The Answer Is No: A Short Story, Fredrick Backman
This author has a knack for getting inside a reader’s head with tremendous insight. He describes the feelings everyone has when confronted by others or when faced with an assortment of problems or a dilemma. He puts his analysis down on the page deftly and with just the right amount of humor in each “aha” moment.
Humans are frail and vulnerable to the influence of others, especially if trying to be polite. Often others are not so polite or have ulterior motives. Some silly well-intentioned complaint or compliment can have unintended consequences. The decisions and choices of those well-intentioned or the attention-seekers, often backfires, and instead, imposes upon those for which their efforts were not intended.
For each individual, the meaning of happiness is different, but it is just as important in every case. We all need the courage to believe in ourselves and our dreams and desires. We need to appreciate the things we have and not to covet what others possess. We all need to behave responsibly and to blame our faults on others to make ourselves appear more noble and virtuous. It is okay to admit our mistakes.
In a few pages, Backman tangles the failings of society and its bureaucracy, the waste and problems caused by irresponsibility, the danger of blaming others for our own failures, the results of exaggerating situations for effect, rather than for finding solutions. That is how disagreements arise. We must not make things worse by placing blame when there is a problem, instead of seeking to find the cause and a quick solution. We have to decide how to find contentment, as we take responsibility for achieving our own happiness, to get more enjoyment out of our lives. We have to learn from each other. Fortunately, all’s well that ends well, and in this brief little tale, the reader learns a lot about people and their true nature.
Inadvertently, perhaps, Backman has also pointed a spotlight on the current state of affairs in our own world. Words have lost their traditional meaning, and rules and laws have been mocked for political and/or selfish reasons, common sense has been turned on its head and is only slowly regaining its footing, as it most surely did in this short story.