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A review by eesh25
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
5.0
Where to even start... I did not anticipate the emotional impact of this book. I mean, I had an idea of what to expect from the author, having read A Man Called Ove, but I'd gone into this blind. On one hand that was great because I got to discover every part as I read it, but it also meant a few shocks were coming my way.
This is a story about many things. But mostly, if you consider the title, it's a story about a town. It's about the people of that town, all of them but also some specific ones. And it's a story about communities.
Beartown is a hockey town. And because of the precarious position the town is in, where it's about to be left behind by the rest of the world, hockey isn't just a sport the people like, it's a sport they need and value above almost anything else. It's a sport that they believe will save them. And that comes with a range of consequences. Most importantly, there's the pressure that the hockey team and management are under and the amount of leeway the town is willing to its players in other aspects, as long as they're good players.
The book is in third-person omniscient, and it follows a bunch of characters, some more closely than others. That takes up a big chunk of the first quarter of the novel, but it's worth these not just because of how these stories collide but also because they're just interesting to read.
The main conflict in this book is difficult. I think I, and most people really, see bad incidents and try to categorize them in our worldview so that we'll know how to deal with similar things in the future. And even knowing that things aren't as simple as wholly good and wholly bad, it's tempting to take a concrete stance, to pick one side and not even think about this other.
The great thing Backman does here is he doesn't tell you to not take sides. In fact, there is definitely a good and a bad side to this conflict; both the author and the reader know it. And it's the subtext that makes you think that the worst things aren't always done by the worst people, makes you wonder about crime, punishment and fairness. And the law just feels too limited to provide real justice. Also, in the past year, I've thought more and more about just how ineffective prisons are, and this book kinda supports that for me. Though that might not be an intention the book had.
Other than that, the book also focuses heavily on how communities react to conflict and about the things that influence their behaviour. Basically, the book is about a lot of things, and I don't intend to try and list them all here. So just read it and find out.
This is a story about many things. But mostly, if you consider the title, it's a story about a town. It's about the people of that town, all of them but also some specific ones. And it's a story about communities.
Beartown is a hockey town. And because of the precarious position the town is in, where it's about to be left behind by the rest of the world, hockey isn't just a sport the people like, it's a sport they need and value above almost anything else. It's a sport that they believe will save them. And that comes with a range of consequences. Most importantly, there's the pressure that the hockey team and management are under and the amount of leeway the town is willing to its players in other aspects, as long as they're good players.
The book is in third-person omniscient, and it follows a bunch of characters, some more closely than others. That takes up a big chunk of the first quarter of the novel, but it's worth these not just because of how these stories collide but also because they're just interesting to read.
The main conflict in this book is difficult. I think I, and most people really, see bad incidents and try to categorize them in our worldview so that we'll know how to deal with similar things in the future. And even knowing that things aren't as simple as wholly good and wholly bad, it's tempting to take a concrete stance, to pick one side and not even think about this other.
The great thing Backman does here is he doesn't tell you to not take sides. In fact, there is definitely a good and a bad side to this conflict; both the author and the reader know it. And it's the subtext that makes you think that the worst things aren't always done by the worst people, makes you wonder about crime, punishment and fairness. And the law just feels too limited to provide real justice. Also, in the past year, I've thought more and more about just how ineffective prisons are, and this book kinda supports that for me. Though that might not be an intention the book had.
Other than that, the book also focuses heavily on how communities react to conflict and about the things that influence their behaviour. Basically, the book is about a lot of things, and I don't intend to try and list them all here. So just read it and find out.