Anxious People

 By Fredrik Backman

Atria Books     2020

352 pages     Literary

As Fredrik Backman asserts at the beginning of Anxious People, “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.”

I had just begun reading Anxious People when a book club friend said that she hated the book and couldn’t wait to finish it. “Too much stupid stuff happening in one day.” I, on the other hand, was laughing my head off at the ridiculous stuff that was happening, and the character study that was emerging.

An apartment-viewing goes horribly wrong on the day before New Year’s Eve in a small Swedish town. A bank robber had just tried to rob a cashless bank. Confused and scared, the robber ran into a neighboring apartment building where a viewing is in progress. The robber proceeds to hold all the viewers hostage. Besides the realtor, there is an older couple who buy and sell apartments, a young Lesbian couple looking for a home before their baby is born, a middle-aged well-to-do woman, and an old woman whose husband is parking the car. A father and son pair of policemen are first on the scene. What transpires is both hysterically funny and very introspective. And—oh yes—a bridge across the road from the apartment building plays a crucial role in the plot.

Backman is a master of creating interesting characters. We grow to know all the characters intimately, including their back stories, the reasons why they were viewing this particular apartment, and why they are such idiots. He has written several best sellers, including A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie was Here, and Beartown. Tom Hanks is going to star in the American movie version of A Man Called Ove. I am not sure that I have read many books where the characters are so well-defined and interesting. His commentary about human nature in the first chapter of Anxious People is only matched by his closing comments, when he thanks all the people who influenced the creation of the book.

Apparently suicide is something Backman has pondered in several of  his books, and I was especially taken by this quote: “So we learn to pretend, all the time, about our jobs and our marriages and our children and everything else. We pretend we’re normal. . . Sometimes it hurts, it really hurts, for no other reason than the fact that our skin doesn’t feel like it’s ours. Sometimes we panic because the bills need paying and we have to be grown-up and we don’t know how, because it’s so horribly, desperately easy to fail at being grown-up.”

My book club had a lively discussion about Anxious People last night. We talked about characters, motivation, and the idiocy of the entire scenario. We all felt that Anxious People was a remarkable book. This morning one club member sent everyone this article, which we all felt, explained Backman’s gifts. The author says “ All of Backman’s books focus on the amazingly complicated, beautiful, funny, unexpected, and sometimes tragic experience that we call life while featuring quirky characters that try to do their best at living it. That’s exactly where the magic of these books lies.”

I also appreciated the review in USA Today. Apparently Anxious People has been optioned for a movie. It should be great!

 

Act of Negligence

 By John Bishop MD

Mantid Press     2021

274 pages     Mystery

Out today, another mystery featuring Doc Brady, an orthopedist in Houston, Texas. Here is a summary of the book.

“Something unusual is going on with the dementia patients at Pleasant View Nursing Home.

Dr. Jim Bob Brady, Houston orthopedic surgeon and amateur sleuth, finds himself in the midst of a different type of medical mystery. His friend and colleague, Dr. James Morgenstern, refers him a series of dementia patients with orthopedic problems from Pleasant View Nursing Home. Each patient dies, irrespective of the treatment, a situation that Doc Brady is unaccustomed to.

Each death prompts an autopsy, performed by another Brady colleague, Dr. Jeff Clarke, who discovers unusual brain pathology in each patient. Some of the tissue samples show nerve regeneration, a finding unheard of in dementia patients.

Doc Brady, enraged by the loss of his patients and obsessively curious about the pathologic findings, begins to investigate the nursing home, as well as its owner and CEO, Dr. Theodore Frazier. This leads Brady and Clarke on an adventure to discover the happenings at Pleasant View-an adventure that sees them running for their lives.”

 

The early parts of Act of Negligence are seeded with a lot of good humor. Dr. Brady has a great relationship with the hospital, his staff, and his wife. His wife Mary Louise is a charming woman, very much in love with her cowboy-boot wearing medical husband. Additionally, he has an interesting relationship to his practice. For example when his friend Dr. Jimmy Morgenstern calls, he says, “Okay, my friend. I’m glad you called. I need a break from answering another question about an operation I’ve performed ten thousand times…I feel like a recording today, just spewing out the same tired old information to a new face who’s all bright-eyed about hearing details of an operation they know very little about. Know what I mean?” This must be the reason that Dr. Brady appreciates solving mysteries. There is something new every day to deal with.

