BEARTOWN Fredrik Backman MY RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ PUBLISHER Simon & Schuster Audio PUBLISHED April 25, 2017 NARRATED Marin Ireland BEARTOWN Is a masterfully thought-provoking book about community, integrity and courage.
SUMMARY
Beartown is a small town on the edge of the forrest. The town is losing the fight; the fight with with the forrest the economy and the cold. Hockey is the town’s only hope. It is what brings everyone together, but, can just as easily tear everyone apart. The junior hockey team is headed for the national semi-finals, and the win is important to the economic survival of the town. Being responsible for the hopes and dreams of the town is a heavy burden for the boys; the Bears from Beartown.
The aftermath of the match is a catalyst for a violent act, that leaves a 15 year old girl traumatized, and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made that ripple through Beartown, tearing the town in two. BEARTOWN explores what it takes to bring a community together, what can tear it apart, and the courage to stand up for the right thing.
REVIEW I am emotional exhausted from reading this book! I feel like I have been to Beartown and seen the hockey tournament, been to the afterparty, attended a town meeting, and met all the residents at the Bearskin It’s been like riding a emotional roller coaster,
BEARTOWN seemed a little slow off the starting line. A good many pages were spent introducing the characters; and there is a huge cast of characters including: the members of the hockey team, the hockey coaches, the hockey management, the family members, the town merchants, and the team sponsors, just to name a few of the groups. I stopped counting characters at 25! Just as I beginning to wonder if this book would be worth the read, the pucks started flying. Bang! Bang! Bang! When the semi-final game began, BEARTOWN was totally game on! And by the end of game day I realized that without that tremendous character build up, BEARTOWN is just another story. The understanding of the characters and the town, is essential to what makes this book great.
FREDRIK BACKMAN’s writing is masterful. Below are just a few of my favorite quotes.
“You can’t live in this town, you can only survive it.” “The people that live in Beartown are as tough as the forrest, and as hard as the ice.” “When you win, you own the clouds.” “There are a thousand ways to die in Beartown, especially on the inside.” “Time always moves at the same rate, only feelings have different speed. Every day can be a whole lifetime or a single heartbeat, depending on who you spend it with.”
The setting; the encroaching forrest, the frost-biting cold, and the rabid hockey culture all coalesce to create an instrumental part of this story. It’s almost as if the setting is another character in the book. BEARTOWN Is a wonderful thought-provoking novel about community, integrity and courage.
A prayer is handwritten on a scrap of paper stuck to the wall of a 15-year-old boy’s room. He reads it every day.
If you are honest people may deceive you, be honest anyway If you are kind people may accuse you of selfishness, be kind anyway All the good you do today will be forgotten by others tomorrow, do good anyway What you create, others can destroy, create anyway, Because in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and anyone else anyway.
When the boy was five he added this line in red crayon:
They say I’m to little to play, become a good player anyway.
He did!
