Book Review :: Bear Town by Fredrik Backman
I went in blind and was pleasantly surprised.
“She’s very keen on justice and equality, Lyt’s mother, so long as they’re based on her precise interpretation of those words.”
“Some people say hockey is like religion, but that’s wrong. 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.”
“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.”
“It doesn’t take long to persuade each other to stop seeing a person as a person. And when enough people are quiet for long enough, a handful of voices can give the impression that everyone is screaming.”
“That’s how wars start. One side protects itself, so the other side has to protect itself even more, and then we start swapping our own fear with their threats. And then we start firing at each other.”
“You may not be an angel. I know that much. But, dear God, you haven’t lacked a role model. All your best qualities come from the fact that you’ve been raised in a house full of women.”
NOT JUST A HOCKEY BOOK
These are just a few of the nuggets dropped in this “hockey” book that I decided to borrow from the library. Who knew this book would be so deep and thought-provoking? This past weekend, I picked up Bear Town by Fredrik Backman. I had never read anything written by this author and honestly was not thinking the book would be all that. I mean a hockey book is just not normally my cup of tea.
Although it is a hockey book based in a tiny community in Sweden, it could have been any small-town USA. Instead of hockey here in South Louisiana, insert football, baseball or basketball and you have probably witnessed something like this occurring in your hometown.
- The parents and community become overly immersed in the sport, living vicariously through the children.
- How easy it is to lose sight that this is just a game and not life or death.
- The toxic masculinity culture that can easily be bred in these types of situations.
- How it is so easy to give preferential treatment to the star athletes.
- The locker room talk that is ugly and degrading to women and people that are considered “other.”
- The win at all cost mentality.
- The narrow mindedness of the community.
This unfortunately has been everywhere and is now more prevalent than ever, in my opinion.
This dying community has put all of its faith and hope into the local hockey team. The whole mentality of this particular club is team above individual. The young men on the hockey team have been taught to win at all costs and losing is not acceptable. That attitude has spread throughout their day-to-day lives, in their friendships and courtships, in their schooling, in every aspect of their lives. When you are taught that winning is the only acceptable outcome, a young woman’s NO means nothing. You deserve what she has, and you will get it no matter the cost.
You can only imagine that sides were chosen and things turned ugly pretty quickly. The brave young woman has to endure becoming the villain, being questioned about her morality and her clothing and her sobriety and anything under the sun. She endured all of this while her attacker was being treated as the victim in the scenario. Unfortunately, this happens more often than not in society, where it becomes the females’ fault for dressing a certain way or having too much to drink or just living her authentic life.
The characters in this novel were so beautifully written. I think that is part of why I am feeling so deeply.
I could see these people clearly in my mind. They were not all good nor all bad, each character had real depth. The book left me really angry but with a sense of hope for the future of the town and its citizens. This is the first of a 3-book series, and I am diving into the second book tonight. I am usually a happily ever after gal, but with this series, I am hoping for justice and maybe, possibly a little revenge. Like the characters in this book, I am flawed, not all good nor all bad.