 

Act of Negligence is the fourth book in the Doc Brady mystery series, written by real-life orthopedic surgeon, John Bishop, who, not surprisingly, lives in Houston, Texas. The other books in the series include Act of Murder, Act of Deception, and Act of Revenge. I have read them all, sent to me by the publicist. You don’t have to start at the beginning of the series to enjoy the books. Each works well on its own. And besides in each book the reader gains a little bit of medical knowledge as well as a medical mystery.

 John Bishop MD’s website. By the way, the Kindle edition of the book is just $4.99.

Where Do You Hang Your Hammock?

 By Bella Mahaya Carter

She Writes Press     2021

352 pages     Self-Help

The subtitle of the book is “Finding peace of mind while you write, publish, and promote your book.” It speaks to the anxiety writers experience as they attempt to get noticed in the cut-throat publishing world. In the last two novels I read, Strange Love by Fred Waitzkin and The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, the protagonists were both authors who were suffering severe anxiety over stalled careers and unpublished writings. I approached Where Do You Hang Your Hammock? with those two books in mind.

Here is the publisher’s description. “In Where Do You Hang Your Hammock? seasoned coach and author Bella Mahaya Carter shows writers how to use their present circumstances as stepping-stones to a successful and meaningful writing life, navigated from the inside out. It encourages writers and authors to rethink their ambitions (which may be fueled by the tyrannical demands of the ego) and trust in their heartfelt purpose and values in the journey to becoming, or continuing on, as authors.

Many writers believe their self-sabotaging thoughts are trustworthy and true. They take rejection personally. They surmise that if they don’t achieve their goals they have failed, and lose sight of who they are and what matters most.

This book is for writers looking for inspiration and for authors daunted by the publishing process, who might lack the requisite author platform to get published the way they dreamed, or whose careers may not be unfolding as expected. It aims to be the friend and trusted expert writers turn to when hijacked by their own thinking. Ultimately, it reminds authors that they are infinite creators.”

First, and most clearly, this is not a “how-to” with researched steps on getting a book published. It is more about how to get your mind and spirit focused on your writing first before focusing on getting published. Carter says, “My hope is that Where Do You Hang Your Hammock? will encourage readers to lean in to their work and their lives with greater freedom, curiosity, and celebration.” In other words, Carter’s book is spiritual in focus. She is a creative writing teacher, author, and empowerment coach, and this work reflects her own life’s search and achievements as well as her career empowering other writers.

The book is divided into five parts: dream, nourish, write, publish, and promote. Within each section are short, numbered chapters followed by  journal-writing prompts. For example, following a chapter entitled, A Ritual to Solidify Your Intentions, the journal prompt is “What do I have to give to my writing? What do I hope to receive from my writing? What are my writing intentions.” I really appreciated the journal prompts, and I also valued the way in which she included spiritual growth suggestions in the part entitled “Nourish.” I got a kick out of the journal prompt in the section on “Promote” which asks, How can I bring joy to my book launch?

The intended audience may be a bit of a question. I think both the protagonists of Strange Love and The Plot could have read Where Do You Hang Your Hammock? as they worked toward the next steps in their careers. I might suggest this book to a student planning a writing career or a person plotting a retirement plan for something she always wanted to do. Perhaps my sister as she writes the stories of her life.

Bella Mahaya Carter’s website. She sponsors online writing circles that would be valuable for people with stories to tell. You can find information on her website.

Strange Love

 By Fred Waitzkin

Illustrated by Sofia Ruiz

Open Road     2021

133 pages     Novella

Where to begin with this strange, unusual, but wonderful novella? What else to expect from Fred Waitzkin!

First a description. The narrator is a middle-aged American tourist vacationing at a remote fishing village on the spectacular Pacific coast of Costa Rica. He becomes enamored with a beautiful Costa Rican woman named Rachel, who owns a small restaurant in the village. When he got acquainted with her, he lied and told her that he was a well-known author, not a washed-up writer from New York, working as a pest exterminator. During his visit, they meet daily, their romance deepening, and she tells him the story of her life, hoping that he will turn it into a novel.

