As the conclusion to the Beartown series, this is a must read for fans of Beartown and Us Against You. This third book has all of the same familiar characters, plus some new ones. Like the first two books, I found it a bit overlong with a slow start, but worth it in the end. It’s another affecting journey into the heart of small town hockey culture.
Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there’s something about this place that prevents it. The residents continue to grapple with life’s big questions: What is a family? What is a community? And what, if anything, are we willing to sacrifice in order to protect them?
These books are “#hockey, not hockey“. You won’t learn anything about slapping a puck or how to skate backwards. So, you don’t have to be a hockey fan to enjoy this series. This is an insightful and engaging examination of the all-consuming nature of small town sports culture, in terms of relationships, politics, personal ambition, funding, and fandom. There’s a lot about competing and cheating and fighting and winning. Rivalries are real and have consequences.
Backman is known for his pithy philosophical remarks and foreshadowing, but in this book he employs the latter technique to the extreme. He drops breadcrumbs continually:
Everything will change.
Someone is coming home after a long time away.
Someone will be laid to rest.
Someone will fall in love.
Someone will try to fix their marriage.
Someone will submit to hate.
It left me not only in anticipatory suspense, but sometimes in gut wrenching dread. These books have all the feels. Backman takes on hard things, very sympathetically mind you, but hard things all the same. That could be triggering for some.
Even though I struggled a bit more with this series than with his other books (A Man Called Ove and Anxious People), I remain a fan. Backman is a remarkable author who shows real empathy for the human condition and complexity in relationships.
Bachman fans take note: There is a fascinating podcast interview between Eleanor Wachtel of CBC Writers and Company and the author (October 2, 2022). The conversation reveals a lot of interesting background about the author’s personal life, his writing process, and the origins of some of the books he has written. Highly recommend!: click here.
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