Let's Bust a Recap : Anxious People

Fredrik Backman exploded onto the scene in 2012 with the publication of his debut novel A Man Called Ove. If you haven't at least heard of it, you're probably not a big reader.  I finally got around to reading it myself ten years later in 2022 and joined the legion of fans Backman has garnered the world over. Despite the fact that I've had two of his other books—Britt-Marie Was Here and My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry—sitting on my shelf for five years now, I found myself purchasing a copy of Anxious People a few weeks ago and diving right into it when my book club chose it for our April selection. And may I just say: Backman has done it again.

On opening this book, the first thing I read, of course, was Backman's dedication:

This book is dedicated to the voices in my head, the most remarkable of my friends.

And to my wife, who lives with us.  

Are you kidding me? I'm already sold. 

Chapter one opens with a bank robbery and a hostage drama. In his second paragraph, Backman writes, "This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So it needs saying from the outset that it's always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is. Especially if you have other people you're trying to be a reasonably good human being for." So begins an investigation into this bank robbery turned hostage drama. Father and son Jim and Jack are the two police officers on the case, interviewing the hostages who were all released from the apartment viewing they attended the day before New Years Eve after being held there by an armed bank robber who had just tried to rob a cashless bank across the street. 

A cashless bank.

Backman has this uncanny ability to capture the strange messiness of being human in such a profound and profoundly funny way. His books make you laugh out loud, they make your heart ache, they make you nod your head in agreement thinking "yes, that really is what it's like!" Anxious People in particular is one giant reminder to remember that the people around you are going through their own stuff. Stuff you may never know about. But stuff that compels them to make the choices you've deemed idiotic. And they are idiotic. But the choices we make may seem just as idiotic to the next guy who doesn't know our stuff. 

So be kind.

It's just brilliant. Anxious People came out in 2019 and the English translation by Neil Smith in 2020. While A Man Called Ove is still easily my favorite of the two, I absolutely loved Anxious People. Given the nature of the police investigation and the host of colorful characters, Anxious People feels very scattered in a somewhat disjointed way, and Backman did a great job of keeping me guessing the entire novel. There isn't really a main character to anchor the story so you constantly feel like you're being pulled in different directions from beginning to end. But it just works. 

If you haven't gotten around to reading Fredrik Backman yet, add my voice to the chorus of people recommending you move his books to the top of your TBR. He's becoming a favorite and it will not be another four years before I pick up another one of his books. 

But which one next? Britt-Marie, or My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises?

Let's Bust a Recap : A Man Called Ove

This charming novel celebrated its 10th birthday over the weekend! And even though I'm probably one of the last reading people in the world to pick it up, we're going to celebrate it here anyway. 

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman was originally published in Swedish on August 27, 2012. After being inspired by an article about a man named Ove having a fit while buying tickets at an art museum, Backman began writing blog posts under the heading "I am a Man Called Ove" wherein he detailed his own pet peeves and annoyances. At some point (I think in response to fan encouragement), Backman realized the potential to develop his posts into a full novel. It was a hit. The English translation by Henning Koch was published a couple years later in 2014 and went on to spend a whopping forty-two weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list.

If you like books, you could not possibly have avoided seeing this one, and I picked up a copy at The Book Shelter the summer of 2018. I even put it on my 2019 book list, but for one reason or another, I didn't get around to it. It was on my shortlist of books to read last year, but once again, I didn't ever pick it up. I pulled it off the shelf again this year, but it didn't make the cut. Then, just a few days after I published my 2022 list, my bookish comrade Sheree over at Keeping Up With The Penguins published a list of books with significant birthdays happening this year and wouldn't you know, Ove would be turning 10! So I unofficially slated it for August and when book club time came around, I leaned on my friend Amy to choose it (since August was her month) and she did. 

And we're all grateful. 

Because A Man Called Ove is now on my list of All-Time Favorites and will very probably hold as my favorite book of 2022. 

