Beartown by Fredrik Backman on February 6, 2018
Genres: Fiction / Literary, Fiction / Small Town & Rural, Fiction / Sports
Pages: 432
Format: Hardcover
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“It doesn’t take long to persuade each other to stop seeing a person as a person. And when enough people are quiet for long enough, a handful of voices can give the impression that everyone is screaming.”
People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys. Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected. Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain.
Beartown fell into a genre that I do not read too often, so it did take me a day or two longer to get through. I did like the book but didn’t love it as many readers clearly did. Backman certainly has a gift for developing characters that feel real and for creating atmosphere, but I didn’t love the narrative structure he uses here. He has a large cast of rotating characters, and each character has a brief mini story arc. I did like very much the ice hockey setting and the Swedish forest where Beartown is set. I liked the plot and the characters, I just didn’t care for how it was packaged and delivered. Those thoughts aside, this was still a great read and a very great story.
This is a hard one to rate! There are good things and bad things, so I am going down the middle with 3.5 stars! It’s hard to delve too deep without spoiling the plot, and you definitely want to go into this without being spoiled. This book hit me right in the feels. It truly wrecked me at times. It was a difficult read with some heavy material, but I’m so glad I read it.
I have recently re-read this book and I think Mel’s assessment of this is pretty accurate. I had forgotten some of the main things that happened in this one, but it had been years since I read it. I would rate this a 4 star book. I am a Backman fan. I think he is an excellent writer. He seems to have a great handle on human nature and knows how to portray characters to make a book interesting. This is a book about hockey culture and what a town will do to protect it’s sports team and their players. It’s also a book about healing and growing. I don’t want to give too much away, but I did enjoy this book and I look forward to see where these characters end up. Backman gives a little clue as there are 3 characters we connect with. One will end up a father, one will play pro hockey, and one will be dead in 10 years. Hmm….I am definitely going to continue this series!!