Sixty-three pages. Sixty-three pages of hilarity. Sixty-three pages of Schadenfreude. Sixty-three pages of selfishness and selflessness. Sixty-three pages of solitude transformed into camaraderie and camaraderie transformed into realisation. Sixty-three pages of aplomb that switch back onto each other only to veer away only to collide again. Fredrik Backman’s The Answer is No effectively an Answer for Human Woes.
Lucas is an acolyte for solitude leading life under the firm belief that any group formed by less than two members is the ideal formula for existence. Lucas is also happy because unlike his fellow human beings he does not want to exhibit his ‘want for happiness’ on the internet just so that he can make others feel unhappy. Lucas inhabits a world where there are no skirmishes over a remote control, no pulling and tugging of blankets in the middle of the night, no sharing of pad thai with peanuts and no wrangling over scenes in a movie.
This serenity of Lucas is abruptly shattered by a humble frying pan carelessly dumped outside the recycling room by an incalcitrant inhabitant of the apartment. The Board members make a visual inspection of each house to find a missing frying pan. The anti-social Lucas inadvertently offers an innocent suggestion setting into motion a cascade of events that puts paid to his sedate and silent existence. One thing leads to another, and Lucas finds himself staring at a gargantuan pile of garbage, in the capacity of the Head of the Pile Committee!
In a where wit-meets-vitriol-meets-wisdom-meets-soul, Backman crafts a beautiful dalliance of clashing, colliding, careening, caring, caustic and contrasting human emotions. The transformation of Lucas from an invisible animate being into a ruminating and reflective human being is a reminder for all the readers to both assimilate and annihilate the internal ‘Lucases’ gallivanting and hovering over their shoulders. The giant pile of rubbish may also be a metaphorical mountain of materialism to which nothing can be added and from which nothing may be subtracted.
Backman makes his readers spill their guts with laughter, while at the same time sending them into bouts of conscience seeking. Elizabeth Denoma does a capital job of translating the original Swedish version. She makes the effort of reading a book into a veritable experience!
The Answer is No – A resounding YES in terms of recommendation!