Us Against You

4.5 stars! “Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did. We'll end up saying that violence came to Beartown this summer, but that will be a lie; the violence was already here. Because sometimes hating one another is so easy that it seems incomprehensible that we ever do anything else.” I don’t know whether to be happy or sad, whether to cry or smile. Every word written by him is like a wave of feeling, crashing over me and leaving me breathless with its intensity. I feel my heart breaking and mending all at once, and I am unable to shake off the impact of his words. And that is a Backman for you - an extraordinary writer whose each and every word drips with emotions. This second book is about the aftermath of the devastation that rocked Beartown in the first book. It is how the people of Beartown react to the tragedy that occurred. We feel all the deep emotions that swirl within the town's residents - anger that boils, frustration that gnaws, guilt that consumes, and despair that threatens to swallow them whole. This is not merely a tale of hockey. It really really is not. It is about family, friendship, love, envy, unity, and.. loss. Who or what impacted me the most you may ask? I would say Beartown - the residents of Beartown - each and every sad, quirky, mad, emotional, scary, funny, loveable, angry character of Beartown. Be it Benji, Maya, Kira, Amat, Bobo, Peter, Elisabeth, Ana, Teemu, Ramona, Vidar. Ah, my heart.. Just like the first book, this story exposes the raw and flawed nature of human beings. No one is perfect, and it is this imperfection that makes each character relatable. You will hate someone only to empathize with them in the next. You will love someone, yet understand when they make mistakes. I took my time reading this book because I wanted to savour each and every word. Those little nuggets of wisdom - on the unconditional love of parenting, dynamics of marriage, profound friendship, community, on hope, love, and loss. Every page teaches you something and forces you to introspect. There were times when I closed the book and just absorbed the brilliance of his writing, his thoughts, and his understanding of human emotions. A moving and thought-provoking story that affirms Fredriks's prominence as one of the greatest authors. Absolutely recommend.

It is an another amazing read from fredrik backman! Lot of details and character building and chaotic back and forth left and write narrator style from the eyes of one of ppl living in the town! So heart wrenching and so many important sensitive topics in one book! He doesn’t preach! He just points things out and let’s them be! It felt a bit slow in some places but worth every single second spend reading it!

Backman just gets better with every book! This latest, Us Against You is a sequel to Beartown and carries forward where that one left off. What I’ve grown to love most about Backman is his choice of contemporary themes. In every book he writes about the society we live in and the duality of human nature - how good people can be good in many ways and yet carry prejudice in others, and how the ‘not-so-goods’ can on occasion rise above theirs. The imperfection that characterises us as humans comes through brilliantly in his characters, without judgment or justification. He tells it like it is in our times and nowhere more than in this book, where he writes about violence, rape, friendship, loyalty, love, forgiveness, hubris and compromise among other things. As usual he uses sport as a metaphor, ice-hockey in this case. Backman is the only author who can make an utterly non-sporting gal like me read a book that is on the surface all about sport! Only on the surface though. He makes the sport and the town that depends on that sport for its very existence come alive. I can very easily imagine a town like Beartown and everything that happens there is utterly believable - the good, the bad and the ugly. In this book I particularly liked the way Backman weaves politics and politicians into the narrative. I enjoy his style as always - he builds up a scenario that initially seems random, only to make a specific point after a few pages! The narrative is as always layered and fast-paced making for a very compelling and satisfying read. I read this book in a day, like I read all his books. There’s an undercurrent of foreboding in this book right from the start that hooked me in and kept me turning the pages! I could feel that something terrible was around the corner but couldn’t quite put my finger on whom or when. When the events did take place, Backman had me so invested in these characters that it was gut-wrenching. That’s what I call great writing! This book is in many ways a mirror of the times we live in and the reflections are very often disturbing. But hope springs eternal and that’s why us humans labour on, doing what we can to make sense of this chaos that we call Life! Us Against You is ultimately about us and our indomitable human spirit and it is about the price we’re prepared to pay to survive as individuals and as a community. An excellent read 😊

"have you ever seen a town fall? ours did. we'll end up saying that violence came to beartown this summer, but that will be a lie; the violence was already here. because sometimes hating one another is so easy that it seems incomprehensible that we ever do anything else." have you ever loved a character so much that you thought your heart might explode? the beartown trilogy and benji ovich are that for me. since the start of this year i have carried the snowy little village of beartown with me, and i'd be lying if i said i wasn't constantly teetering on the brink of tears during the entirety of this novel. us against you starts off right where beartown left off. it tells the tale of a scared town that has gone through a tragedy. its filled with hurt people and their pride, their adoration for toxic masculinity, and the inherent violence that comes with being human. loss is looming over every corner and is threatening to take away the only thing they care about — hockey and the tide of joy it brings. to rescue it comes along a crooked politician and a coach like never before. the story that follows will stomp on your heart; hug it and stomp on it some more, and you will like it. as always, @backmansk who owes me therapy money, balances wholesome and brutal perfectly on the tightrope that this book is and asks you to walk it. i'm glad i did because this is not a book everyone survives. 5 gut-wrenching, they-could-never-make-me hate-you-backman stars!

Well.. to be honest, when i started reading it, i was little skeptical about whether i would like this book or not.. because you see, i loved Beartown #1!! Beartown #2 is not a story.. it's rather a journey.. you arrive at Beartown at a certain point of time, witness everything that happens around and you leave the town at another point of time.. you live in Beartown this entire time! When i was reading Beartown #1 last year, i was going through a very hard time.. the book helped me pass through it.. because i was living in Beartown! This year too, i was going through a hard time and Beartown #2 rescued me! I probably cannot express enough.. but Fredrik Backman's writing style is extraordinary! He sketches each character so minutely and so beautifully that you cannot help but fall in love with each one of them! Each one is different and each one is so normal! They are just like us! Each one has the good and the evil in them.. no one is perfect! And the story telling.. wow! You expect it to be fairy tale like.. it does not.. but you still leave Beartown with a smile on your face!

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 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.

I don't dislike it but there is no take away, there is no single event that takes the breath away. So it falls flat after all the hype of Beartown

Books arrived in good condition