Beartown: A Novel (Beartown Series)
Now an HBO Original Series "You'll love this engrossing novel." --People Named a Best Book of the Year by LibraryReads, BookBrowse, and Goodreads From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anxious People, a dazzling and profound novel about a small town with a big dream--and the price required to make it come true. By the lake in Beartown is an old ice rink, and in that ice rink Kevin, Amat, Benji, and the rest of the town's junior ice hockey team are 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. Under that heavy burden, the match becomes 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. This is a story about a town and a game, but even more about loyalty, commitment, and the responsibilities of friendship; the people we disappoint even though we love them; and the decisions we make every day that come to define us. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.
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Community Reviews
Rated it 2 stars. For the nice flowery quotes he interjected into the overblown dialogue of the 20+ characters. For the 180 pages before anything really happened. The first half dragged, second half picked up a little bit but was just awful. I forced myself to finish the book for book club. Not my style...and I like sports.
Really enjoyed this book. Great character development. I don’t even watch hockey, but it really could hanger been any sport.. any community and all would be the same.. sale attitudes, prejudices and responses. Sadly…the author was even able to realistically portray how sexual assault is covered up…the girl is responsible, and “boys will be boys”. The upside down world off sexual assault response. Maya was so strong.
Equal parts heartbreaking and eye-opening. Once again, Backman’s representation of the human condition is masterfully portrayed through devastating situations for humans to endure. His characters come to life through his writing.
He does like to drive his points home, and then hammer on them a few extra times to make sure they sink through your thick skull. That aside, it's an interesting, complex approach to a difficult subject (a few of them, actually), and I greatly enjoyed the read.
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