Hi Folks -
I've decided to cut back on my reviewing in and just review one book a month, on the first Friday of the month. That way I can go more in depth in my thinking on a particular topic. The next book review will be for Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote and will be posted on January 7th of 2022. I hope you'll join me for a look at the story and maybe some side notes of interest.
Thanks!
Anxious People
by Fredrik Backman
Our thematic book club
chose a “Nordic” theme for December. To be honest, I had to look up what that
might encompass. Merriam-Webster defines Nordic as “1
: a native of northern Europe. 2 : a person of Nordic physical type. 3 : a
member of the peoples of Scandinavia.”
Aha. One of the best books I’ve read in the past
decade was A Man Called Ove by
Frederik Backman, who is Swedish. My husband and I both loved that story. I
knew he had written a number of other books that I hadn’t read yet so I checked
my digital catalogs to see what might be available. Anxious People looked popular and very interesting so I placed a
hold.
Apparently people were impatient and bought it instead
because it soon became available as both an ebook and a digital book.
From the very first, I was drawn into the story.
The story opens with a police interview between a
young officer and a slightly irritating real estate agent. (She really does
seem very silly.) We focus more on the officer, and the other officer who he is
working with, which turns out to be his father.
The real estate agent was part of a group of people held
hostage by a bank robber. Seems a straight forward statement.
“Shortly after that the police stormed the apartment,
only to discover that it was empty. The door to the balcony was locked, all the
windows were closed, and there were no other exits.”
Then you get to know all the other characters that
were there.
“…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.”
It’s about relationships, being human, being a parent,
having the weight of caring for your children and other people on your
shoulders,
It’s beautiful and funny and very relatable, and
utterly silly and absurd at times.
“We don’t have a plan, we just do our best to get
through the day, because there’ll be another one coming along tomorrow.”
I soon felt like I was driving along a mountain with a
crazy number of switchbacks. Just when you got up a head of steam, something
changed and your whole view of the story changed with it. I love that kind of
thing. There are layers upon layers revealed, depending upon perspective, and
some obfuscations. Backman comes at the story from different angles, picking up
the thread of one person’s involvement, then another, then ties them together
in ways you might not ever expect.
As soon as I finished reading this book, I wanted to
go back and read it again, to highlight all the wonderful turns of phrase and
ideas that tugged at me to share with you. But if I shared them all here, then
the review would be far too long and they would be totally out of context.
I highly, highly recommend this story. I don’t think
you’ll be disappointed.
The Lost
Apothecary Shop
by Sarah Penner
Okay, okay, this one was a pretty cover pick again. The title
was intriguing as well.
Told from the perspectives of three different people, the
story opens with Nella, an apothecary whose shop is dedicated to women, in 1791
London. But the shop doesn’t just dispense the usual remedies. Behind a hidden
wall lies a whole other dispensary, one of poisons. Nella uses these poisons to
get women justice, and vengeance. Women put their requests in notes, in a
barrel of barley, and Nella prepares the requested item for them.
Caroline is a modern woman with a problem of her own, a
husband who has cheated on her while he is supposedly working long hours at the
office. She arrives in London on her anniversary trip, without her husband,
though he follows soon after. Part of her goal is to sort out her anger and whether
it’s worth trying to make her marriage work. Complicating things is her concern
that she might, finally, be pregnant.
Drawn into a “mud larking” afternoon, Caroline discovers an
old apothecary bottle that leads her to research Nella and her shop, and its’
secrets.
Eliza is our third character, a young girl just coming of age,
who is sent to Nella’s shop by her mistress for a poison to stop the lecherous
advances of her master. She’s a very intelligent girl but somewhat imaginative
and superstitious. She is fascinated by Nella’s shop and returns there when she
has some troubles of her own.
The fates of the three women have some parallels but they are very
thoroughly unique characters. The setting is richly detailed with historical
details. The plot is intricate and the pace grows quicker as the story
progresses. This is one that kept me up late to finish it. I highly recommend.
