Beartown by Fredrik Backman

 

Title:  Beartown

Author:  Fredrik Backman

Narrated by:  Marin Ireland

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 13 hours and 11 minutes

Source: Audiobook from Amazon Music monthly allotment.

What is the best book you’ve read for a book club pick this year?  Beartown by Fredrick Backman was the March pick for the Rogue Book club.

Beartown is a small dying town located far to the north in Sweden.  They are hoping for a comeback for their town if their junior league hockey team wins the national semifinals and championship.  After an assault occurs between a hockey player and the general manager’s daughter,  the town grapples with the repercussions.  Who should be believed and what is most important in such times?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This novel had great character development.  I feel like I really like to know the characters and the town.

·       The story had a slow build as Backman got the reader to know the characters and town before the action of the story really happened.

·       It made the reader ponder the frailty of human beings.  What is truth?  Do you want to believe the truth that will further yourself and your “team?”  Or what actually happened?

·       The town’s obsession with hockey was relatable living in a small town with a football obsession and having attended a northern college with a hockey obsession.

·       I mostly kept thinking in this book that teenagers can be real a##holes.  Backman captures this perfectly.

·       It was also a good look at family life.  While some people don’t have much, they do have the love of their family.  Kevin is a hockey star, but lives in a cold family.  They have wealth, but don’t even attend Kevin’s games.  I felt for Kevin.  He could have been written as a purely evil character, but there was a lot going on in his life.  He made poor choices.

·       The novel was a good look at community life and life in a small town as well. 

·       We had a good mini discussion of this book at book club, but we want to discuss it more in depth at our next meeting when everyone has had a chance to read it.

·       This was the first book of a trilogy and I really want to read the rest!  I enjoyed the characters and I want to see what else life has in store for them.

Overall, Fredrick Backman has a gift of writing unforgettable novels that leave you thinking about them long after you finish the last page.  Beartown was another great novel with great characters, and I am happy this is a series so I can read more set in this world.  My one sadness is – why can’t I watch the HBO mini-series?  I can’t find it anywhere!