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A review by billyjepma
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
5.0
There are very few books that have affected me to the extent that “Beartown” did. It was one of the most difficult and enraging stories I’ve ever read, but also one of the most beautiful, profound, and spectacular.
I won’t spoil the story, but it’s no secret that this is a heavy and often unsettling novel. There were moments I had to step away from it just to clear my head, but I could never stay away long. For even as “Beartown” touches on the very darkest parts of men’s souls, it also finds the staggering beauty in the quiet moments between a mother and her daughter, between an old man and a dog, between a bitter town and a wild population, and between dozens of people all trying, and failing, to find themselves in the ice.
Backman’s writing is so good that I’m not even going to bother trying to attach fancy adjectives to it and embarrass myself in the process. He’s brilliant, intimate, and his writing cuts fast and deep in a way that, again, I can’t begin to properly describe. But it’s good. So, so very good.
I could say a thousand more things about this book, and I probably will in some way or another, but other than my 3am ramblings above, it’s enough to say that “Beartown” is a masterpiece of a novel. I hated the emotions it confronted me with, and yet admire it for the very same reason. It’s at once an infuriating and inspiring novel, and I love Fredrik Backman for having the courage to write it.
I won’t spoil the story, but it’s no secret that this is a heavy and often unsettling novel. There were moments I had to step away from it just to clear my head, but I could never stay away long. For even as “Beartown” touches on the very darkest parts of men’s souls, it also finds the staggering beauty in the quiet moments between a mother and her daughter, between an old man and a dog, between a bitter town and a wild population, and between dozens of people all trying, and failing, to find themselves in the ice.
Backman’s writing is so good that I’m not even going to bother trying to attach fancy adjectives to it and embarrass myself in the process. He’s brilliant, intimate, and his writing cuts fast and deep in a way that, again, I can’t begin to properly describe. But it’s good. So, so very good.
I could say a thousand more things about this book, and I probably will in some way or another, but other than my 3am ramblings above, it’s enough to say that “Beartown” is a masterpiece of a novel. I hated the emotions it confronted me with, and yet admire it for the very same reason. It’s at once an infuriating and inspiring novel, and I love Fredrik Backman for having the courage to write it.