The narrator returned to New York to work his exterminator job and visit with a friend, but he returned to Rachel and the coastline. Early in the relationship, he had mused: “My words were running past me, promises to a stranger beside me. Did I actually love this unusual woman that I hardly knew? Was it the magic of the place or the despair of a last chance slipping away, or just the nonsense of an old man trying to outrun his considerable failures?” But after his return to Costa Rica, he realizes that he loves this woman and wants to spend his life with her. He knows for sure that her story will become his next novel.

Interspersed with the spare writing and the equally spare plot, Sofia Ruiz, the illustrator, has placed significant art, which adds greatly to our understanding of the novel. The sketches of Rachel are so incredibly beautiful, we understand the  narrator’s love and desire for Rachel. Will she return to New York with him? That question is never answered, but we end the novel hoping that their lives will be intertwined forever.

Strange Love is a book that I probably would not have purchased or taken off the library shelf.  Curiously, I was much more interested in the details of the narrator’s work as a pest exterminator than I was with his love affair. Additionally I wish that Waitzkin had fleshed out some of the characters better; a lot remained unsaid. For example, Rachel’s mother remained an enigma. I wanted to know more about her. Additionally, much more detail could have been added to the setting.

I read and reviewed Deep Water Blues, Waitzkin’s 2019 exploration of another Caribbean paradise. It is a book filled with tragedy. Strange Love is equally as intriguing as Deep Water Blues, and I did value reading both. They are books that can be read in one sitting, but they both leave the reader pondering their significance. 

Here is a You Tube interview with the author. Also his website.

The Plot

 By Jean Hanff Korelitz

Celadon     2021

336 pages     Psychological Fiction

I was looking for something totally immersive to read following several weeks of reading self-help, thought provoking, introspective stuff. Boy did I get it with The Plot. In a brilliant piece of writing, Korelitz gives us  two stories in one—the story of the author Jacob Finch Bonner and the way in which he came to write Crib, his hugely successful novel, and then we also get bits and pieces of the actual novel.

Several years ago, Jacob Bonner had one critically acclaimed novel, but his next two novels couldn’t even find a publisher. When The Plot begins, he is teaching at a poorly-ranked MFA program in Vermont where he encounters an arrogant student, Evan Parker, who submits a few pages of his novel in process, which he claims is going to be a bestseller. Although he is terribly put-off by Evan and his condescending self-assurance, Jacob begrudgingly agrees that the novel has potential.  

Jacob looks for Evan Parker’s novel a couple of years later and realizes it has never been published. A little online snooping brings him to the shock that Evan is dead—having died a few months after Jacob had him in class. So, using the few pages Evan had submitted for the class, Jacob writes the novel that never was, titled it Crib, and it becomes an overnight sensation. Jacob suddenly is famous, doing book readings and interviews all over the country, signing a movie contract with Stephen Spielberg—even meeting the woman who becomes his wife. But then anonymous, threatening messages begin coming to him accusing him of theft. Jacob decides to try to find the person who is threatening him by journeying to Rutland Vermont, Evan Parker’s home town, to track down the culprit.

The Plot is so skillfully created that I found myself reading chapter after chapter, as quickly as I could. Jacob’s agony over the deception that he feels he has concocted is palpable. As the plot moves toward the climax, I began to suspect who might be sending him the threatening messages, but Jacob never comes to that realization until it is too late.

What makes The Plot so fascinating is not only the “plot,” which in itself is terrific, but the moral dilemma presented. Who owns plot ideas? Can a plot be stolen, or are ideas alright to just float in the creative atmosphere? We have all read books where we question, “Have I read this book in another setting?” or “Wow! This is a lot like __________.” But the question of The Plot is that the originator of the book idea is dead. Now, is the plotline available? Is that really stealing?

The reviewer for NPR questioned whether Korelitz did her complex plot justice or if it just fell flat. I really did enjoy the book, was proud of myself that I figured out who was threatening Jacob, and was shocked by the novel’s resolution. The NY Times reviewer, on the other hand, called the book a “spectacular avalanche” and says that The Plot is Korelitz's “gutsiest, most consequential book yet.”

Korelitz is the author of You Should Have Known, which became “The Undoing” on HBO with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. While I loved “The Undoing,” The Plot was the first of her novels that I had read. Here is her website. Also, here is a You Tube interview with Korelitz that I found very interesting