#frederik backman

[cabesswtaer]

if i had a nickel for every time i read about a man named kevin who had an unhealthy obsession with his sport and also had a best friend who was deeply in love with him, i would have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?

[books-and-cookies]

5 SECOND REVIEW

[sun1seeker]

i want to put benji ovich in my pocket and carry him around so he never gets hurt and ask him how his day is going and beat up anyone who even looks at him the wrong way and give him my jacket when he’s cold and tuck him into bed at night and and and

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Nicky Hemick- All for the Game by Nora Sakavic

Genevieve Lefoux- The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger

Jack Wolcott- Wayward Children Series by Seanan McGuire

Benji Ovich- Beartown by Frederik Backman

[poetlcs]

books I’ve read in 2024 - no. 14

Beartown by Frederik Backman

[bookswithdora]

That's the power of literature, you know, it can act like little love letters between two people who can only explain their feelings by pointing at other people's.

Frederik Backman, "Anxious People"

[frxgsfxrlxfe]

Do you ever think the boys on the A-team. Like. Ruffled Amat’s hair and laughed at him every time he lost a shot when he was a junior……..but the roles reversed when he came back from his injury and they looked at him in slight fear/awe every time he entered the locker room

[mental-food]

And time is a curious thing. Most of us only live for the time that lies right ahead of us. A few days, weeks, years. One of the most painful moments in a person's life probably comes with the insight that an age has been reached when there is more to look back on than ahead. And when time no longer lies ahead of one, other things have to be lived for. Memories, perhaps.

Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove

[bookandcover]

The second book in the Beartown trilogy, Us Against You, feels, in part, like an extended epilogue to the first book as it plays out the charged situation with which the first book ends: Beartown and Hed hockey teams are pitted against each other with motivations that extend beyond the ice. This book only raises these stakes, unspooling the socio-economic, identity, and personal threads that enflame the bitter rivalry between these two teams. The tension builds. A new factory in Beartown with international sponsors offers jobs for Hed workers too—and should it? Flags are burned, axes embedded in hoods of cars, statements are made to the press, politicians jockey for position.

I started and read the majority of this book over my winter break and was only able to return to and finish it over my spring break. I’m glad I was able to read this book over the arc of winter, settling into the icy world of Beartown, which lives on the edge of humanity, eking out a cold, but vital existence. While I was not an immense fan of A Man Called Ove, I’ve really enjoyed this series and I’m so glad I gave it a chance. The complex interpersonal dynamics of a small, intense community (in many ways stuck in the past, and in others progressive—flawed and fundamentally human) are well-developed. The realistic characters spring off the page. At this point, I’d take a bullet for Benjamin Ovich, yet much has already been made in the series of the foreshadowing that boys like Benji don’t live long, don’t live comfortably. We’ll see what happens in the third and final installment. It’s going to be an emotional rollercoaster, I know. 

The events of book one cast a long shadow into book two—and, while I said this makes book  two feel like an extended epilogue, it’s also deeply realistic and therapeutic. This is a book about healing, about moving on or trying to, about denial and anger in the face of loss and danger. The plot is not external, so much as it is internal to the interpersonal lives of these characters. And despite the always foreboding and alluded to ending (some kind of culminating Beartown/Hed clash that we’re told to expect), the focus of the novel is the complexities of each of these human lives and choices. Kevin had played for Beartown, yet the teammates that stood behind him ended up in Hed…and his actions are quickly used to criticize the moral character of the Beartown community. Beartown also faces an internal crisis, as progressive choices—hiring a female hockey coach is seen as progressive—force the town to reckon with and examine its own identity. Do the inhabitants of Beartown stand with their star player and team captain after he is outed against his will? Is hockey a place where political gestures could or should be made? What hurts most about secrets? How do you have to change and grow because of the truth about others around you? What does staying true to yourself in the face of tragedy look like? Everyone from members of Beartown’s infamous Pack to bar owner Ramona to club GM Peter Andersson, his lawyer wife Kira, and children Leo and Maya, and Maya’s best friend Ana, struggle with these same questions in different frameworks. 

Through all of this, Benji inhabits a unique position in the heart and mind of the reader (surely others agree!) I feel Backman must know that, with Benji, he has created his strongest, most memorable and iconic character. This book felt like it increasingly moved the needle for the series, as a whole, to be Benji’s story. Coming out of book one, Amat felt like the central protagonist, with Maya and Benji as close seconds. I expected more screen time for Amat in this book. Maya and Ana’s friendship develops and deteriorates and finally re-ignites. Their arc in book two is one of my favorites, and one of the most heartbreaking. Each character’s actions and feelings make sense: that, heartbroken and confused, Ana—who is so often the one who is alone and must care for her dad in the wake of her mom’s departure—would expose Benji’s secret, and that Maya—still suffering from online and in-person hate and toxicity—would cut Ana off as a result. I was surprised that more was not made of the fact that Benji was outed because he was seen kissing a teacher. The real sticking point for the Beartown community seemed to be his sexuality (and the fact that he had kept it a secret) than that he was having an affair with a teacher. In Ana’s shoes, I would certainly have been more shocked, betrayed, and concerned by their power differential than any other facet of the situation (i.e. this being a guy Ana had a crush on for a long time). Why wasn’t anyone in this town concerned for Benji as a high-schooler who was with a mid-twenties teacher?! Yes, we the readers saw inside this relationship, so we saw that Benji was, in many ways, the pursuer and instigator. We’re also familiar with the many ways Benji is much older in character, spirit, and maturity than his 18 years. Still! I wanted at least Jeannette (teacher) or Adri (Benji’s oldest sister) to comment on this dynamic in some way! (Perhaps I am just protective of Benji, as a high school teacher myself, and as a reader who wants to shelter this boy.) 

