549. Title & Author: Beartown by Fredrik Backman (418 pages)
Genre: Fiction–Novel
Completed: 10 May 2022
Summary & Review:
Deep in the Swedish forest is a town obsessed with hockey, and this year they have the chance to make their mark on the national youth hockey landscape. Everyone in Beartown seems willing to do anything to help their prized junior team win, even if it means covering up rape.
The first third-or-so of the novel was very entertaining. Good characters, nice details about life in the town, and an interesting story about hockey. Then the book completely veered and became a capital-N Novel about Important Things. Gag. It was such a predictable take and frankly, really patronizing about rural and small-town people. Those dumb sports-obsessed hicks hate gays and women and totally are okay with sexual assault! What world is this author living in? This is a new book, only a couple years old, and things are just not the way he portrayed them anymore–if they ever were. Additionally, he had nothing new to add to this topic, one that has been dissected by much more talented authors, like Tom Wolfe in A Man in Full (#325).
Rating: 3.5
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