Beartown, a declining hamlet in the middle of a Swedish forest, has one big hope - ice hockey. Beartown's junior hockey team, the Bears, has made it to the national semi-finals, and - if they go on to win a championship - might attract a new sports arena to Beartown, along with tournaments, hotels, tourist traffic, and so on.
This boon to Beartown's economy would be welcome to business owners, residents, and hockey sponsors. Thus, the high school boys who play for the Bears are pressured by both personal ambition and the dreams of everyone around them.
The Bears' star player is the team captain, Kevin, a 17-year-old phenomenon who's been practicing day and night since he was a kid.
Kevin's best friend is Benji, the team's 'enforcer' - who protects his squad from opposing players during games. Benji and the other Bears look up to Kevin and are intensely loyal to him.
Kevin's mother and father - a wealthy, successful couple - are proud of their son's achievements and have high hopes for his future. In some ways, however, Kevin's parents are oddly distant. They travel frequently, rarely attend hockey practices, and seem to brush off signs of boyish misbehavior.
Since hockey is Beartown's obsession, the adults who run the Hockey League are always in the public eye. These include the league's General Manager Peter - who made it to the Canadian pros before returning to Beartown;
the junior team coach David - whose sole mantra is "Win";
the A-team (older boys) coach Sune - a hockey veteran who's about to be replaced;
and the board of directors/sponsors - who pull the strings behind the scenes. Many of these men are anxious - and losing sleep - in anticipation of the important upcoming games.
The first part of the book introduces the major characters in the story. In addition to the people mentioned above, this includes: the other teenage boys on the junior team and their families; the pub owner - an upstanding woman who's still mourning the death of her long-dead husband; Peter's 15-year-old daughter Maya - an aspiring guitarist/singer;
Maya's best friend Anna - who has a troubled home life;
Peter's wife Kira - a high-powered business attorney;
David's pregnant girlfriend - who keeps him centered; and more.
The initial chapters also establish the ambiance in Beartown - a village that eats, breathes, and sleeps hockey, hockey, hockey. Kids in Little League hockey hope to play for the Bears; Bears players dream of becoming pros; and everyone in town basks in the league's reflected glory. In addition, hopes for economic success related to hockey light up a lot of Beartown eyes.
The future of Beartown looks pretty bright until things go badly wrong.
As part of the revelry in Beartown - and with his parents away - Kevin throws a big bash at his house.....with plenty of booze. The teenage boys and girls at the party drink too much, and - at one point - Kevin takes Maya to his room and won't take no for an answer.
When Maya reports the assault, Beartown becomes a divided town - with a pro-Kevin cabal and a (much smaller) pro-Maya faction.
In many ways this is par for the course. Most readers are probably aware of news stories about 'entitled males' (athletes, politicians, celebrities, business moguls, etc.) who take advantage of females.....with little or no fear of negative consequences. Kevin seems poised to join this maleficent group since most Beartown citizens are determined to deny (or excuse) his bad behavior. After all, Kevin is a hockey star!!.
Thus, there's a lot of ugly talk and bad conduct directed toward Maya and her family.
The author handles these trends deftly, showing us the self-justifications and rationalizations of the people involved. Of course there's no real excuse for this kind of thing, and I was quite disturbed by the book's theme. (In fact, I wish Backman would have chosen some other topic to write about.) Still, several Beartown residents DO step up in an admirable fashion, much to their credit.
'Beartown' is well-written, the characters are engaging, and I like the mini-epilogs, which give us a glimpse of the future of some Beartownians. I think many readers would enjoy this book and I'd recommend it to fans of hockey, literary fiction, and Frederik Backman
Rating: 3 stars
Good review Barb. I really enjoyed this one.
ReplyDeleteThank you Carla. :)
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