Ana and Vidar’s love story was sweet and profound, even though it is fleeting (both on the page and in the reality of the storyline). As Vidar entered the story, I was inclined to ship him in my brain with other characters (including Benji, although their increased friendship/tolerance also moved me). Vidar was a mysterious and easily-romanticized character: rough around the edges, his brain too loud at times for himself to handle, bold and fiercely protective, sharp because he knows when and where he’s looked down upon. In many ways, this was Vidar’s book. 

Yet, Benji is clearly the backbone of the series (I’m still hoping for happiness for Benji!) My fandom shipper/trope brain was completely overwhelmed by the “fanfiction-type” trope of Benji and the mysterious new man in town sleeping together…only for it to turn out the stranger in town is the new teacher and Benji his student! That this trope appeared in a “mainstream book,” written by a man, felt both exciting and strange. It was like someone took something already existing and redesigned it just for me. It really tickled my fancy—even more so, I think, because it was treated with realism, rather than romantic idealism. Instead of this trope leading to tension forwarding plot before culminating in true love, it leads to awkwardness. Yet, there is wish fulfillment in the moment Benji goes to the teacher, just shows up at his cabin door…yet, that’s also the moment Benji is outed. The book gives us the sense that reality is not inclined toward The Happy Ending, as much as we might wish for it be, especially for a guy like Benji. I was surprised, at the end of book two, by Benji leaving Beartown. It’s hard for me to imagine him beyond this town, beyond the type of free spirit he is there. Will we see a version of Benji that could grow and change and become “unstuck” from the confines of this narrow (and impossibly broad and gigantic, at the same) corner of the world? Maya’s departure, to music school and the world beyond, made a lot more sense to me. She always seemed like someone who would choose to “get out” and be able to. Benji, on the other hand? Can he “get out”? In so many ways, he is synonymous with Beartown in my mind. 

Other key through-lines in this novel that left a strong impression on me included: Peter and Kira’s marriage, the experiences of instigator Leo Andersson, and the friendship between Bobo and Amat (and the very sad loss of Bobo’s mother). Peter and Kira’s marriage, its near-end and its healing, never felt romanticized or guaranteed. This was such a poignant portrait of the quiet death of a marriage. Overwhelmed by their own pain, Peter and Kira grow apart, rather than together. They each hold such a strong conviction for and commitment to their careers, which are increasingly at threat. Who is Peter without hockey? Who is Kira without her law practice? That the book ends with them finding each other again feels fortunate, not inevitable. The love between them is strong, but even strong love does not overcome some circumstances that flatten our lives and our hearts. Their suffering does not bring them together—perhaps it did when they lost their first son Isak—but in the wake of Maya’s assault, they seem to lose faith in themselves as parents, as a family. It’s this depression, decaying both of them, that pushes them apart. They don’t seem to know how to be enough for themselves, let alone each other. 

Leo’s arc in this novel is similar; at a loss, he searches for something to ground him. For Leo, this is a new family, a new brotherhood. After he’s beaten up by William Lyt in the tunnel near the school, after he appears when Teemu and Benji fight the Hed men and saves Benji from an hockey-career-ending injury, Leo feels a strong brotherhood with these older, fiercer men. In their strength is a form of security. He wants to be welcomed into their group, to earn his place among them—a complex reaction from a young boy who deeply hates Kevin’s brand of toxic masculinity. Yet, the infamous Pack is routinely characterized as more loving, more accepting than an outside observer might assume them to be. Kira and Teemu wash dishes together at the end of the book, each seeing in the other their desperate commitment to protecting one’s own. Are they really so different? Yet Woody and Spider regularly spew homophobic language. People are, as Backman consistently notes, complex. These older men have to come to terms with who Benji is, and certainly Teemu, at least, does so. He shares a drink with Benji at the end of the novel, yet it’s clear his broader perspective on the queer community hasn’t necessarily changed completely (he does give Benji the money from The Kitty after the Bearskin pub burns down to denote to a LGBTQ+ organization). Benji is within Teemu's brotherhood, a steadfast circle which appeals to Leo in the wake of so much upheaval, pain, and change. 

