Book Review - The Answer is No, by Fredrick Backman

-




The Answer Is No is a short story by Fredrik Backman, the author of A Man Called Ove.

The book is a witty, satirical take on contemporary social and personal issues. It begins by introducing the life of a character named Lucas, an introvert living in an apartment. The story develops through a series of unexpected twists as he becomes involuntarily entangled in various situations involving the apartment committee and neighbours who use his Wi-Fi password.


His problems escalate when the apartment committee appoints him president of a trash removal committee, while the city administration introduces several unwanted rules and regulations. Matters are further complicated by his over-enthusiastic neighbour, who drags him into an unwanted Facebook fiasco.

The story concludes with solutions to the apartment’s waste management issues, support for his depressed neighbour, and how Lucas move back into his solitary life.

The book features several sharp, satirical lines that strike at the heart of how certain administrative processes are unnecessarily complicated, and how people often complicate their own lives by seeking validation from others.

Overall, it is an engaging satire on contemporary social behaviour.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guha, Godavari and Ganga - A myth, a king, and an epic.

-
Guha, a character that needs no introduction to people who have watched or read something about Ramayana. Many of us remember this character as someone who helped Rama cross a river. But how many of us remember or correctly know which river Rama crossed with the help of Guha? I asked the same question on different social media platforms with the following options: Ganga, Yamuna, Brahmaputra, and Godavari.  The question received 60 votes as below: Ganga (33.9% - 20) Yamuna (14.3% - 9) Brahmaputra (3.6% - 2) Godavari (48.2% - 29) Godavari got the highest number of votes, but the correct answer is Ganga . Then how did we end up with Godavari getting the highest votes? This can be attributed to movies in regional languages and a slight mistranslation of the Valmiki Ramayana. So, what does Valmiki Ramayana have to say about Guha and his role in Ramayana? The episode of Guha begins in Ayodhyakanda, Sarga 50, with Rama reaching the banks of the Ganga. The intro of Guha goes like this: तत्...
Read more

Putrakameshti - Birth of Rama

-
Image
Image source: AI generated by me with ChatGPT. We all know that Sri Rama Navami is celebrated on the 9th day of the ascending moon of Chaitra Masam in the Hindu calendar. We also know that Rama was born after Dasaratha and his three wives performed the Putrakameshti yagam. So, the question is, Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata & Shatrughna were born after how many months/years from the completion of Putrakameshti? When I asked this question on X, it received 38 votes. 15 people opted for 9 months, 15 others opted for 12 months, 4 people opted immediately, and another 4 opted for 6 months. I am not surprised, as I saw similar responses for earlier questions on Ramayana. So, what was written in the Valmiki Ramayana about Rama's birth date and the timelines from the Putrakameshti yagna? In Valmiki Ramayana, Balakanda, Sarga 13,14, 15 & 16 details the performance of Rajasuya yagna and Putrakameshti by Dasaratha and his wives under the guidance of sages Rishyashringa and Vashishta. Sarga...
Read more

Indian Job Market - Emerging need for skills

-
Image
In the initial days of 2020, the COVID19 pandemic has thrown a tumultuous challenge to the world's economy and to the leadership of every nation on the planet.  Along with many other countries, India also went into a lockdown to reduce the spread of the pandemic. At this point, along with the shortage of medical infrastructure, India faced another major challenge - the impact on the job market by the end of April 2020.  People were losing jobs as the domestic and international markets reeled under severe pressure due to the decline in production and demand. Along with this, the global lockdowns seized the opportunities for new jobs. Unemployment shot to unprecedented levels. India being the second-most populous country in the world is often viewed as an asset as India has nurtured abundant human resources for global manufacturing and service industries over the decades. But this asset turned into a liability with indefinite lockdowns and declining global demand. The unemploym...
Read more