality study of quirky people, and don’t we all have quirks?   Kirkus pretty well summarized it by saying: A story with both comedy and heartbreak sure to please Backman fans.  It was.  Amazon says:  This is a poignant comedy about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined.  Poignant is such a good word to use in relation to any Backman story, and this is no exception." So writes MJV. 

       Written in a way that compels page turning it's filled with pithy insights about people and relationships. Laughing out loud also accompanies its reading. Here's an example of Backman's wisdom. "They say that a person's personality is the sum of their experiences. But that isn't true, at least not entirely, becasue if our past was all that defined us, we'd never be able to put up with ourselves. We need to be allowed to convince ourselves that we're more than the mistakes we made yesterday. That we are all our next choices, too, all of our tomorrows."  P. 324

     In the book a therapist is asked to define a panic attack. At the end of the book there are three pages of "Author's Thanks.  Included in the thanks is this "The psychologists and therapists who have worked with me in recent years. In particular, Bengt, who helped me get to grips with my panic attacks."  P. 341  Apparently the author's keen perceptions and observations have come at a personal price.

      This comes highly recommended by me, but it is a bit of a slow starter so don't give up too early. (Thanks, MJV!)

Takk for alt,

Al

                                                             This mornings view.