Here I am, once again, talking about Benji in writing about this book, even when I was trying to talk about something else. The moment where William Lyt asks Benji if he was in love with Kevin and Benji says yes, he was, hit me like a freight train. For some reason, I never saw this coming. I never thought about Benji being in love with Kevin (interestingly, I wondered about the possibility that Kevin was in love with Benji). It was clear these two boys shared an intense bond—their emotional and literal proximity is what left William Lyt out over and over again, sustaining and growing years of bitterness. William Lyt looks back on the rainy days these boys came to his house to play hockey as the the highlights of his childhood. These were the days he was a part of their tight circle. So many of Beartown’s inhabitants are lonely, in community with others, and alone again.

Loneliness exists in partnership with love. One of the quietest, most devastating losses in this novel is the death of Bobo’s mom and Hog’s wife, Ann-Katrin. She knows she’s dying. Her family sees this death coming. Their quiet closing of ranks in the wake of her loss is heartbreaking. Bobo reads Harry Potter aloud to his younger siblings, except when his dad takes up the task so Bobo can go play for the Beartown team. The kids take up hockey sticks and play in the garage until everyone is exhausted. The Beartown A-Team wears strips of tape on their jerseys, each bearing Ann-Katrin’s name. The community comes together to clean and make food, while the Pack helps out in Hog’s garage. These scenes of steadfast love blossom in the wake of loss, blotting out the loneliness for a while. 

The cycle seems to continue throughout this book; we are both in community with others and deeply alone. For both connection and independence, our hearts beat with urgent necessity. 

[yourgoldennotebook]

When he left her she wept so hard that she couldn’t breathe. Her body was never really the same after that, she curled up and never quite unfurled again.

— Fredrik Backman, Anxious People (tr. Neil Smith)

[rhetoricandlogic]

MY GRANDMOTHER ASKED ME TO TELL YOU SHE'S SORRY by Fredrik Backman

RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2015

A touching, sometimes-funny, often wise portrait of grief.

A contemporary fairy tale from the whimsical author of A Man Called Ove (2014).

Elsa is almost 8, and her granny is her best—and only—friend. Elsa’s precociousness and her granny’s disregard for societal rules mark them as trouble to most people they encounter and make Elsa a pariah at school. But every night she can journey with her granny to the Land-of-Almost-Awake, made of six kingdoms, each with its own strength, purpose, and interlocking mythologies that Elsa knows by heart. In the Land-of-Almost-Awake, Elsa doesn’t have to worry about how she fits in at school, in the apartment building full of misfits where she lives, or in her family, where both her parents are divorced and remarried and her mother is pregnant. When granny passes away with very little notice, Elsa is bereft. And angry. So angry that it’s almost no consolation that Elsa’s granny has left her a treasure hunt. But the hunt reveals that each misfit in her apartment building has a connection to her granny, and they all have a story reflected in the Land-of-Almost-Awake. Neither world is short on adventure, tragedy, or danger. This is a more complex tale than Backman’s debut, and it is intricately, if not impeccably, woven. The third-person narrative voice, when aligned with Elsa’s perspective, reveals heartfelt, innocent observations, but when moving toward omniscience, it can read as too clever by half. Given a choice, Backman seems more likely to choose poignancy over logic; luckily, the choice is not often necessary. As in A Man Called Ove, there are clear themes here, nominally: the importance of stories; the honesty of children; and the obtuseness of most adults, putting him firmly in league with the likes of Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman.

A touching, sometimes-funny, often wise portrait of grief.

[cabesswtaer]

just finished the winners by frederik backman how the fuck am i supposed to cope

[in-dire-read]

Winners (Book Review)

Written by: Frederik Backman

"All the best players have a darkness inside them, that's why they end up the best, they think the darkness will disappear if they can just win enough times..."

4.5 / 5 Stars

Summary

As Beartown struggles to move forward, the destruction of Hed's ice rink re-ignites a dormant rivalry, which only quickly escalates. How far will the residents go to protect their hockey club?

Thoughts

The third book is extremely character-driven and explores multiple points of view. Each character's story is linked to another to explain a community's pride and ambition for their hockey club. Frederik Backman's writing style invokes strong emotional reactions, for he uses allegories and metaphors to emphasize his points. For example, Theo & Tails were excellent antagonists because they presented the greed of consumerism.

"We try to be men and never really know how. The tales about us who live here are the same sort of tales that are told about everyone, everywhere, we think we're in charge of the way they unfold but of course that happens unbearably seldom. They carry us wherever they want to go. Some of them will have happy endings, and some of them will end exactly the way we were always afraid they would."

"If you can't understand if the girl you're having sex with wants it or not, then you've never had fucking sex with a girl who wants it."

[thegirlwhorunsforthetrain]

The Answer Is No by Fredrik Backman

“It’s a frying pan that ruins Lucas’s life,” Continue reading The Answer Is No by Fredrik Backman

[cabesswtaer]

vote for benji!!! read beartown!!

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Nicky Hemick- All for the Game by Nora Sakavic

Genevieve Lefoux- The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger

Jack Wolcott- Wayward Children Series by Seanan McGuire

Benji Ovich- Beartown by Frederik Backman

[seoafin]

I get really nervous talking to you on your other blog for some reason 😓 but that book you've been posting about seems really interesting! I've been looking to start a new book

don't be nervous!!!! it's still me :)