Us Against You

This quote towards the end of the book - "Life is a weird thing. We spend all our time trying to manage different aspects of it, yet we are still largely shaped by things that happen beyond our control." - perfectly sums it up. Though, really, it's at the core of all of Backman's works. By telling the backstory and hinting at motivations for every character, he's pushing empathy on the readers. The text doesn't absolve actions, but it forces us to understand them. Humans are messy and we get that from these books. At the same time, Backman throws in lines about the future, heightening hope that everyone peft behind will turn out alright. It's catharsis you can carry. Read. Release. Repeat.

"This has been a story about ice rinks and all the hearts that beat in and around them. About people and sports and how they sometimes take it in turns to carry each other. About us, dreaming and fighting. Some have fallen in love and some have been destroyed; we’ve had good days and some very bad ones. Beartown has cheered, but it has also started to smolder. Things were heading toward a terrible explosion."
It seems I always find myself gravitating back to the works of Fredrik Bachman. I've read many of his novels and especially liked Anxious People and Beartown. This one is the sequel to Beartown, and since he has recently published the finale, called Winners, I though I'd better read this first. The writing of Bachman's is an show more engaging first person plural which at first seems to exclude the reader but later makes them feel a part of the community . So as we learn or are reminded about this Swedish hockey town and it's long standing rivalry with the town of Hed, we soon get to know enough people to join in on the "we "narrative. He nicely summarized the events of Beartown and brings us up to speed on the characters since the events of girl's rape and a star player's disgrace. And the characters are really what drive this narrative and give it its heart. Though the characters of Peter, the general manager of the hockey team, his children, Maya and Leo, the bar owner, Ramona and hockey players Benji, Anat, and Bobo are back, new characters like the local politician Richard Theo and a new female coach are introduced. There is a lot of action and plot here; Bachman confesses himself that he does not see himself as a master craftsman of writing but more as a pretty good storyteller. I concur. He manages to give us insights into multiple characters of multiple ages and does so with humor and philosophical overtones. "Our spontaneous reactions are rarely our proudest moments. It’s said that a person’s first thought is the most honest, but that often isn’t true. It’s often just the most stupid. Why else would we have afterthoughts?"
There's a lot of examples of how hockey is like life but the insights are spot on and relatable. I soon will finish this trilogy.

Lines:
The economy coughs every time it takes a deep breath; the factory cuts its workforce each year like a child that thinks no one will notice the cake in the fridge getting smaller if you take a little bit from each side.

All parents know. It’s not a voluntary process, it’s an emotional assault; you become someone else’s property the first time you hear your child cry. You belong to that little person now. Before everything else. So when something happens to your child, it never stops being your fault.

“Everything has its price,” Holger said before he left her, and when he was buried the priest said the same thing: “Grief is the price we pay for love, Ramona. A broken heart in exchange for a whole one.”

Being a mother can be like drying out the foundations of a house or mending a roof: it takes time, sweat, and money, and once it’s done everything looks exactly the same as it did before.

That’s the problem with dreams: you can get to the top of the mountain and discover that you’re scared of heights.

parents are a sort of plant you can’t choose, with roots that go deep and catch your feet in a way that only the child of an addict can understand.

Maya’s dad used to listen to an old record where a guy sang about everything having cracks in it, because that’s how the light gets in. (Anthem by Leonard Cohen)

It’s so easy to get people to hate one another. That’s what makes love so impossible to understand. Hate is so simple that it always ought to win. It’s an uneven fight.

We will say ‘things like this are no one’s fault,’ but of course they are. Deep down we will know the truth. It’s plenty of people’s fault. Ours.” show less

“Inside every large story there are always plenty of small ones” (69).

Each of the small stories that are braided together inside the larger story of this single community is so captivating—gritty and emotional—and left me aching for all of them.

Like a classic Greek tragedy about loyalty and hubris and justice and revenge, Us Against You—allies against enemies, is a book about life told through the falling and rising of an underdog community. Even though the action and events center on sports and politics and violence and conflict, it’s really just a beautifully-simple story about the complex-simplicity of life—“Love and hate. Joy and sorrow. Anger and forgiveness” (333).

I was scared to read this because I loved Beartown so much and wasn't sure where the story could go next. I should have trusted Backman's skill. His depiction of the building tension between Beartown and the neighboring Hed, paired with the complicated internal struggle Benji feels, frustration of Maya's younger brother Leo, and so much more is just breathtaking. It brought me to tears in the final pages as the climax led us to a forest road and limitless grief. It is just beautiful.

"In the end, the weight of carrying each other's broken hearts becomes unbearable."

"Younger brothers never know what they put their big sisters through. Anxiety hidden behind eyes. Words hidden behind other words."

"It's so easy to get people to hate one show more another. That's what makes love so impossible to understand. Hate is so simple that it always ought to win. It's an uneven fight."

