Beartown lives for its ice hockey - but members with little knowledge or love of the sport still enjoyed Fredrik Backman's novel. February saw Tyneside Book Club members head to the frozen north with Fredrik Backman's Swedish novel Beartown.
There was a lot of love for the novel - with most members finding it a compelling page-turner.
Its 480-page length might have appeared off-putting, but most members found it pretty easy to polish off. Some did feel it could have been trimmed by 100 pages or so and still have made sense, but others thought the length allowed Backman to establish the cast of characters and explore multiple themes.
Ice hockey was very much at the heart of the novel, but most members did not find that a problem and felt the games were depicted well, without resorting to cliches.
Instead, members appreciated the detailed depiction of this small Swedish town and the fall-out when a particularly nasty crime exposes its problems. Members felt that crime was handled well and sensitively - even if the novel did not particularly break new ground by exploring its consequences.
There was a feeling that the male characters were perhaps more rounded and better-drawn than the women. There were certainly people to root for though. And even with the "villains", there was an attempt to give them some depth.
Some members did feel that the novel occasionally spent too much time telling rather than showing when it came to the motivation of the characters. There was also some division about short philosophical asides. Some liked them, others were irritated.
There was also some comment about the all-seeing narrator and his foreshadowing of events and the future with some members finding it off-putting.
But overall the majority of members enjoyed the novel, and felt it was a skillfully-written exploration of small town tensions, toxic masculinity and the need to fit in. There was appreciation that Backman avoided melodrama and pulled off a nuanced and unsensational ending.
Some were hesitant though about reading the sequel, wondering whether it could match the quality of Beartown.
There was a lot of love for the novel - with most members finding it a compelling page-turner.
Its 480-page length might have appeared off-putting, but most members found it pretty easy to polish off. Some did feel it could have been trimmed by 100 pages or so and still have made sense, but others thought the length allowed Backman to establish the cast of characters and explore multiple themes.
Ice hockey was very much at the heart of the novel, but most members did not find that a problem and felt the games were depicted well, without resorting to cliches.
Instead, members appreciated the detailed depiction of this small Swedish town and the fall-out when a particularly nasty crime exposes its problems. Members felt that crime was handled well and sensitively - even if the novel did not particularly break new ground by exploring its consequences.
There was a feeling that the male characters were perhaps more rounded and better-drawn than the women. There were certainly people to root for though. And even with the "villains", there was an attempt to give them some depth.
Some members did feel that the novel occasionally spent too much time telling rather than showing when it came to the motivation of the characters. There was also some division about short philosophical asides. Some liked them, others were irritated.
There was also some comment about the all-seeing narrator and his foreshadowing of events and the future with some members finding it off-putting.
But overall the majority of members enjoyed the novel, and felt it was a skillfully-written exploration of small town tensions, toxic masculinity and the need to fit in. There was appreciation that Backman avoided melodrama and pulled off a nuanced and unsensational ending.
Some were hesitant though about reading the sequel, wondering whether it could match the quality of Beartown.
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