Synopsis:
"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. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world." -Amazon.com
Review:
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Beartown and it’s been a week since I finished the book. Beartown seems like one of those books that has so many layers and themes woven throughout that giving it a surface-level review doesn’t do it justice.
It was so much more than a book about a hockey team trying to win the championship game. It was much more than a complicated town that was struggling to thrive and survive. It was so much more.
A few observations, the writing style of Beartown was very different than A Man Called Ove. The narration changed very frequently, like every other line sometimes!For that reason, you had to stay alert as the reader. Another thing, there were lots of characters. And there were moments, when Backman would be describing a character without saying their name and as a reader you had to kind of figure out and assume who he was referring to. For those reasons, technically, it wasn’t the easiest book to read or navigate, but I think that’s one of the reasons why I loved it so much. So much beneath the surface.
Beartown needs to be added to the list of books that high schoolers read. I know that is a huge declaration but I’m not kidding! It meant just as much to me as did reading To Kill A Mockingbird. The depth of characters and their relationships were so impactful. To simply say Backman is a talented storyteller is such an understatement and doesn’t do his skill justice. He writes about characters you already know about. He writes about those deep hard to address feelings that are awkward, not politically correct, and uncomfortable. He writes undeniably beautiful phrases that caught me off guard. I will be thinking about Beartown for along time.
*language was rough in places and the subject of the “tragedy” was difficult to read (but it is worth feeling uncomfortable)
