The Thread's Must-Read
"Beartown"by Fredrik Backman
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Grown men wept when the Vikings were pummeled by the Eagles last Sunday. A hometown Super Bowl dream, and they wept.
Typically, on seeing a display like this, I might’ve murmured something righteously snarky like, “Jeez. No one died. It’s only a game.” But I have been educated by Fredrik Backman’s wonderful novel, “Beartown.” See what terrific literature can do?
The book is set in a small wooded Scandinavian town that eats, sleeps and breathes hockey. (Sound familiar, Minnesota?)
The town has a grizzly-sized chip on its shoulder: Isolated on the edge of a forest, the town is seen as backwards and beaten-down. Its one shot at redemption rides on the outcome of a hockey championship. This novel is so much more than the predictable "underdogs restore a town’s honor" trope, though. I would’ve put that down in the first chapter.
Backman’s character studies of the players, their parents, the students and the coaches are authentic and absorbing. His exploration of what a game really is propelled me deeper into this novel, and made me realize how one-dimensional my dismissal of sports outcomes has been. “It’s only a game,” Backman writes. “It only resolves tiny, insignificant things. Such as who gets validation. Who gets listened to. It allocates power and draws boundaries and turns some people into stars and others into spectators. That’s all.”
Make no mistake, this book is about tragedy and friendship and violence and secrets and love and pain. But it’s also about the game. And it's brilliant.
-Kerri Miller
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