But what makes the book so great? Good question. On the surface, A Man Called Ove is just about a cantankerous old soul who, after losing his wife and being pushed out of his job into early retirement, has decided there's nothing left to live for so he's going to end it all. But each time he attempts to end his life, people just keep getting in the way.

Doesn't sound like the ingredients for one of my new All-Time Favs, does it? But Backman somehow manages to infuse this pretty heavy material with so much humor and heart that you can't help but fall in love with Ove and the colorful cast Backman creates. I was literally shouting with laughter from the very start, and by page forty I was actually crying my eyes out. And so the rest of the book went: alternately laughing and sobbing the whole way through. 

This is a book I would recommend to nearly anybody. While there is a bit of less-than-polite language sprinkled throughout, and I wouldn't personally endorse some of the life choices made by different characters—Ove included—overall this was a fantastic book; and much like you can disagree with someone while still loving them, I found myself thoroughly loving Ove and his neighborhood even while not agreeing with all their choices. Ultimately, this book is a brilliant snapshot of the human need for connection. God said from the very beginning that it's not good for man to be alone, and A Man Called Ove conveys the truth of that in such a funny, heartwarming, real way I'm so glad I didn't miss out on. 

Happy Birthday to A Man Called Ove! I'm excited for more of Backman's work. I've already got Britt-Marie Was Here and My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry sitting on my shelf. Which should I read next?

Let's Bust a Recap : Pippi Longstocking

The last time I read Pippi Longstocking, I was probably only 10 or 11 years old. (Which means it's been well over 20 years since I read it, but let's not get into that right now.) I decided to read it out loud this summer to the little boy I nanny because everyone needs a little Pippi in their lives. Especially during 2020.

Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Efraim's Daughter Longstocking is the daughter of an angel mother she can't remember and a cannibal king father she's very proud of. In Pippi Longstocking, she moves into Villa Villekulla with her pet monkey Mr. Nilsson, her horse (which she's strong enough to lift over her head, by the way) and her suitcase full of gold coins. She befriends the two neighbor kids, Tommy and Annika, and throughout this outrageously funny novel we read about all her wacky adventures with them.

I love this book. It's so funny and Pippi is somehow so lovable despite some of her more questionable behavior. Astrid Lindgren made up these stories for her daughter Karin in 1941 during a time when Karin was home sick from school, and Pippi quickly became a beloved family character. A few years later while Lindgren was bedridden with an injury, she wrote out the stories in an attempt to have them published. They were chosen by Rabén & Sjögren for publication in Sweden in 1945 and since that time, Pippi Longstocking has been translated into 76 languages and Astrid Lindgren is the fourth most translated children's writer trailing only Enid Blyton, Hans Christian Andersen, and the Brothers Grimm. Actually she's the world's eighteenth most translated author ever. 

Pippi Longstocking (the first of three full-length novels about the title character) was translated into English by Florence Lamborn in 1950 when it was published in the U.S. for the first time. The American illustrations were done by Louis S. Glanzman, and I'm curious if they are at all similar to the original illustrations done by Ingrid Vang Nyman because they certainly enhance the reading experience. 

Although Astrid Lindgren wrote more than 30 books for children and all of them have been widely translated, Pippi Longstocking is probably her most well known and beloved literary character and the novel Pippi Longstocking was listed by the Norwegian Nobel Institute as one of the Top 100 Works of World Literature in 2002. 

I never realized how globally celebrated Pippi Longstocking is or how famous Astrid Lindgren was, I just remember loving this book as a kid, and in rereading it this summer, it still holds up. My little guy laughed out loud at Pippi's shenanigans, and I couldn't help giggling along. My favorite story was about Pippi entertaining the two burglars who come to try and rob her of her gold coins. She ends up making them dance for hours, feeds them, and sends them on their way with a gold coin apiece for visiting her. I mean, really now. What a riot.

You should definitely read Pippi Longstocking, and if you have any little people in your life, this one's a fun read-aloud. I've never read the two follow-up novels (Pippi Goes on Board and Pippi in the South Seas), but this first one is entertaining as all get out and I enthusiastically recommend it.

Have you read any stories about Pippi? What was one of your favorite childhood books?