Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

This is the Teachers and Friends Book Club selection for January, although we are not meeting until the first week of February.  It was chosen by Board of Education member Pat Libero.

What the heck did I just read....?!?!?!

I read this last night in one sitting.  The language is easy (my suspicion partly because it was written in Swedish then translated).  I texted Ms. Marcella from Carrigan and Ms. Corrado as I was reading because I am so confused!

The book begins with a suicide (a man jumps off a bridge).  A young boy witnesses this; it leads him on a path to become a police officer to help people.  I thought, OK, this is going to be very dark, moody, dramatic.

Fast forward to the present and a robber holds up a bank.  The boy, now a man and officer, responds to the crime, where the robber has broken into a real estate showing (the translation has it as "apartment" but a better term for us would be "condo").  

Here it suddenly turns into slapstick comedy.  It was like Wadsworth running down the hall with the candlestick.  There's an elderly smoker, a lesbian pregnant couple, an older real estate flipper and his wife, and an actor dressed as a giant rabbit.  What. Did. I. Just. Read.

As you can probably figure out, the now hostages develop the syndrome that they want to save/protect the robber.  And things end up in a nice bow with an awwwww.

I am still not sure what happened.  I'm looking forward to discussing this book.