50 pages • 1-hour read
Anxious People
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Chapters 56-65Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 56 Summary
The narrative flashes back to the hostage scene. Estelle is in the closet thinking about her late husband, Knut. She feels that he’s on a great adventure while she’s stuck in the “beautiful prison” of life. Estelle talks to Anna-Lena and Julia about how amazing her marriage was with Knut, while Anna-Lena admits that she was a “senior analyst” before she retired. This surprises Julia because she previously thought of Anna-Lena as a woman defined by submission to her husband.
Chapter 57 Summary
The story flashes back to Jim taking the pizzas up to the hostages.
Chapter 58 Summary
Julia admits that her father was abusive but that her mother was a strong single woman. She also reveals how she met and fell in love with Ro. Estelle admits to an emotional affair with her neighbor, who also loved books. He gave her a key to his apartment, seemingly hoping they would have a physical affair, but it never happened. Then he died. The women hear a noise coming from above them in the closet. They look in the attic area to find the real estate agent.
Chapter 59 Summary
Back in the police station, Jack continues to yell at the real estate agent and accuse her of being the bank robber in disguise.
Chapter 60 Summary
Jim tells Jack that he spoke to the bank robber. He says that the bank robber requested fireworks, but the narrator is adamant that Jim “may not have remembered everything entirely correctly” (271), hinting that Jim is lying.
Chapter 61 Summary
Lennart has just fallen from the attic after peering inside. The bank robber, Roger, and Ro rush into the closet to find the source of the noise. It appears that Lennart is bleeding heavily, but he explains that it’s theater blood and was supposed to be part of his apartment-crashing act. The real estate agent explains that she was terrified when she realized someone had entered the apartment with a gun and that’s why she was hiding in the attic. In an act of kindness, Julia asks Roger to show her how to light a fire in the fireplace because she knows he loves to have a sense of purpose.
Chapter 62 Summary
Jim knocks on the apartment door, holding the pizzas. The bank robber tries to answer it, but everyone stops her because they think he’ll shoot her. Both Roger and Lennart beg her to let them answer the door in her place.
Chapter 63 Summary
Jack is angry with the real estate agent because he believes she’s lying to him. He storms out of the interrogation room, and Jim comes in. He says that he believes her. He thinks about his late wife and how the hardest part of not having her around anymore is “The grammar.” Instead of being here, she “was” here, and this changes everything. Jack wonders how his father knows that the real estate agent isn’t really the bank robber, and Jim admits it’s because he’s been lying.
Chapter 64 Summary
The former hostages are all released from the police station together. Once outside, they ask each other how their interviews went. They’re all wondering how the bank robber is doing. Estelle, who gave her phone number to the bank robber, gets a text saying that she’s doing well. London emerges from the police station too, and everyone welcomes her and invites her to coffee. Julia admits to Estelle that she and Ro bought the apartment next to hers.
Chapter 65 Summary
Jim finally tells Jack the truth. He admits that when he gave the bank robber the pizzas, he realized that the robber was a woman. She reminded him of his daughter, and he instantly felt compassion for her situation. They then talked about their children, and Jim realized that she was a good person who got herself into a bad situation. He decided not to arrest her and instead encouraged her to hide in the vacant apartment across the hall. When the bank robber asked why he was being so kind to her, he said it was because of his wife. She believed that even if the world were burning down, she’d still “plant an apple tree” (298). This act of kindness is like his apple tree.
Chapters 56-65 Analysis
Many of the main plot points wrap up in these chapters. The narrator reveals that Jim helped the bank robber escape, and he finally admits this to his son. The former hostages are released from the police station because of this revelation. This development underscores the novel’s message about “Stockholm Syndrome,” Captivity, and Empathy. Implicitly, the police interviews become another kind of hostage situation—that is, another kind of captivity from which the characters are seeking release. In coming to understand how concern for his sister shapes his father’s actions (and his own), Jim is positioned to appreciate the motivations of the bank robber and her hostages as well. This proves liberating for all involved.
Jack’s confession also touches on the theme of Challenging Preconceptions—and not only because it transforms Jim’s view of his father. For much of the novel, the cops assume that the bank robber is a man, and Jack himself shares this belief until he comes face-to-face with her. Early on, the narrator facilitates this misconception by using gender-neutral pronouns for the robber, banking on the fact that readers will assume the robber is a man unless told otherwise. The purpose of this misdirection is not so much to make a point about gender roles but rather to highlight the broader way in which preconceptions hinder interpersonal connection. Jack’s assumption that the robber is a man prevents him from empathizing with the robber. It is only when he connects the robber to his daughter that he recognizes what he could have recognized all along: that the robber is simply another person struggling to get by.
When the interviewees are released, they come together and make plans to have coffee. This comradery demonstrates that the connections that were created during the hostage situation will likely remain; this is especially true of Julia, Ro, and Estelle since the couple will be living next door to the widowed woman. These penultimate chapters therefore demonstrate how unfortunate and often inadvertent circumstances can transform into serendipitous and even hopeful encounters. The former hostages were anxious strangers when they met, but they leave the hostage situation as friends who have overcome personal and relational anxieties. The narrator reveals that friendship and connection are the remedies for anxiety.
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