The Answer is No
~ Fredrik Backman
Date Read: 4th May 2025
I was looking for a short story – something that I could enjoy and Backman did not fail to deliver!
This was a quick book – I read it in a day – and I was pleasantly surprised at how an engaging short story can both land in your hands at the right time, as well as help put many things in perspective. Just my kind of book, just my kind of a story.
When a friend asked me what the book was about, I wasn’t entirely sure. I had only read a few pages, but I couldn’t really pin point to the exact theme. I thought it was about loneliness, so I told her it was a highly entertaining book about loneliness and a perspective of happiness. However, with every page I turned, I was aware of the metaphors that got me thinking – reading between the lines, putting more meaning behind the story and situation.
The official blurb says, ‘Told in Fredrik Backman’s singular witty style with sharply drawn characters and relatable antics, The Answer Is No is a laugh-out-loud portrait of a man struggling to keep to himself in a world that won’t leave him alone.’
But I feel the story is quite telling of a situation beyond the man, Lucas’ solitary world – and his attempt to keep it as such.
On the one hand we have Lucas, an individual who wants to enjoy a contented life without being disturbed by anyone. He seeks no interaction with the world, has no relationships, enjoys his Pad thai with peanuts, delivered to his doorstep and sits unperturbed, playing his video games.
Until he is disturbed by a rule-making body of Heads – the apartment Board – each chartering their own cause! Interestingly, only one character, apart from Lucas, has a name in the story. It was this de-personification of characters that made me pause to think of the deeper meaning to the plot-developers, after all!
Or maybe it was shift from a very character-based comical experience… to a metaphorical expression of the system we live it – society, political regime… the systemic machinery!!
But first, let me share what touched me deeply:
But actually she’s lent me this apartment. Apparently this doctor does this sometimes when she feels that mothers need . . . a break.
Green shirt. I resonated with her in some parts – the one as a mother, when she felt that she was underappreciated & invalidated. I think moms feel that sometimes. But what squeezed my heart more than ever was that an erstwhile doctor could sense that a mother needed a break – and did something about it!
And then from here on, amidst crazy rules about rules, I started having the stirrings of, ‘Hey wait a minute…’ It evoked in me odd memories of housing societies, bye-laws and people who created them – why they created them and the sheer ridiculousness of how they came about approving them!
…a funny thing about rule-loving people is that to them it seems more important to impose punishment than it is to actually solve problems, and a funny thing about rule-breaking people is that they seem to find breaking rules a lot easier to do if someone else has broken them first.
Everything, I mean everything about the world around us appears to be judgmental. There’s a whole drama going on in my mother’s apartment complex where it appears that everyone is baying for blood – everyone wants to pin down a culprit – punish, harm, hurt the individual they have already judged to be a criminal – albeit without any proof! And there is little room for introspection to see that they are engaging in worse demeanours – namecalling, humiliating, slander, gossip-mongering and creating unrest!
“responsibility” and “commitment” are actually two of the easiest ways of ruining any perfectly good day.
Ah! The story of my life! And yet, I remember a quote that my friend shared with me a few weeks back. ‘If you’ve not got haters, then are you even relevant??’ I persevere, though… responsibility and commitment are important enough and yes, require courage to show up.
That one group there is protesting against the pile. They’re anti-pile! But that second group is protesting for the pile, because they’re of the opinion that piles have rights too. And that third group is protesting against protesters, because they think this whole protesting thing has gone too far.” “And the fourth group?” Lucas asks. “Oh! They’re protesting against you!” “I . . . beg your pardon?”
And this is how it showed up – and here I felt the most convinced that this was beyond Lucas and more systemic. Take any issue at hand, and anyone who worked for it. I allowed myself a moment to reflect on these lines – on my own experiences… and how true they were! hahahah… because everyone just wanted to be a part of something! Everyone just wanted to have a say – and fair point! They were supporters and naysayers of the issue… and then there were supporters and vehement ‘against-ers’ of those facilitating the change! Haters will hate, I suppose!
So yes, I guess in many ways people do like to do something, ANYTHING, to give themselves a sense of importance… and to feel even momentary happiness through that; even if it meant shouting just for heck of shouting. There are those folks, some I know, who have nothing constructive to add to a topic, but say something just because they have a phone at their fingertips, so something must be added – no matter how daft & inane that contribution is – but their voice is heard. Contribution made. But somehow empathy strikes and slowly, perhaps, people start to feel genuinely concerned – concerned enough to empathise!
Circle back to the introspective stuff – the one that comes from empathy and social connection:
“But it was very nice to find that out for myself. What I don’t like.”
The revelation, like a layer peeled off a little at a time – that we come to know ourselves better. That we take time to know how we are one experience at a time. With agency. The condition of a society, even, slowly waking up from its slumber!
“You don’t need that much appreciation as a mother. Just a little bit. You don’t need that much validation. Just . . . a little. It’s so silly, but I miss another thing, too, from when the kids were very young. They used to come running and jump into my arms when I came home. Jump into my arms.
I had to pause with this one – long enough to remember my babies when they would run into my arms. I remembered when my oldest went on his first holiday alone and how miserable he was…. and how he came running into my arms as he spotted me waiting to receive him at the airport! How their little baby eyes would go over the parents heads in the audience, spot me, and give a wide grin & thumbs up before their performance – a performance meant just for me! Or even when my dogs would go bonkers the moment I entered the house… How all kids and puppies would wait outside the bathroom door – as if they feared I’d get flushed down the toilet somehow!!
Empathy – made me smile with understanding. I had been there, others would too.
While the emotions of empathy were playing around, Lucas shifted into a active role – a social & democratic one. A role where he had to assume responsibility and commitment… because the Board was simply not going to do anything about it!!
…in a way that we could say at the meeting afterwards that we had nothing to do with. That it was due to . . . the modernization of society. It can’t be stopped, can it, the modernization? So then it wouldn’t be our fault. That way we could appear to have been consistent in our principles,
And here came the systems of the world – coming in to take credit, but shy away from real committed work! Where the government or systems would refuse to act for the overall welfare,
because they couldn’t afford to admit failure!
That they stood by, stubbornly with their principles, even if the principles were wrong.
That even if the solution were right, they would not admit it, because admitting it would mean their principles were wrong!!
So they would turn a blind eye and happily stay locked in…
And blame the change (albeit welcome) on an opposition.. or opposing force.
And then take credit for it.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Love isn’t powerful enough. But spite? Spite can change the world…
Sigh! How true those words were! So true, that the pain was right there as I read them. With love and support, came one big of movement & change… but monumental change came from the reverse application of love – spite! A great motivator to action just to prove that the facilitator is wrong!
Interestingly, this also came up:
If you want to see normal people turn into power-hungry dictators in five minutes, all you have to do is say the magic words: “We’d love to hear your suggestions!”
Interestingly, a senior colleague of mine had given me this leadership suggestion many years back. ‘Give your team just enough options to have a voice.’, he had said. Democracy can get chaotic if you ask them to think without establishing boundaries. I have learnt to apply that in many spaces – open ended questions for brainstorming, but finally 3 options to pick one from.
So, overall, I loved the story! It was quick, entertaining and deeply profound in its own way. I refuse to think that this was a book just about a man struggling to keep to himself and remain content. In my mind, I have found a correlate – the system, governance, society and social constructs. It has everything from leadership, power dynamics, interference, community, proponents, opposition and finally the call to action. And best of all, there are not faces – it was almost like The Great Indian Kitchen (the original movie) where patriarchy had no name – it just was an ism, a construct….
I really enjoyed it… and I really enjoyed the fact that I enjoyed a short story just as much as I did!
My rating 5/5
