Anxious People

This cleverly written story immediately captures your attention with its unique structure and direct "me-to-you" narration style. The narrator is often sarcastic, putting forth opinions as truisms (especially about parenting) that appear to be based on his own disillusioned life experiences but somehow ring true. We are told repeatedly throughout the book that the story is about idiots.

The tale twists and turns back on itself often but drops odd little breadcrumbs for us to follow along its convoluted path. The characters are about as quirky as characters get (think Schitt's Creek). And at first blush, they all do appear to be idiots, but as the story slowly unfolds and we discover more about them, their humanness hits home. We know people like this, or at least they remind us of people we know—all idiots, but loveable ones if you get to know them. And then we realize that we're like this ourselves.

The tale shifts from being poignant to funny to poignant again while frequently appearing pointless and wildly absurd. I was often tempted to give up because I found the story depressing and tedious with its back-and-forth, seeming-to-go-nowhere plot. But hang in there. The ending is so worth it, even though it is a very prolonged ending.