The Man with the Silver Saab

 By Alexander McCall Smith

Pantheon     2021

256 pages           Mystery (?)

I am not at all sure in which genre to place The Man with the Silver Saab, and indeed, any of the writings of Alexander McCall Smith. In seeking out the answer to that question, I noticed that few of the reviewers had the same classification. Some placed it in mystery, some in humor, and some in satire. I might place it in philosophy because McCall Smith infuses his philosophy of life into every aspect of the narration.

This particular series, the Detective Varg series, takes place in the Swedish city of Malmo, where Ulf Varg is the head of the Department of Sensitive Crimes. The Man with the Silver Saab is the third book in the series, but the reader can drop in anywhere. (That’s part of the genius of McCall Smith.) Although we never truly understand what constitutes a “sensitive crime,” we end up loving Ulf Varg, especially as he deals with a very boring colleague, as well as with the colleague for whom he has romantic feelings.

The reader quickly finds that the plot is secondary to the musings of the characters and the laugh-out-loud humor that infuses every moment of the plot. I genuinely laughed out loud several times and was emotionally touched at other times. An example of this occurred when Varg was looking out the window. He noticed a man and woman walking down the street. Their pace changed when the man took the woman’s arm. It appeared to Varg that they belonged together. “That was security; that was completeness. And then two young men came along, walking behind them, and one of the young men suddenly put an arm around the other, and Ulf thought: that is exactly the same thing.” It is this type of narration that warms the heart of the reader and expresses the soul of the author. There is a sensitive crime, to be sure, a strange situation with a painting and the art expert who believes his life is being damaged because of bad publicity. And here is a picture of a silver Saab, similar to the one Varg drives, in case you, like me, had no idea what a Saab looks like.

The Man with the Silver Saab is a perfect read for warm summer days and a foil against disturbing daily media. McCall Smith says in an interview with the Scottish newspaper, The Herald: “I, like most people, want to be uplifted and presented with a vision of the world that has some hope in it. I believe in being positive – what’s the point of being negative? It doesn’t improve life. I don’t want to be a Pollyanna claiming everything is wonderful, but we should leave room in life for the positive and uplifting.”

Not much more needs to be said about The Man with the Silver Saab except to escape into its pages. Publisher’s Weekly suggests that the plot is “gossamer thin” and “almost irrelevant. The novel’s pleasures lie in Ulf’s philosophical asides and comments on how to live a good, just life.” You will be uplifted and will contemplate how Ulf lives a life that is filled with kindness and civility while solving sensitive crimes. Oh, and you will discover how a veterinarian could possible sew the nose of a dog upside down after the dog has been attacked by a squirrel.

I have read—and I am sure you have as well—several books in the many series of Alexander McCall Smith. He wrote and published 7 books during the pandemic, including a new entry in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, my personal favorite.

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!