Anxious People by Fredrick Backman Is Oh-So Depressing!

I do NOT recommend the book Anxious People by Fredrick Backman.  It is well-written, and there is a sort of dry wit, but is oh-so tremendously depressing.  The author portrays a series of miserable, hopeless lives and often purposely misleads the reader. Nothing so finely done as The Sixth Sense, where the twist at the end was plausible.  No, this is simply an unreliable narrator—well, does that imply it was intentional?  It’s obviously intentional.  Annoyingly so.

  But seriously, don’t read it.  One of the author’s more subtle tricks towards the end, if I understood it correctly (I listened to the audiobook and didn’t back it up), was to make you think for a moment that one woman had jumped off a bridge (a minor, surprising plot point).  The story was so depressing throughout that by that point, I almost found it a relief!  Needless to say, when I realized she hadn’t, I wasn't as glad as you’d expect, which struck me as dire.  But again, I’ll say that there is a snarky wit that keeps you listening/reading, and the author wraps things up tidily at the end--almost too neatly, as if the smidge of hope that the author is giving you is fake, just a nice, 'happy ending' for the book.  The connections between the characters’ pathetic lives unfold slowly, and that part is well done. If you do choose to listen to the audiobook, stick through to the end, at least, as the narrator will provide you with a hotline number for if you’re feeling suicidal.  You may need it.