Beartown

I liked A Man Called Ove, but after finishing Beartown, I am thoroughly impressed with Backman, as both an author and a human. He has an incredible insight into human nature, and he takes the time to examine the tragedy at the heart of this novel from every conceivable angle to paint a picture of how it happened, which attitudes and decisions faded and which ones resonated and why. Although the narrative is clear about who is and isn't a victim, the story as a whole reminded me of one of my favorite Good Omens quotes:
It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.
 We tend towards tribalism and confirmation bias.We struggle with change and anything that upsets our world view. And so it takes a Herculean effort to go against the grain and make a difference. Easier to just stay in your lane and tell yourself that you're not taking sides, though that attitude never fails to prop up the status quo.

More than that, this book was like a masterclass in handling a large cast of characters. Although Backman introduces an entire village, he does it so expertly that I never felt lost of overwhelmed. It was simple to keep everyone straight. Although he did make an odd choice to not name a handful of characters (all female, except for the rapist's father), and I'm still trying to figure out why he made that decision. It seemed to undercut his message a bit.

So it wasn't quite a perfect book, but it was a really, really good one. There's a sequel that I'm debating picking up. I want to see what happens to a handful of characters, but I'm also not sure I can handle this much heartbreak again.

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