In a literal sense, the town itself is in darkness more often than not because of its geographic location the days are short and the sun doesn’t shine for long, especially in the winter.
People had warned me Beartown was dark, but it wasn’t until I started reading it that I realized this darkness permeates the entire story. Still, Backman’s portrayal of each character and how they react to this news is the meat of the plot, and drove me through the 400 pages of this book quicker than I’d ever imagine myself reading a book about hockey.Īuthor Fredrik Backman, photo by Linnea Jonasson Bernholm People take this news much as you would expect in a town like this they become divided, and blame the victim more often than not. Things progress in a fairly positive way at the beginning of the book (that is, if you can ignore the fact that all the adults are putting far too much pressure on these young hockey players), but things take a dark and unexpected turn when a young woman accuses the hockey team’s star of raping her at a party. We meet and follow the town’s hockey star, his best friend who has a deep secret, the boy from the wrong side of the town but incredibly fast on skates, the enigmatic daughter of the hockey club’s general manager, and various other characters who all contribute to the main conflict that drives the plot.
But there are a few promising young men whose talents seem to be a lifeline for Beartown, and if they can reach the finals, there’s a chance a hockey academy will be built there, which will then bring back industry and retail, etc. The teams haven’t been doing well lately, and the town itself is slowly shrinking the factory is downsizing and people are moving away from lack of jobs. If you don’t play hockey, you watch it, so its modest population is obsessed with their junior boys hockey teams and their local standings.
Still, it’s an equally impressive book, and I loved the characters which is where Backman truly shines.īeartown is a small hockey town in the far north, so it snows 9-10 months of the year there. I’ve wanted to read it for awhile since I discovered how much I enjoyed Backman’s writing when I reviewed Anxious People last year, which still proves to be one of the most popular reviews on this blog! Based on Anxious People, I assumed this book would be similar, and the writing was, but the tone of Beartown is significantly darker. Beartown by Fredrik Backman is another book I picked up at my local library (curbside that is, apparently Calgary has the highest COVID numbers in the North America at the moment so libraries aren’t open right now).
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