Chris’s Pick
June, 2022
Beartown
Fredrik Backman
Atria Books 2018
Forward: In praise of favorite authors and audiobooks
The pandemic brought me back to books in a big way. I have read and discovered dozens of new authors, like the extraordinary Hanya Yanagihara, whose writing is brilliant (but leaves me depressed for days). And I have been delighted when old favorites write new books: Anne Tyler, for example, whose new French Braid is so classically Tyler, with layered, heart-tugging family relationships.
The pandemic also closed our gyms and pushed us out into the world to walk, and thus I began a love affair with audiobooks—a story to take along on a walk, what could be more perfect?
Some books, like Sara Nisha Adams’ The Reading List I felt was so enhanced by the audio I’m glad I chose to listen rather than to read—the narrators perfectly drop us into Wembley, West London and bring the elderly Mukesh Patel and the teenage Aleisha to life—a great story for book lovers. The two carefully chosen narrators of Louise Penny’s twenty Armand Gamache books have voices that captivate you, and make you regret having to put the story aside for the day. Emily Henry’s People We Meet On Vacation is a romantic “beach-read” that turns a four-mile walk into pleasure. Andrew Sean Greer’s Less, (2018 Pulitzer Prize for fiction), so beautifully written, allows a peek into the heart-wrenching, but often comedic, musings of an aging gay man.
Recently, a new “old favorite” author has become my latest storyteller. Swedish author Fredrik Backman wrote the wonderful Anxious People, and because of it I am catching up with his body of work and taking his stories along for my walks. Which finally brings me to my review:
Bear Town by Fredrik Backman
In a tiny community nestled deep in the Swedish forest stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded the town. And 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 Beartown’s denizens 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 the town in turmoil.
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, it seems Fredrik Backman has presented an entire world.
I am not a sports fan; have never seen a hockey game, but I loved this book so much I immediately read the sequel “Us Against You”. If you, as I did, need more after “Beartown”, read this one too. The third book in the series, “The Winners” will be published this fall and I am looking forward to it.
Fredrik Backman makes us care and makes us think– just an outstanding author. And, by the way, if you have yet to read or discover his “Anxious People”, that one is also truly delightful.