Beartown: A Novel (Beartown Series)

hor Original audio Liked by alexghollowell and 17 others "Beartown" - Part 1 I have a heavy reading suggestion for you if you are up for a seriously deep mental dive. “Beartown” by Fredirk Backman is an amazing novel that will take you on a harrowing emotional rollercoaster ride. On the surface, the book is about a junior hockey club on the cusp of winning a championship. Set in Beartown, a factory town whose whole identity is wrapped up in its hockey club, the novel is so much more than a sports story. Artfully written, with beautifully crafted prose that takes your breath away while at the same time breaking your heart, it is packed full of hauntingly poignant truths. Backman is a master of short, snappy sentences that land with a bang. Reminiscent of Steinback, sentences such as these are a hallmark of Backman’s work and are key to helping the book rise to the level of art. At its core this is a novel about identity, beliefs, goals, gender, loyalty, family, sacrifice, hopes, fears, and the depths we as people will go to protect those things. While it focuses on hockey, the book is a metaphor for any sport, activity, or event that requires work, dedication and loyalty. Basically, anything that forces us to answer the question, “Who am I?” “Where do I belong?” “How much am I willing to sacrifice for my goals?” Full disclosure, there are possible triggers-bullying, rape, abuse, violence. While there is no spice, the nature of the content can be hard to read, and at times, graphic. Without a doubt, “Beartown” is a five star read. I can’t say I loved or even liked it. It was hard to read. As a woman, mother and educator, it cut me to the quick. But, I am glad I read it. And I have so much more to share about this book so come back for Parts 2 & 3 later this week! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Here is Part 2 and 3 of "Beartown” by Fredrik Backman because I just need y'all to read this book! It is an amazing novel that will take you on a harrowing emotional rollercoaster ride. This is artfully written, with beautifully crafted prose that takes your breath away while at the same time breaking your heart, it is packed full of hauntingly poignant truths. Basically, this book makes us answer the question, “Who am I?” “Where do I belong?” “How much am I willing to sacrifice for my goals?” It also begs the question where do the players, coaches, managers responsibility end? Is it on the ice, the court, the field, the arena? If we allow ourselves to be elevated to a position of leadership or hero status, should we be held to a higher standard or given more leeway to break the rules. These heady questions stay with you long after you finish the book because if you have the courage to answer them, you have to be willing to accept the truth about yourself.. Without a doubt, “Beartown” is a five star read. I wish I read this while I was still teaching. I think it should be required reading for anyone who is a parent, educator, coach, or works with teens. It would make a great book for book clubs. While it is not for the faint of heart, if you are willing to go to the deep places this book goes, you will be forever changed by it. Go check it out and let me know what you think. As always, please like and follow me and be sure to check out my book, "The Carrington Affairs" free on Kindle Unlimited and Audible. Until next time, happy reading. #thecarringtonaffairs #bookstagtam #romancebooks #goodreads #bookrecs #instabooks #yallhavegottoreadthis #yhgtrt #bookinstagtam #tbr #goodreadsauthor #fredrickblackman As always, please like and follow me and be sure to check out my book, "The Carrington Affairs" free on Kindle Unlimited and Audible. Until next time, happy reading. #thecarringtonaffairs #bookstagtam #romancebooks #goodreads #bookrecs #instabooks #yallhavegottoreadthis #yhgtrt #bookinstagtam #tbr #goodreadsauthor #fredrickblackman 36w

