Book Review: Beartown

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove returns with a dazzling, profound novel about a small town with a big dream—and the price required to make it come true.

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.

I have a confession to make: I like Backman for his insightful, heartwarming stories about bad-tempered, sarcastic older adults. There’s humour and charm to it, and the Carl Fredricksen-esque characters often have a lovable quality to them. That being said, I find it a Backman trademark and a pattern that’s slowly becoming repetitive. After reading three of his books in 2017, I was convinced I’ve met my limit and I was going to pass up on Beartown.

And yet here I am.

Beartown is a small town that eats, sleeps, and breathes hockey. It’s the central thing that ties its community together and makes it come alive. Winning a junior hockey championship means everything to this place because it could mean increased funding and sponsorships for a town that’s struggling to survive. But instead of a championship, one event changes everything.

At its core, Beartown isn’t really about hockey. It’s about people.

Beartown is about difficult choices and consequences of people’s actions. It’s about exclusion and belonging, and what we compromise to be part of the crowd. It’s about loyalties and where we choose to put them, depending on how it benefits us. It’s about privilege and victim blaming, about courage and sacrifice. It’s about family and how we to fight for them, and it’s about friendship and forgiveness.

Backman weaves a story about what makes us human, for good or ill. The book raises important questions that are relevant to our society today and there’s a lot we can learn from it.

The characters in this book are so incredibly human that I saw and felt everything they did. I laughed, I dreamed, I hurt, and I cried. There is something to be said about a book that gives me a sick feeling in my gut only to warm my heart later on. It’s raw and powerful and you need to get your hands on it.