This book is the sequel to Fredrik Backman's best seller "Beartown." For maximum comprehension and pleasure, the books should be read in order.
*****
Beartown is a cloistered village in the Swedish forest, where hockey is the local obsession. In the first book, Beartown's junior hockey team is on the cusp of winning a national championship when an allegation of rape scandalizes the town and rips the hockey team apart.
People take sides, there's a great deal of victim-blaming, and some former friends become bitter enemies. Everyone in Beartown is anguished after the incident, partly because they lament the disruption to hockey, and partly because they have empathy for either the perpetrator or the victim.
The second book, "Us Against You", picks up where the first book left off.
SPOILER ALERT//SPOILER ALERT//SPOILER ALERT
Beartown's junior hockey team is in tatters, and most of its members are now playing for the rival town of Hed. The Beartown 'Bears' 🐻 and the Hed 'Bulls' 🐮 have always been bitter rivals, so this change in loyalties causes much strife. Moreover, many people blame the girl who was raped for the unhappy situation and frequently text her slurs like "Whore, Liar, Princess." 😫
Angry fans want the rape victim's family to leave town, and start a campaign of harassment - getting moving companies to call the house and deliver packing boxes to the front door. It seems like very few people, except for the victim's family and her best friend, understand (or care) that the girl was severely traumatized by the assault. Her younger brother, however, is furious and rebellious - always on the brink of starting a fight or a conflagration (literally).
To make matters worse, Beartown's city council has decided to withdraw financial support for hockey. The league's General Manager, Peter Andersson - who's devoted his life to the sport - doesn't know what to do.
The remainder of the townsfolk also start to despair. The 'five old men' - who used to spend every day in the Bearskin Pub arguing about hockey - are emblematic of the town's misery.
The elderly codgers now stay home, sad and talking to no one.
Enter the town's savior, self-serving politician Richard Theo. Theo - whose every waking moment is spent scheming to gain power - has a plan to save Beartown hockey.
The program involves getting foreign investors to salvage the town's failing factory AND sponsor the hockey league. Theo constantly lies and manipulates people to get what he wants, but he does manage to keep the hockey league in business.
A female hockey coach named Elisabeth Zackell is hired, which is a shock to the men in town. Nevertheless, Zackell is a talented woman, and she assembles a team around several popular players who didn't defect to Hed: Amat - who's fast; Bobo - who's big; and Benji - who's tough.
Zackell also wants teenager Vidar Rinnius -brother of Beartown hooligan Teemu Rinnius - to be the goalie. The problem is that Vidar, who has severe anger management problems, is in juvie jail. Against all odds, Vidar gets sprung - courtesy of Richard Theo - just so he can join the Bears.
The Bears and the Bulls have some very contentious encounters, both on and off the rink.
The result is that several people get beat up; a building burns down; and there's a deadly car accident. Also on the downside, an unhappy girl 'outs' a gay hockey player - which has terrible consequences for the young man. Hateful townsfolk send the boy cutting texts, like "Fag, Queer, Homo, and Poof".....and rival fans shout, "Fags. Whores. Rapists" at hockey games.
The hockey situation also adversely affects the marriage of General Manager Peter Andersson and his lawyer wife Kira. For twenty years, Kira has put her ambitions on hold for Peter's career, and even now - when Peter's job is shaky - he once again asks his wife to 'wait until next year' to follow her dreams. (I was irritated with Peter, who's obtuse and selfish.)
The situation plays out as it will and some lessons are learned.
One of my favorite characters is little 4 ½ -year-old Alicia, who practices hockey all day long and regularly runs away from preschool to practice her shots. This girl is a determined cutie. 🌺
Like the first book, this story demonstrates the cruel tendency to 'blame the victim.' Backman also exposes hypocrites who 'have nothing against homosexuals' but 'worry about the children.' These phonies also have a habit of pointing out that 'not everyone is as open-minded as they are.' Yeah right!! 😕👎
Angry fans want the rape victim's family to leave town, and start a campaign of harassment - getting moving companies to call the house and deliver packing boxes to the front door. It seems like very few people, except for the victim's family and her best friend, understand (or care) that the girl was severely traumatized by the assault. Her younger brother, however, is furious and rebellious - always on the brink of starting a fight or a conflagration (literally).
To make matters worse, Beartown's city council has decided to withdraw financial support for hockey. The league's General Manager, Peter Andersson - who's devoted his life to the sport - doesn't know what to do.
