Beartown

This is an absolutely fabulous book. The start does build slowly as other reviews state but this is so you can fully appreciate the characters, the uniqueness of the situations and the emotions. I read the book in short sections so that I could give it my full attention and absorb the story. It is a roller coaster ride and not at all predictable. I loved the looking back in ten year references, sometimes it helped to ease my concerns for the people that had become so real to me. I want to read on and to spread the word.

Beartown is a small community deep in Sweden's forested north. It's cold, dark for most of the year, there aren't enough jobs and the population is dwindling year by year. The people who live there are tough and clannish and obsessed with ice hockey. The events of the novel are set around the time of the junior team - boys aged 16 and 17 - reaching the national semifinals. It's the most exciting thing that's happened in the town for years, and the residents are full of pride and excitement. It might even offer opportunities to reverse the town's fortunes and encourage investment. But then a crime is committed which threatens all of that, and the recriminations affect the whole town. The fallout from that incident and the moral dilemmas of the characters make up the rest of the book. Beartown has a large ensemble cast of characters and it is slow going for the first half as everyone is introduced and their characters established. It lacks the whimsy of some of Backman's other works, and there's a stronger streak of darkness in it. Although it's a different style from his other famous books (e.g. A Man Called Ove) he retains the same skill at showing the very best and very worst of humanity. The latter part of the novel is more gripping, once you know all of the characters and the drama of events ramps up. There are a number of really likeable characters here, and a great range. The game and the hype surrounding it touches everyone in the town - old, young, male, female, rich, poor, successful, unsuccessful. Although the sheer number of characters clogs up the book to some extent, by the end I can understand why Backman wrote it this way. The novel really is about the town and its residents, and without covering a good cross-section of people only part of the story could have been told. Backman isn't always subtle in how he writes, but he does show a good understanding of human nature. He has a good balance of sympathy for the human condition without having any illusions about the nastier side of human nature and behaviour. Overall, Beartown is an immersive, complex story with a host of good characters. If you are interesting in psychology and human behaviour it would be a very interesting book to read. It doesn't offer easy answers, and it makes you think. I'm keen to read the sequel as I want to know how all my favourite characters get on in their lives - he's created some really loveable characters here, and also some very intriguing ones. It does start slowly but is definitely worth persisting with.

There are a few, special books out there that are so beautifully written that they feel like art at the same time as having a narrative and characters that pull you in and simply refuse to let go. Beartown is one of those books. I honestly found myself spellbound once more by the undeniable power that is held within these pages. Yet I'm still struggling to do it justice. But whatever else I can or cannot say, this reflects some of the greatest lights within humanity at the same time as it shines a glow on some of the darkest. It's mesmerisingly written and draws you alongside each and every one of these characters. It will haunt you. In many ways, Beartown is a novel about humanity. In other ways, it is a novel about ice hockey. In a handful more ways it is a novel about community and belonging, love and loss, hatred and despair, friendship and marriage. And throughout it, each character is intertwined and interwoven with another, making a beautiful, heart felt tapestry of words that never fails you. When I originally read this I said ‘maybe one day I will find the words to adequately review this book, but for now the following will have to do; spellbinding, beautifully intricate and unbelievably powerful.’ Perhaps it is the time to try and do better. On re-reading, this is undoubtedly still one of the best books I have had the pleasure of reading; the translation from Swedish into English is beyond compare. The translator has managed to take the essence of the meaning whilst still keeping a poetic and thoughtful tone; normally, I struggle with translations, finding them a bit too clunky. Never once did I feel that here. But if the translator has done a stunning job, then what more can be said of the author himself, because this is truly a magical book. With re-reading, you have the chance to savour some more of the details rather than rushing ahead with the plot, and I was amazed at how many small nuances I had missed first time round. Perhaps what says the most though, is that I currently have over eighty highlights from this book; some of them are wrenching scenes, many of them poignant and meaningful paragraphs. I don’t think I have ever had that many highlights from one book before. There are a number of reasons for that; firstly as I said, the writing is frankly superb. Secondly, the characters are utterly true and you can’t help but feel something for all of them, even those you are set against. Nobody is black or white, everybody is one of those infinite shades of grey. And the interactions between the characters throughout is so completely true. At no point did I find myself thinking, but that wouldn’t have happened. This is an author who has a full grasp of both the adolescent and the adult minds… with a fair few insights into the child. Most of all though, this book hit home. The puck went into the goal or whatever the ice hockey reference would be. I have no interest in the sport and yet I found myself cheering with these characters, playing with these characters, heart-broken with these characters. Even those who actions I could never condone… I could still kind of see why. It’s a special kind book that manages that level of empathy… it’s a special kind of author. I still find myself thinking that I have not done this book credit. That perhaps somebody will just read the blurb and think it’s a book about ice hockey and walk off. It’s not. It’s a book that transcends the sport, even whilst it depicts the greats and the lows of that very subject. It’s a novel of humanity; high and low, rick and poor, talented and not quite good enough. Because in Beartown there are no maybe’s, there are no nearly’s. You sink or you swim. You fly or you plummet. This was one of my greatest books of 2017. Hats off. It alone of my re-reads keeps that title and is also one of my greatest books of 2018.

