Britt-Marie Was Here

I love my new iPad - for almost everything but updating my blog. And it's only because I care to include the picture of the book cover in my review. If I left that out, I think I'd be okay.

Luckily, goodreads.com helps me keep a record of the books that I've read. But will I remember what each book was all about?

I loved Fredrik Backman's Britt-Marie Was Here. It is a totally memorable book, as are all the books I've his that I've read to date. Britt-Marie is the story of a 60-something woman starting over. Completely starting over. For years she's taken care of her husband, his kids and their home. All of a sudden, she has to take care of herself. 

To say that Britt-Marie is rigid would be an understatement, but I hesitate to say she has Asperger's. But you get the idea. She has difficulty with any changes to her routine. When you're starting your life over, there are plenty of changes to routine. She also struggles with basic verbal communication with others.

This novel reminds us that everyone has a backstory. Whether we know the backstory or not, everyone deserves kindness unless it is proven otherwise. Highly enjoyable and poignant read that I'd recommend.

 

And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer

I didn't realize that And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman is a novella. My community book club is doing a Fredrik Backman author study and that was the first book that I requested. It is a novella. But there's so much packed into this sweet short story.

As a grandfather is approaching the end of his life, this is about his attempt to focus on the memories that he is slowly losing. It's also about how his son and his grandson are coping with the upcoming loss of someone who is so important to each of them. All the while, they continue to care for him.

The grandson, Noah, has such an unbelievably special connection with his grandfather. It gave me pause to think back to the relationships that my parents had with my children (and made me wonder if I'll ever have grandchildren that I might have such a connection with).

This special, impactful story will stick with me for a long time.

 

Things My Son Needs to Know About the World

I was looking for a Fredrik Backman novel to read for July's book club author study and Things My Son Needs to Know about the World was available right now. So I took it out. It definitely helped to acquaint me more with Fredrik Backman. And to know him better as a parent.

Things My Son Needs to Know about the World is a series of missives to Backman's son as a newborn and a toddler with lessons that the author himself is learning about life as a new father, what he hopes will make him a good enough father and what his son, later on, should take from his experiences. We learn about how Backman ended up with a woman who is his exact opposite who is a wonderful mom to their son. And we learn about unconditional love.

This is a good book to read as a parent of adult children, reminding me of when my kids were little. Why I might have held a child's hand too tightly. When I struggled with the question of whether I was a good enough parent. This would also be a good book to read as a new parent, to know you are not alone... and perhaps to learn a few lessons yourself.
 

Anxious People

I could not have selected a better book to finish up my 2020 reading with than Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. This quirky, humorous novel about a sensitive, important subject really helps to zoom in on what is most important in life. Our connection to other people.

2020 has been a total dumpster fire of a year. Plans needed to be shelved. I learned that people whom I considered friends had very different values than I have, making me wonder if we can still be friends. (In some cases yes, in other cases no.) Virtual contact with others became a lifeline to the outside world. And reading helped me get through the year.

Again I say, this book was the perfect book to finish on the final day of this terrible year.

Backman, author of A Man Called Ove, which I loved, and My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry, which I liked (a little too much fantasy-type writing in this one), really hit it out of the park with Anxious People.

It's the story of a bank robbery gone wrong. Maybe. It's about a hostage situation. Maybe. It's a story about idiots. It's about truth.

It's about marriage, compassion, family relationships, finding meaning in life. All told through the story of a seemingly random group of people thrown together at an open house for an apartment in a small town. There's the wealthy banker, the long-time older married couple who can't stop  bickering. There's the newly married couple expecting their first child. There's the elderly woman, the real estate agent, the rabbit. 

We meet Nadia, therapist to the wealthy banker. Jim and Jack, the cops called to bring the hostage situation to a safe conclusion, are important characters in the story, too. Every single character in the tale, except for perhaps the hostage negotiator, has a story of his or her own. Each has longings, each has a desire, whether acknowledged or not, to be connected to others. I'd be hard pressed to give a better explanation than this without giving away much of the novel.

As in Backman's other novels that I've read, the characters are quirky. As you might know by now, I love quirky characters. He doesn't come right out and tell the story. He lets the story evolve. It's full of surprises and the reader wondering, "Hey, why didn't I realize that before?" It's important to read Backman novels carefully to be able to put all the pieces together.

I don't know that I'd say that Anxious People was the best book that I read in this terrible year. But it was in the top ten and it was the best book to finish the year with.

Happy New Year!
Happy reading!

 

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

I loved A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman and really expected to love My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry. I just liked it.

Elsa is 7 years old and she's different. Very different. Her grandmother is truly different. And she's Elsa's best and only friend. Elsa's grandmother is her safe haven. She's created that safe haven through fairy tales set in the Land of Almost Awake that she tells Elsa late at night. That she tells Elsa in a secret language.

Elsa's parents are divorced and Elsa experiences much that children from "broken homes" experience. Her father is remarried to a woman with children of her own. And while Elsa's mother doesn't appear to be remarried, she's living with a man and they are expecting a new baby. Without Elsa's grandmother around, Elsa struggles to figure out where she should fit in to her new families.

Right before Elsa's grandmother dies, she asks Elsa if she's willing to do a scavenger hunt. Elsa agrees. This leads Elsa on adventure after adventure with the people who live in her apartment building. She learns all about her grandmother and about her neighbors. And she learns the basis of the fairy tales.

I wouldn't recommend it, but I also wouldn't dissuade anyone from reading it either.

I loved Elsa. And while I didn't love her grandmother, I admired her a lot. She was a woman of strength and character even if she was a pretty rotten mother to Elsa's mother. I loved Elsa's descriptions of her parents, her parents' partners and her neighbors. Elsa was mature beyond her years but in a way that I could accept.

What I didn't love about this novel was the fantastical nature of the fairy tales. While this novel was realistic fiction at its finest, I'm not a fan of fantasy. And much of the writing really reminded me of a fantasy novel.