Beartown - Fredrik Backman

Author: Fredrik Backman

Series: Beartown (#1)

Genre: Literary Fiction, Contemporary Drama.

Rating: 4.5 stars.

I am so stumped about how to review this book but not because I didn't enjoy it. There are so many things I want to say but words fail me.

This is the story of a town that wants to adhere to its set ways. The story of the townspeople, who have to accept the roles they are supposed to play, whether it correlates with the way they are or not is immaterial. The story of a game that is seeped into the town culture to such an extent that it is seen as an escape as well as a scourge.

This book provides the best example of how review spoilers can damage a story experience. I went into this book assuming that it was a typical sports novel. And I was stunned to see the turn it took. Had I known beforehand about this part of the story, I would have lost out on that thrill of anticipation, the shock of discovery, the pain of uncovering the true faces underneath the external facades.

Coming from a tropical country that barely has any winter and knows zilch about ice hockey, I found reading about a place where sub-zero winter is dominant and ice hockey is almost a religious obsession a surreal experience. But no where does the lack of personal know-how affect the book experience. Because the experiences of Beartown, with all its highs and lows, can be transposed to every place and culture regardless of country.

The story begins slowly, like a wood fire that is struggling to come to life underneath the dry wood, but once it gets going, the flames are hypnotic, you can feel the heat blazing from every spark, you realise the purpose of every log, you see how the inferno doesn't belong to a particular part of the base but to the whole... Similarly, every single character has a role to play in this book. You might struggle with remembering the huge cast at first but they are so wonderfully described that you'll recognise them soon enough. If any aspiring writer needs a master class on character sketching, this would be a great book to refer to.

I'm deliberately staying away from revealing anything about the story because I want you to experience the same thrill of discovery as I did. After all, the title tells you that this book is about Beartown. But the story will reveal that it is equally about its people. About Hockey. Choices. Decisions. Team spirit. Families. Friendships. Silence. Shame. Courage. Gender differences. Social roles. Expectations. Pressures. It's tough to draw a line about what's primary and what secondary in the themes. Everything is interconnected, and everything is essential.

What you remember at the end of a book though is not the writing, the characters, the vocabulary... What you remember is how the book made you feel. If a book stays with you long after you have turned over the last page, you will remember it with a nostalgic fondness in spite of flaws. And that's Beartown for me. It has its blemishes, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

Here are some of the nuggets from the plentiful food for thought available in this lovely book.

☘ Never trust people who don’t have something in their lives that they love beyond all reason.

☘ How big is the world when you’re twelve years old? Both infinite and infinitesimal.

☘ There are two things that are particularly good at reminding us how old we are: children and sports.

☘ One of the plainest truths about both towns and individuals is that they usually don’t turn into what we tell them to be, but what they are told they are.

☘ If you tell a child it can do absolutely anything, or that it can’t do anything at all, you will in all likelihood be proven right.

☘ Any living thing that is kept behind bars for long enough eventually becomes more scared of the unknown than its own captivity.

☘ Everyone has a thousand wishes before a tragedy, but just one afterward.

☘ Humanity has many shortcomings, but none is stronger than pride.

☘ All adults have days when we feel completely drained. When we no longer know quite what we spend so much time fighting for, when reality and everyday worries overwhelm us and we wonder how much longer we’re going to be able to carry on. The wonderful thing is that we can all live through far more days like that without breaking than we think. The terrible thing is that we never know exactly how many.

☘ Culture is as much about what we encourage as what we permit.

☘ It’s always easier to lecture other people about morality when you’ve never had to answer for anything yourself.

☘ Sometimes life doesn’t let you choose your battles. Just the company you keep.

Read my review of 'Us Against You', the second book of this series, HERE.

Read my review of 'The Winners', the third and final book of this series, HERE.