Beautifully written. Very touching story. It explored some really important issues. A really enjoyable read. I read it straight through in two sessions

A beautiful and harrowing story of community, family, loyalty, and resilience. Backman’s writing is so elegant, his characters complex, self-aware, and mature. The story glides and meanders along the pages at a pace which builds tension whilst evoking gut-wrenching emotions from the reader. Before you know it, you are right there in Beartown with them, crying and laughing with them, hating and loving with them. 4.5 ⭐️ for me. The only little gripe I had, was some of the cliche one-liners at the end of chapters, which I personally felt were a teeny bit contrived in trying to emotionally manipulate the reader. However, despite these I was still sobbing at the end 😢 Will definitely continue the series

best

I'm not sure I will recover from this book. Beautifully written, the author has a way like no other to make you feel every emotion. You'll become a part of Beartown and some characters will hold a special place in your heart only to break it when you least expect it. Check the TW - there is a difficult part to read in this book.

Even if you aren't interested in sport, this book is a compulsive read. Dying Beartown in an inhospitable part of Sweden is fanatical about ice hockey. Ice hockey forms characters, relationships and town identity. When the juniors win their semi-final the town gears up for the final in a major way. What happens next is complicated, and I won't spoil the plot, except to say that it's major, and we get to see a whole town searching its conscience. The characters come from all circumstances in life and the author does a brilliant job of understanding them all, whether rich or poor, foreign or native-born, etc. How they react to the crisis makes for tense reading, and the book is so well-plotted that we get a sense of impending doom without being able to pick who will do what. It's a superb portrait of the psychological aspects of sport and of the ways we react when accusations are flying and sides are taken. The closing of ranks by the powerful we expect, but it becomes more complex than that. We applaud mightily when there are acts of courage and understanding that are unexpected. The book's prime strength is in its portrayal of personality and motivation, and it's also remarkable that we can be presented with so many different and memorable characters so very clearly without getting them mixed up. First class.

“Hate can be a deeply stimulating emotion. The world becomes much easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil. The easiest way to unite a group isn’t through love, because love is hard. It makes demands. Hate is simple.” Wow. This book HITS. I found it to be a slow start and I felt like I was being pelted with different characters that I could hardly keep straight for awhile there, once I got past that I was so completely engaged in the town, its people, and the love of hockey. And it becomes a lot easier to remember everyone when you realize who the key players are 🙂 Beartown tackles a lot of really tough topics, and shows both the good and bad sides of humanity and community. This is a book that makes you think, but it doesn’t preach at you. It just makes really good points along with a really solid character study that sucks you in as you experience the highs and lows of a junior hockey team who has played together for a decade and all the people in the town who support them. Everyone has different reactions to the violent event, and it’s both heartbreaking and hopeful to see how it all plays out. I found the writing style really intriguing, if a bit hard to keep up with at times. It switches between the more traditional third person dialogue-style writing of character interactions and the omniscient-narrator style writing sharing a scene as someone watching from the sidelines. In some cases, we don’t even learn the names of characters integral to the story. It’s an interesting approach, and unlike anything I’ve read. Don’t dismiss this as only for hockey fans! Hockey is integral to the story, of course, but this is just a beautiful, wise story about overcoming challenges and horrors, and standing up for what you think is right. I will never forget this one, definitely has that five-star feeling!

"Community is the fact that we work toward the same goal, that we accept our respective roles in order to reach it. Values is the fact that we trust each other. That we love each other.For me, culture is as much about what we encourage as what we actually permit.” When I started reading this book, I was expecting a warm uplifting story of a small town hockey club like the previous works by this same author. Let me tell you, I was in for quiet a shock. The story begins in a small town called Beartown, which is largely dying due to the lack of oppurtunities and resources. The one thing that holds the town together is the hockey club, which is their pride and joy. The hockey players are idolised and treated like legends. Multiple characters who play a crucial role in the story are introduced in the beginning. We get to have a glimpse of their loves, their dreams, hopes and fears in the initial pages of the book. What follows after that is the incident, that impacts the entire town and shakes it down to its core. Its raw and its heartbreaking. It will test beliefs, loyalties and friendships. “Most people don’t do what we tell them to. They do what we let them get away with.” The story is told in a matter-of-fact almost detached style and that is what makes it so poignant and heart-rending. But even at the height of despair, there is always an underlying thread of hope weaved through the entire story that makes this book unputdownable. The true beauty of the book lies in that ray of hope which makes you laugh even in the midst of tears. Many serious issues like rape, bullying, small town politics and ostracisation are dealt with a lot of sensitivity and empathy. When I finally turned the last page of this book, it left me with a profound sense of hope which is the best possible thing a book can gift you. I highly, HIGHLY, recommend you to give this book a chance. I promise you, you won't regret it. Meanwhile, I will be counting down the days to the release of its sequel. Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️