Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Beartown is a poignant novel by author Fredrik Backman, about a small town with big dreams. Their junior ice hockey team is about to play in the national semifinals and they’re about to win. Responsible for hoping the entire town is a burden, the semi-final is the catalyst for the act of violence that leaves the young girl traumatized and the whole town thrown into chaos. Beartown explores small communities together, the secrets that keep it apart, and an individual’s courage. In this small town tale, Fredrik Backman rediscovers the entire world.
We invite you to listen to this fascinating story. Here are the top 3 reviews and comments that readers love about this fascinating book.
Review 1: Beartown audiobook by Janna Wong Healy
EXTRAORDINARY IN SO MANY WAYS
I read this book because I loved Backman’s A Man Called Ove and ice hockey happens to be my favorite sport. So, while the book is set against the world of ice hockey, it is a far cry from A Man Called Ove. But, I loved it all the same.
Backman takes his time setting up the world of hockey in this tiny town set in a forest. He introduces us to each of the key characters and explains in subtle ways why they are important to his story. I admit to being somewhat confused by this — when will the sport of hockey and all its excitement finally come to the forefront of the story?
And then, midway through, the book does a complete shift and becomes a different story altogether. By this time, you’re familiar with all the characters and how they fit into the overall puzzle and as you wend your way to the story’s completion, you are pulling for all the right characters to succeed…because they did the right thing under very arduous circumstances.
This is not a story of hockey…it is a story of how hockey can improve, change or destroy lives. It is a story of how hockey teaches you to be strong, to fight back, to win (or lose) with dignity — or not. It is a story of how one traumatic event in the lives of two teenagers can affect everyone in a small hockey town.
This book is engaging, from beginning to end. I was sorry to see it end.
While I enjoyed the narration and found it easy to understand, I sometimes didn’t feel like the narration and the source material were a perfect match.
Review 2: Beartown audiobook by Gillian
A Barrel To The Head, A Slug To The Gut–
This is the story of one young person putting the barrel of a shotgun to the head of another young person. It’s the story of how big dreams die hard and little, more tender dreams die even harder. This is not your usual Fredrik Backman book; it has none of the fanciful tenderness, the sentimentality. It’s a hard-hitting look at what a town, what its people, what its children will do when the worst happens and you realize you are alone, just you and your ability to look your children in the face saying, “I couldn’t protect you”, you and your ability to look in the mirror saying, “What does it mean to be human?”
I expected more of a “Miracle on Ice” component but I was sorely wrong and quite happy about it. Backman takes the love of parents, friends, siblings and piles it on; takes the tension and ratchets it up, notch by painful notch until you have nothing to do but look inside yourself and wonder if you can stand any more pain, any more human frailty, any more doubt when there are so many, many shades of gray.
Marin Ireland has a brittle tone, and I wondered why a male narrator wasn’t gotten until I realized that the many female characters wouldn’t have been done justice to. Ireland gets it right, plus she does male characters quite well. What’s more: She doesn’t stilt on the passion, and this is a passionate story.
If you’re ready for a journey into the heart, mind, soul of a teenager get ready and dive in. If you’re ready for a slap in the face, the realization that you’ll do anything, anything for your children but be able to keep them safe, tip your toes in and go gently, inhaling as much as possible.
Backman’s prose, his story, his style are breathtaking.
Review 3: Beartown audiobook by Dee Garza
Miserable
That’s how I feel after enduring this book. I have read three other titles by this author and loved them. This book was very different. Oh yes, the writing was excellent, of course, but the story was painful all the way through.
From the very beginning the reader is set up for a terrible incident to occur. I felt nervous in anticipation. This is not a fun read. It is no fun to wait for something awful to happen. It was bad enough to feel that from the time the story begins, but as the characters are developed and the reader’s fondness of them grows, it becomes worse and worse.
I wish I had not read this. I wish I had not put myself through this. I wish I had stopped early on when the story began and I did not feel interested, but continued because I was curious.
This may turn out to be an important book. This may become a movie. This may be studied in sociology or psychology or philosophy classes. But it had me nervous all the way through, and, even with its excellent writing, I wish I had not forced myself to endure it. The way it ended left me without the details I felt I deserved after all that.
I’ll remember this story, these characters and their culture. It will, without a doubt, linger for a time. But I wish I had not gone down this path at all. Now I just feel miserable.
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