This contemporary fiction / family drama has been a highly acclaimed bestseller in many countries. The message, clearly, resonates across the globe. It is relatable any place where there are 'haves and have nots,' or over achieving kids with overly competitive parents, or neglected kids, or over indulged kids, or loving parents, or great coaches, or tired teachers, or bullies and victims. SUMMARY The book opens with one teenager walking into the woods, pulling out a gun, pointing it at another teenager and pulling the trigger. The rest of the book explains the events leading up to this act. The book takes place in a small town on the edge of a forest called Beartown. I'm not sure exactly where Beartown is supposed to be located, but I think it's Sweden. The town has a small competitive hockey club which provides a social life as well as a source of pride for the town. Actually, that's an understatement. This town doesn't have a lot going for it at the moment; the local factory has eliminated a lot of jobs, people are moving away, those who stay don't have many employment options and to some people, the club is everything. The junior hockey team (made up of 16 and 17 years olds) is having an amazing season due, in large part, to their star player Kevin. Their coach, David, has been grooming them since they were seven years old, training them to become the stars they are today. Peter, a former Beartown Hockey star who made it to the NHL, returned to Beartown ten years ago with his family to serve as General Manager and turn the club into a national contender. Ten years of hard work has paid off and the team is about to play in they semi-finals for the junior NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP! The town has so much riding on this. They are hoping that if they win the championship, the government will decide to build their new national training center in Beartown. Along with the training center would come more shopping, restaurants, commerce and JOBS. They NEED this. This is their time. The undefeated junior team just needs to make it through two more games. But, as the reader knows, it's not going to be that simple. We know that something is about to happen which will culminate in one teenager pulling the trigger of a gun on another... WHAT I LOVED Wow!!! So much to love! How could you not be riveted by a book with an opening chapter like that? Every time a new character appeared in the book, or when two characters interacted, I obsessively over analyzed the circumstances, looking for clues as to whether or not these characters were involved in the opening scene. Trying to determine if they were the one pointing the gun or the one with the gun pointed at them. Each slight made me read too much into the offended persons reaction. Would that be enough to trigger a tragic chain of events? I couldn't stop theorizing. I needed to know. I loved the setting; a snowy small town somewhere very far north. I both loved and hated that the country was never officially named. Loved because it gave me yet another thing to obsess over and hated because I never could get a straight answer. The book cover was LOVELY! The picture of the frozen lake and surrounding town was just what I imagined. I loved the narrative style. It was almost as if the story was being told orally, from the memory of an observer, with little snippets of wisdom and knowledge of future events which the narrator had witnessed. The characters were to compelling. They all had so many dimensions. There were several characters I was ready to write off as total 'bad seeds' in their first couple of appearances, who later redeemed themselves. On the flip side, some who initially seemed quite decent disappointed me. Benji and his family were very interesting; I loved how they very loudly loved each other while simultaneously calling each other out on bad behavior. They were all up in each other's business, they were always cramming themselves into small spaces so they could be together. On the polar opposite is Kevin's family. Cold, controlled, uninvolved. His parents started leaving him alone overnight when he was like twelve years old!! What the heck!!! On the outside, it looked like Kevin had everything; money and every advantage money could buy, intelligence and an excessive amount of talent. But did he really have more than Benji? There is so much to love in this book, I could go on for days, but I won't. WHAT I DIDN'T LOVE Too much hockey detail for me. I'm not anti-hockey, I'm just not obsessed. I understand the author was trying to create a feeling of an entire town living, eating, breathing hockey but it was too much for me. I get being in a town that loves its sports. I live in Texas. It's what we do. I felt like he could have created the feeling in fewer words. OVERALL A great book. Touches on my many important topics.

I read "A Man Called Ove" (which received rave reviews and was made into a movie), and while I liked it, I did not give it 5 stars. Ove was supposed to be this outward crusty curmudgeon with an inner soft center and heart of gold, but to me he came across as a crusty, rude, curmudgeon down to the core. Unlikable. After reading rave reviews for Beartown, I decided to give Backman another try. He definitely delivered, but it took a while. During the first half of the book we are introduced to a large array of characters in the tiny village of Beartown, which is a "Hockey Town" and lives and dies based on the success of its various level Hockey teams. This story centers on the Junior team (i.e. 16-17 year old boys). A large percentage of the characters are either cruel, prejudiced, mean, bullying, manipulative, or all of the above. Definitely not likeable. The writing and story line is enough to keep you interested, but I must admit I seriously considered putting down as I approached the halfway point. Don't make that mistake. From that point on, the story really kicks in and it is riveting. It is beyond "page turning" - you literally can't put it down. Ultimately it does portray the flaws of character at all age levels in the village, but it also shows how sometimes it is possible to overcome or cope with those negatives. The strong characters in the story (both good and bad) are the members of the Junior Hockey team, and their sense of teamwork and willingness to do whatever it takes to win is heartening. The characters are all well drawn - we feel as if we know them intimately, and they remind us of many similar characters who've we've met in High School and beyond. Backman is a magnificent writer, and this is a praiseworthy book. I enjoyed it, and will definitely be reading more of his novels. Strongly recommend.

If you're searching for a novel that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page, look no further than "Beartown." This book has been on my TBR list for too long. I picked it up several times over the last few years but struggled to get past the first few chapters, maybe because it's "about hockey" and maybe because the underlying subject matter felt a little heavy and I needed the be in the right mindset to engage with it. Nevertheless, after seeing it make the rounds in my feed again, I decided to reach for it one more time and I'm so glad I did! Once I got past the first familiar chapters, I discovered this book is about so much more than hockey and I quickly found my rhythm and fell into this powerful narrative. Fredrik Backman masterfully captures the essence of a small town where hockey is more than just a sport; it's a lifeline, a passion, and a way of life. The intricacies of community dynamics and the complexity of human nature are explored deeply, making for an incredibly compelling read. The themes of loyalty, ambition, and the repercussions of secrets are woven seamlessly throughout the storyline. Backman's characters are richly developed, each with their own hurdles and aspirations, making them relatable and unforgettable. You'll find yourself emotionally invested as you witness how one significant event can alter the fabric of a community, testing relationships and revealing true natures. Whether you're a hockey enthusiast or not, this book offers a profound narrative that'll leave you reflecting on the strength and vulnerability of community bonds. "Beartown" is a must-read for anyone who appreciates a gripping, heartfelt story that will tug at your emotions and challenge your perspectives. Don't miss the chance to experience this remarkable journey!