"Mum. You taught me that I don’t have to have dreams. I can have goals." show less

A follow up to to Beartown. A book of hating, loving, forgiving and hope.Kirkus:Shockwaves from the incidents in Beartown (2017) shake an economically depressed hockey town in this latest from the author of A Man Called Ove.Swedish novelist Backman loves an aphorism and is very good at them; evident in all his novels is an apparent ability to state a truth about humanity with breathtaking elegance. Often, he uses this same elegance to slyly misdirect his readers. Sometimes he overreaches and words that sound pretty together don?t hold up to scrutiny. This novel has a plethora of all three. Grim in tone, it features an overstocked cast of characters, all of whom are struggling for self-definition. Each has previously been shaped by the show more local hockey club, but that club is now being defunded and resources reallocated to the club of a rival town. Some Beartown athletes follow, some don?t. Lines are drawn in the sand. Several characters get played by a Machiavellian local politician who gets the club reinstated. Nearly all make poor decisions, rolling the town closer and closer to tragedy. Backman wants readers to know that things are complicated. Sure, many of Beartown?s residents are bigots and bullies. But some are generous and selfless. Actually, the bigots and bullies are also generous and selfless, in certain circumstances. And Lord knows they?ve all had a rough time of it. The important thing to remember is that hockey is pure. Except when it inspires violence. This is an interesting tactic for a novel in our cultural moment of sensitivity, and it can feel cumbersome. ?When guys are scared of the dark they?re scared of ghosts and monsters,? he writes. ?But when girls are scared of the dark they?re scared of guys.? Margaret Atwood said it better and with more authority decades ago.Backman plays the story for both cynicism and hope, and his skill makes both hard, but not impossible, to resist. show less

4.5 -- but a worthy sequel. At first the title sounded lame to me, but it is right on the money for the mentality of rivals who let allegiances trump logic. For the most part, it applies to Beatown’s outlook toward Hed, but it often could be easily switched. I love how the narrator has retained that omniscience and also the first-person plural voice (We) making us all culpable for the worst of our human nature (and sometimes the better). There are also those occasional flash forwards to let the reader know how things turn out, but also to take the “long road” approach to really hard times. Many of the favorites are back: Peter, Kira Maya, Benji, Amat, Bobo, Ramona; some of the minors get more developed: Ana, Leo, members of the show more Pack (there is no Pack); and some new characters get billing: Teemu Rinnius, one of the hooligans (with a heart), his younger brother Vidar, and Richard Theo, a local amoral politician is like a master puppeteer, pulling strings here and there to make things happen (in a way that will ultimately benefit him), there is a new hockey coach in town and 4 year-old Alicia has the passion for the sport that some of the boys did. Some have moved on to Hed, but the underdogs remain in Beartown and with a little bit of soul-selling, (Peter) and string pulling (Theo) the hockey club is revived. However, there is not a game played until page 300-something! “Deep down inside most of us would like all stories to be simple, because we want real life to be like that too. But communities are like ice, not water. They don’t suddenly flow in new directions because you ask them to, they change inch by inch, like glaciers. Sometimes they don’t move at all.” Pg. 371 Much more about rivalry build-up, facing failure, re-building lives and all the emotional ways we are tied to those we love closely and those we should love who are more of a challenge. Kira and Peter’s marriage is fragile after what happened to Maya. Leo has become a 12 year old ball of anger and guilt; Maya still faces hatred from the town and trauma from her experience. Other families are under strain too and Kevin has left the area completely. William Lyt steps up to fill the jerk role nicely, but as was the case in the first book, it is so hard to completely categorize anyone as good or evil; they are just human. Benji assumes the leader role in Beartown, but he is a reluctant hero. My guess is there will be a #3. There’s always some blanks to fill in. show less

It was the best of times and the worst of times. This is a fitting quote for what is going on in Beartown since the end of the last book. Beartown has lost many of their best hockey players to Hed, their own hockey team has lost most of their support and sponsor money. But then, seemingly a miracle, a politician gets involved, new factory, new someone, new coach, a woman. Peter gets to keep his job as General Manager. Politics and sports should never mix, as many will find out by books end.

So many times I put this book down, to think about what I just read, to wonder at this author and his insightful comments, and yes, because I was overcome with emotion. (The marshmallow effect strikes again.) This author shows us,
The best and worst show more of living in a small town.
The best and worst of being part of a team.
The best and worst of parenting, marriage.
The best and worst of friendships and
The best and worst of being different.

Plus, he has given us so many wonderful characters, varied, flawed, so very human, characters we can fully embrace. Tackles many of the problems inherint in small towns, weaving a story that I didn't want to end.

By books end, he had broken my heart, in the best and worst possible way.

ARC from Netgalley. show less