50 pages • 1 hour read
Fredrik BackmanAnxious People
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: The source text and study guide contain discussions of suicide, substance use disorders, and abuse.
The narrator introduces the central drama of the novel: “A bank robbery. A hostage drama” (1). Although the narrator claims that the novel is about many things, they’re adamant that the real story is about “idiots” and “one single really bad idea” (1). The narrator also introduces the bank robber and subsequent hostage taker as someone who left home with a gun and set off a chain of bad events.
Chapter 2 Summary
The narrator says that a man was standing on a bridge 10 years ago “at the end of his life” (4).
Chapter 3 Summary
The story shifts to present tense. New Year’s Eve is tomorrow in the small town where the hostage drama recently took place. A young police officer named Jack is interviewing one of the former hostages, the real estate agent who was showing the apartment where the hostages were held. He’s not getting anywhere with her because she won’t answer his questions directly.
Chapter 4 Summary
The narrator explains the mysterious nature of the hostage situation. The bank robber let the hostages go, and the cops assumed that the bank robber was still in the apartment. However, when the cops stormed the apartment, they couldn’t find the bank robber.
Chapter 5 Summary
Ten years ago, a man stood on a bridge, contemplating suicide. The narrator assumes that the reader would have tried to stop the man because that’s what a “decent person” would do.
Chapter 6 Summary
Jack keeps questioning the real estate agent. She explains that she wasn’t scared during the hostage situation because she didn’t believe that the bank robber’s gun was real. Jack knows the gun was real and realizes that the real estate agent is out of touch with what happened during the hostage situation.
Chapter 7 Summary
The narrator admits that none of the former hostages know exactly what happened after their release. After everyone left, a gunshot sounded from the apartment, and the cops entered to find blood on the carpet.
Chapter 8 Summary
Jack interacts with an older cop named Jim. The narrator leaves the nature of their relationship ambiguous, but it’s clear that the connection is “complicated.” Jack favors rules and duty, while Jim’s motivation comes from the feeling that he’s doing the correct thing. In later chapters, it’s revealed that Jack is Jim’s son.
Chapter 9 Summary
Jack continues to question the real estate agent until Jim interrupts the interrogation, thinking that he’s helping his son. Jim provides information to the real estate agent that Jack was trying to subtly reveal. Jim can tell that his son is hurting emotionally, and he wants to comfort him but doesn’t know the right words.
Chapter 10 Summary
The story flashes back 10 years to when the man is standing on the bridge and about to jump. Jack, still a teenager, is present, and he tries to beg the man not to jump. The man tells him that he has children but that it’s difficult being a parent because “you’re always judged by your worst moments” (21). He then explains that he lost his entire life savings in the financial crisis and he has nothing left for his children. Jack briefly thinks that the man is changing his mind about jumping, but then the man jumps.
Chapter 11 Summary
Ten years after the man jumped off the bridge, Jack remains haunted by not being able to save him.
Chapters 1-11 Analysis
Chapter 1 introduces an omniscient, opinionated narrator who claims that the story is about “idiots,” which the narrator defines as people unable to cope with the responsibilities of life. The narrator explains how things like paying taxes, supporting a family, and being a good parent can weigh a person down until a bad idea causes them to do something ridiculous—something that, under normal circumstances, seems inconceivable but under the right amount of stress feels like the only option. The narrator philosophizes about this idea to introduce the bank robber, a normal person under pressure who follows through on a bad idea, and to introduce the broader theme of the Connection Between Anxiety and “Idiocy”.
The same theme permeates the sections focusing on the bridge, which emerges as a symbol of desperation. Not only the man who died jumping from the bridge but also those who witnessed the event—e.g., Jack—feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities to others and their perceived failure to follow through on them. This pushes them to extreme measures: The man dies by suicide, while Jack builds an entire career around this moment. Nevertheless, the fact that this sense of desperation is such a common human experience hints at the novel’s hopeful resolution and lays the groundwork for its exploration of “Stockholm Syndrome,” Captivity, and Empathy. As Jim’s attitude toward Jack demonstrates, the novel’s characters consistently desire to connect. What’s more, they share many of the same thoughts and feelings, implying an ability to empathize. All that is missing, the novel suggests, is the act of reaching out.
In Chapter 3, the story shifts to the present tense and establishes the central plot, which is that a bank robbery has occurred that inadvertently resulted in a hostage situation. The robber frees the hostages, and the younger cop, Jack, is interviewing them individually to piece together what happened to the bank robber. The novel’s tense jumps back and forth between the present tense, with Jack or Jim interviewing the former hostages, to the past tense, with scenes showing moments connected to the former hostages. This structure highlights the defining role that past actions play in the current lives of the novel’s characters while also facilitating the theme of Challenging Preconceptions: Readers see the same events from multiple perspectives, which encourages them to constantly question and revise their assumptions.
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