“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!

This book by Backman is a masterpiece of story telling, extremely well written, at least from what I can tell from the English translation of the original Swedish. The structure of the book, style, and character development are excellent. I would give it five stars, but I am disturbed by the uncritical portrayal of the brutal, cruel, barbaric violence and gangster mob mentality engendered by ice hockey, which is one of the most violent of popular sports. I disagree with the customer review suggesting that the book is not even mainly about ice hockey. It's almost entirely about ice hockey; everything in the book revolves around ice hockey. The entire town revolves around ice hockey, including every single character, from beginning to end of the book. On the one hand, I don't expect (or want) Backman to be moralizing about the violence, vulgarity, sexism, gangster mentality of both ice hockey players and ice hockey fans, which are portrayed at great length again and again, dozens of times, throughout the book. On the other hand, I am disturbed by the detailed, and largely uncritical, portrayal of such barbaric behavior, and how it ruins the lives of so many people in the book. The same sort of book could probably be written about a small town in the Deep South of the USA committed to school football, which dominates the lives of some Southern towns. I would highly recommend the book, as I found it so interesting (even when disturbing) that I found it hard to put the book down, and lost a lot of sleep as a result. The story is a good example of how destructive such violent sports can be to everyone involved with them. And as already noted, it's not just ice hockey but other sports, such as football as well. By comparison, soccer seems to be much less violent on the field, but there are hundreds of examples of massive violence among fans and fan clubs in the stands and off the field. It makes me wonder about the pros and cons of organized sports. At every level: schools, colleges, and professional.

This book was highly recommended. But, I’m giving up after reading 25% of it. I think you really need to love hockey, or be a serious fan of team sports, which I am not. Otherwise it is boring magical realism. Not part of the review,: I Just missed the return date by 24 hours. I wish we could reassign kindle books to others.

Excellent book!

best

O livro é lindo, chegou em perfeito estado, e a entrega foi rápida. Em relação ao livro em si, me surpreendeu, gostei mais do que esperava, a história é incrível, a construção dos personagens é ótima, 5 estrelas… foi meu primeiro livro do autor, mas com certeza lerei mais dele futuramente!

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.

The book started building momentum slowly and it wasn’t until about half-way through that it really captured my interest. Then I was completely engrossed in the lives of these characters and the small-town dynamics. Backman has a gift for subtly defining his characters and often says less to give more meaning. I loved the characters of Amat’s mother and Ramona, the publican – they both had life worked out. The book was heavily skewed towards men and their sport of ice hockey and it permeated the culture of the town, yet the women in the story were all strong characters – Benji’s three sisters, Mia’s mother, Ramona and Amat’s mother. "It's only a game. It only resolves tiny, insignificant things. Such as who gets validation. Who gets listened to. It allocates power and draws boundaries and turns some people into stars and others into spectators. That's all." "Hockey is like faith. Religion is something between you and other people; it's full of interpretations and theories and opinions. But faith... that's just between you and God. It's what you feel in your chest when the referee glides out to the center circle between two players, when you hear the sticks strike each other and see the black disk fall between them. Then it's just between you and hockey. Because cherry trees always smell of cherry trees, whereas money smells of nothing." "A great deal is expected of anyone who's been given a lot." The content is heavy and much darker than a traditional Backman story, but it still holds that magical quality where you seem to be watching the exchanges and thoughts happening from just outside the realm of reason. It is stopped from being a depressing book by the shining examples of forgiveness. "If you are honest, people may deceive you. Be honest anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfishness. Be kind anyway. All the good you do today will be forgotten by others tomorrow. Do good anyway." Some books shape your lives and push your out of your comfort zone to question your dignity, your beliefs and finally help to remember who you are! 'Bear Town' is one of those books. One of my all-time favourites!

If you had told me I’d enjoy a book with so much ice hockey and testosterone in it, I wouldn’t have believed you, but I simply loved this. It was, in turns, incredibly sad and undeniably uplifting, sensitively written but at times shockingly raw. I believed in, and cared about, every character in the book (even the perpetrator) and given there are a lot of strong characters, this is a real achievement. Even though you could often see what was probably coming, it was still a real page-turner, and the absence of a Hollywood ending was immensely satisfying. The book explores so many facets of humanity and community. It shows how flawed we are as a species, how nuanced life really is, and how this constantly influences our opinions and our behaviour. This would be a wonderful book for schools to study with their students for so many reasons. It raises so many questions and - refreshingly- doesn’t pretend to have any of the answers. My only criticism is that I sometimes felt like I was reading a film script but maybe this is because I could visualise every character so clearly, and hear their voices so distinctly. Perhaps this is simply a reflection of great writing ... either way I loved it.