The remainder of the townsfolk also start to despair. The 'five old men' - who used to spend every day in the Bearskin Pub arguing about hockey - are emblematic of the town's misery.
The elderly codgers now stay home, sad and talking to no one.
Enter the town's savior, self-serving politician Richard Theo. Theo - whose every waking moment is spent scheming to gain power - has a plan to save Beartown hockey.
The program involves getting foreign investors to salvage the town's failing factory AND sponsor the hockey league. Theo constantly lies and manipulates people to get what he wants, but he does manage to keep the hockey league in business.
A female hockey coach named Elisabeth Zackell is hired, which is a shock to the men in town. Nevertheless, Zackell is a talented woman, and she assembles a team around several popular players who didn't defect to Hed: Amat - who's fast; Bobo - who's big; and Benji - who's tough.
Zackell also wants teenager Vidar Rinnius -brother of Beartown hooligan Teemu Rinnius - to be the goalie. The problem is that Vidar, who has severe anger management problems, is in juvie jail. Against all odds, Vidar gets sprung - courtesy of Richard Theo - just so he can join the Bears.
The Bears and the Bulls have some very contentious encounters, both on and off the rink.
The result is that several people get beat up; a building burns down; and there's a deadly car accident. Also on the downside, an unhappy girl 'outs' a gay hockey player - which has terrible consequences for the young man. Hateful townsfolk send the boy cutting texts, like "Fag, Queer, Homo, and Poof".....and rival fans shout, "Fags. Whores. Rapists" at hockey games.
The hockey situation also adversely affects the marriage of General Manager Peter Andersson and his lawyer wife Kira. For twenty years, Kira has put her ambitions on hold for Peter's career, and even now - when Peter's job is shaky - he once again asks his wife to 'wait until next year' to follow her dreams. (I was irritated with Peter, who's obtuse and selfish.)
The situation plays out as it will and some lessons are learned.
One of my favorite characters is little 4 ½ -year-old Alicia, who practices hockey all day long and regularly runs away from preschool to practice her shots. This girl is a determined cutie. 🌺
Like the first book, this story demonstrates the cruel tendency to 'blame the victim.' Backman also exposes hypocrites who 'have nothing against homosexuals' but 'worry about the children.' These phonies also have a habit of pointing out that 'not everyone is as open-minded as they are.' Yeah right!! 😕👎
END SPOILER ALERT//END SPOILER ALERT//END SPOILER ALERT
"Us Against You" has garnered very high praise from many readers but for me, it's just okay. I find it hard to believe that hockey is SO important to Beartown and Hed that almost every waking thought and action revolves around the game. In addition, the author does a lot of philosophizing, using hockey as a metaphor for life, and I found this to be overdone.
Still, people who enjoyed the first book will probably like this one, and I'd recommend it to those readers.
Rating: 3 stars
"Us Against You" has garnered very high praise from many readers but for me, it's just okay. I find it hard to believe that hockey is SO important to Beartown and Hed that almost every waking thought and action revolves around the game. In addition, the author does a lot of philosophizing, using hockey as a metaphor for life, and I found this to be overdone.
Still, people who enjoyed the first book will probably like this one, and I'd recommend it to those readers.
Rating: 3 stars
Hello Barbara,
ReplyDeleteHope you are doing good. You have got an amazing blog here. I am writing to you today, looking for an honest review of my suspense, thriller, sci-fi story-book "Time Crawlers", published on June 14, 2018, via Kindle Direct Publishing. The book is 118 pages long.
Alien Invasion, Dark Artificial Intelligence, Time-Travel, High-Tech Hindu Mythology, Djinn Folklore, Telekinetics and life-consuming Cosmic Entities are some major themes in my book which has 6 tightly-knit, fast-paced Sci-Fi stories.
Your precious words would be a very big help to me and would enable me to write better books in the future. Please let me know if you would be willing to share your valuable review. I will share the PDF or MOBI as required by you.
Amazon link here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DRPPGK6
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40540847-time-crawlers
Please let me know how to proceed.
Very Respectfully,
Varun Sayal
Hello Varun.
DeleteThank you for your note. I've looked up your book, and see that it's about parallel universes - a concept I find very interesting. Brian Greene talks about this (theoretical) possibility in some of his non-fiction books and it's a fascinating notion.
That said, I very rarely accept requests for book reviews because I already have obligations to review a list of Netgalley books and some others.
However, I wish you the best of luck, and much success, with your writing.
Sincerely,
Barbara