My Friends - Fredrik Backman - ★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Fredrik Backman

TRANSLATOR: Neil Smith

NARRATOR: Marin Ireland

GENRE: General Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: May 6, 2025

RATING: 3.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A dual-timeline fiction about a painting and some people connected to it. Includes old friends, new friends, lost friends, and found friends. Layered characters in a character-driven plot with many thought-provoking one-liners. A bit repetitive at times. Not my favourite Backman, but a good read nonetheless. Go in blind.

Plot Preview:

One of the most famous paintings in the world shows three tiny figures at the end of a pier. Ever since young Louisa, an orphan and an aspiring artist, saw a postcard print of this painting at a foster parent's home, she has been fascinated by it. She doesn't know its history from twenty-five years prior, nor does she know that her life is about to change after an interaction with someone connected to the original masterpiece.

The story comes to us from two timelines and in multiple character perspectives in third person.

I've enjoyed Fredrick Backman's books since the time I read 'A Man Called Ove.' I can be called his fan, but not a fanatic. I don't consider his writing flawless, and I think his strength lies in emotionally-impactful writing. Even though he's a witty person in real life (as his Instagram posts and his interviews make amply clear), his humorous stories don’t work that well for me. This book contains serious content as well as humour, which is why the final result ended up a little less memorable.

The book is a journey in many ways. It travels through the past and present of multiple characters. There's a literal train journey taken by two characters. There's the metaphorical journey of self-awareness and self-acceptance that both characters undergo as they travel with each other and in the process, learn more about each other and themselves. The plot also takes tiny detours through each key character's early lives, depicting what makes them behave the way they do.

With every journey, there is obviously a destination. Most Backman fans won't be surprised to learn that reaching the destination is a slow process. He never writes fast books; he writes lush books that make you savour his thoughts and words. And all this often leads to a destination that is soul-satisfying in every way. This novel, for the first time, made me feel let down by the destination. It is good by most commercial counts, but it is too neat for such a story.

As is often the case with dual timeline books, I liked the historical timeline and its characters better. Their identities and arcs would be major spoilers, so I'll just say: I appreciate the more nuanced intricacies of this timeline. Though the main characters had somewhat tragedy-dominated backstories (which feels like an overload at times), their development and their interactions made the timeline joyful and hopeful even in times of heartbreak. The lead-up of how the historical timeline is interlinked with the contemporary timeline is nicely done.

Louisa, the main character of the contemporary timeline, is eighteen, and acts every bit her age (sometimes, even younger.) This can test our patience, but her behaviour is mostly representative of her circumstances. I didn’t like how she sounded forcefully peppy at times; it jarred with the rest of her personality. But overall, I think she was an interesting bright spark in a timeline that was otherwise filled with sombre adults.

Some of the minor secondary characters also leave a mark, especially ‘Fish’ who is memorable even without being an active character. But it was tedious to see a single book have so many bad adult characters, especially in the historical timeline.

Art and artistry have a primary role to play in a story with two artists and one painting at its centre. Those who appreciate art might like all the art-appreciation quotes better. I'm not much of an art aficionado, so this factor didn't make a difference to me. However, I love the cover, and am delighted with how beautifully and closely it connects to the plot. In fact, I missed something obvious on the cover and didn’t notice it until the book brought it up.

The title also is very relevant to the story. Prior to reading the book, I thought it to be too simple, but now I feel it's more simplistic, belying the multiple layers of friendship in this story. The story is, in many ways, an ode to friendship. Not the kind of ‘friendship’ we find online and assume to be true, but genuine friendship, where people don't just think they know you because of your comments and photos but ACTUALLY KNOW you. It will make those of us alive in the pre-internet days nostalgic about our device-free childhoods.

As is standard with every Backman work, there are plenty of thought-provoking quotes (as impressive as always), and also a lot of foreshadowing and breaking of the fourth wall (very annoying and overdone.) Another common feature of his writing – the habit of not using the names for all main characters – is also present in this book. But instead of staying nameless as usual, they are referred to by alternate names; this felt like an artificial way of adding suspense where none was needed.

The plot lost my points mainly in the scenes where it attempted to be funny. Though sometimes amusing and satirical, the humour is often forced and doesn't spring up naturally from the plot. Some of the conversations too sound a bit artificial at times. A few jokes border on body-shaming and some are just eyeroll-inducing. (Fart jokes can get juvenile quite soon, especially if they are overused!) Further, there is much repetition in the descriptions of characters. For instance, one character’s being about 300 pounds heavy is mentioned multiple times within a single scene. What irked me the most was a 39-year-old character behaving like an old man and referring to his aching joints and stiff neck and what not throughout the book. I would have understood if Louisa’s inner monologues called him ‘old’; teenagers think that anyone above 25 is antique. But the character regularly refers to himself and others close to him in age as ‘old’ – so strange!

The translation is outstanding. I never felt like I was reading a book originally written in another language. Then again, Backman speaks the universal language of human emotions, so his books always translate well.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 13 hrs 22 min, is narrated by the inimitable Marin Ireland. I usually prefer to actually read Backman’s books as I get time to pause and ponder over the deeper lines. But many friends vouched for the audio, so I decided to try this format. Ireland is the perfect narrator for this story, imbuing all the characters with the true shades of their personality. That said, I think the flaws of the book were literally more ‘audible’ on audio. I'm not sure if I would want to read future Backman works on audio as I cannot appreciate his prose the same way, but this format does help those who don't like slow reads.

Overall, while this book doesn’t match the mastery of the Beartown trilogy (My absolute favourite Backman work), I still appreciate how it highlights the varied aspects of friendship in the days gone by and today, how it proves that it is never too late to find a *family* outside of your blood relatives, and how it shows that online connections can never replace real-life interactions. I just wish it had been a bit more mature in its writing.

Recommended to Backman fans and readers who like character-driven dual-timeline storytelling. Go in blind. I am still a Backman fan and might even reread some of his works in future. Not this one, though; it’s a ‘one and done’.