It’s only a game. It only resolves tiny, insignificant things. Such as who gets validation. Who gets listened to. It allocates power and draws boundaries and turns some people into stars and others into spectators. That’s all.For me, culture is as much about what we encourage as what we actually permit. David asked what he meant by that, and Sune replied: That most people don’t do what we tell them to. They do what we let them get away with.
On the outset, Swedish author Fredrik Backman’s stories seem
pretty simple. The characters appear to be a caricature or a stereotype. But gradually, as Mr. Backman’s masterful storytelling
technique kicks in, the characters very much comes alive, packed up with all
the nuance, depth, and fragility of human nature. The author’s works are often
addressed as ‘uplifting’. But he isn’t a hack ideologue or driven by a misguided
sense of morality so as to entirely cover up the real horrors of life for feel-good moralization. Emotional pain, loneliness and irreparable sadness are the
constants ailing Backman’s characters. Yet the deep empathy he has for the people (even for the grumpiest) and his sense of positivity finds ways to slowly
push down the gloomy factors, channeling us through the whole spectrum of human
experience. The movie version of ‘A Man Called Ove’ first introduced me to
Fredrik Backman. And since then, I have devoured his novels with a relish, and
got deeply addicted to his magic for creating richly imagined, believable literary characters.
Beartown is proposed as a trilogy, set in a tiny, frozen,
and economically faltering hockey-obsessed Swedish town. The novel, released in September
2016 in Sweden, was considered to be different from Backman’s previous novels,
since it was bit darker and eschewed his usual tone of gentle whimsicality and
quirkiness. In fact, Beartown’s first chapter opens with a bleak passage: “Late
one evening toward the end of March, a teenager picked up a double-barreled
shotgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to someone else’s forehead, and
pulled the trigger. This is the story of how we got there”. What Backman
promises in the first chapter do happen in the end. Although the story here is
tightly coiled to keep us on-the-edge, and delves into the emotional depths of
individuals that one might not reckon in reality. The first-third of the novel is entirely devoted
to set-up the characters, steadily observing the idiosyncrasies and universalities
associated with the proud hockey town, north of Sweden.
For decades, there’s nothing much going on in the community
except ice hockey. Jobs are fast disappearing. People are moving to nearby larger
town, the abandoned isolated houses are getting swallowed up by the forests.
But the residents pin their hopes on the hockey team. The town’s struggle to
stay alive and desire for resounding success lies in the hands of hard-fighting
young sportsmen. Every little boy in the town learns to play in the ice as soon
as they walked. Beartown’s junior team actually has a shot at the national
hockey championship that year. When the novel starts the whole town is preparing to
support their team in the semi-finals played at home. At the very center of the
town’s hope is star-player Kevin, the obsessively motivated and incredibly
talented 17 year old boy, hailing from a prominent family. Peter Andersson, the
general manager of hockey team, was once a golden boy like Kevin. He went
professional and made it to the National Hockey League in Canada. On his
mentor/coach Sune’s insistence, Peter has moved back to the native town with
his strong-willed lawyer wife Kira and two children – 15-year old Maya and
12-year old Leo.
Author Fredrik Backman |
If the town wins this year Junior Championship, there might
get a hockey academy and tourists may begin flocking to Beartown, revitalizing
the jobs and business. The rich sponsors and powerful board members deliriously
discuss the prospects awaiting the town. But they also pose a challenging
proposition to Peter. While Peter mulls over the board members’ decision of
sacking coach Sune, more devastating events unfold. With each darker turn, the
town’s falsehoods, ugly group mentality and other ominous elements of human
condition are broached with clarity and complexity. Yet, what sets apart
Backman’s tale from other small-town witch-hunt narratives is his ability to
not simply wallow in horror. He never shies away from exhibiting the emotional
and physical violence inflicted upon the characters. However, the basic
humanity is never downplayed for the sake of proposing a half-baked polemic
statement. Backman keeps on finding the beauty of human spirit, all the way through
the novel’s darker, heavier times.
The culture of hockey and few other strange native
mannerisms may make Beartown a singular literary atmosphere. But the characters
inhabiting it and the choices they make are certainly universal (‘what is a community? It is the sum total of our choices.’).
We can take the conformity, homophobia, indifferent politics, sexism, and
bullying of Beartown and equate it with any other flawed community around the
world. By adding layers after layers into the story and characters that’s never
ailed with illogicality, Backman continually draws the readers in and making us
comprehend the full implications of each action, words, and worrying silence. Before
picking up the book, I wondered whether it’s an underdog sports novel, and
after browsing through the synopsis, I felt it could be a lacerating depiction
of sexual assault and the ensuing trauma. But it’s not about just one thing;
it’s the kind of satisfying fiction with a huge heart that examines everything
from gender, loyalty, parenting, relationships, adolescence, collective psyche,
culture, etc.
Of course, Fredrik Backman acutely depicts the culture of youth
sports, the commitment and loyalty demanded of the players, and the way
covetous sponsors treat the players. He also crushingly conveys the mind-image
of a woman’s body under attack (“For the perpetrator, rape lasts just a matter
of minutes. For the victim, it never stops”), and unflinchingly delineates the
culpability of the rapist and those who add their voice to victim-blaming. But
as a fine novelist, Backman’s concerns aren’t strictly ideological (except for
one odd moment where he strongly denunciates the ‘evils that men do’ in the
name of religion, politics, sports, etc); he rather casts a humane eye on the warped
and formidable aspects of our communities. It is said that ‘everyone has their
own version of truth’. Through the town’s culture of sports and its
inhabitants’ reaction to the sexual assault, the author peruses everyone’s
truth. Even though, these personal viewpoints never muddle or fuzzes over the
difference between right and wrong (such writing technique turn
the stock villains into complicated humans, and hence all the more terrifying).
At the same time, Beartown isn’t about the conflict between right and wrong.
Backman includes many characters caught in the middle, struggling from within
to choose one side over the other. In this aspect I liked the characterization
of tenacious junior-team coach David (a guy we neither love nor hate) and
elderly determined bar-owner Ramona (whom we eventually regard with teary-eyed
adoration).
Most importantly, Backman doesn’t confine the assaulted girl
to only occupy the position of victim. The extent of the girl’s mental damage
is painfully presented, but she also happens to be strong and loving girl. She makes
great effort to not allow her life to be defined by that single ugly moment. In fact, the
novel is full of such very strong characters who preserve their basic
humanity, in the face of gruesome activities. The prose occasionally leans into
sentimentality, yet it doesn’t get fully drenched. To the author’s credit, by
the end Beartown is not about the oft envisioned darker side of human behavior,
but about the oft unheralded elements of our race: the resilience of an
empowered individual; the camaraderie and unbreakable bonds of friendship and
family; and staunch belief in fulfilling one’s dreams. Beartown may not be the
perfect literary treat that's unparalleled in terms of style and scope. Nevertheless, it is deeply satisfying, and
the genuine emotional wallop it instills upon us will definitely stay for some
time.
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