I didn’t know the Beartown story was continuing until I saw this book on my sister-in-law’s coffee table and promptly stole it. She’s lucky she’d already finished it…
I loved Beartown. Still one of my favorite books of all time. My review here. I did not love its sequel Us Against You (because it undoes much of Beartown’s positive message by excusing an abuse of power through its promotion of a relationship between a teacher and a student).
I wasn’t sure what to expect with the third book, especially since it’s MASSIVE in length compared to the first two. What am I getting myself into? I wondered.
The Winners introduces so many new characters, but it brings back your old friends. It’s like a homecoming reunion.
Spoilers for Beartown and Us Against You below, but no spoilers for this book.
The best part of Backman is the way you deeply know a character after just a few sentences. This man is the master of the short glimpse. The three-page intro to Hannah and John (and the way he flips your perceptions on their head) is probably the best example of his genius in this series. He somehow captures someone’s essence so quickly.
It’s interesting how some books will tell you all about a character’s hair color, height, eye color (and breast size if it’s a male author writing a female character) but leave out their actual personality. Backman is the opposite. You’ll know their deepest fears, their greatest strength, their desperation, and the depth of their moods even if you don’t remember what they look like. He actually does you a favor but not giving all the characters names - some people stay as “the editor-in-chief” or “the colleague” all the way through the book so you don’t have to keep as many small-town-inhabitants straight in your mind.
His commentary on marriage is so deep:
The hard part of a marriage isn't that I have to live seeing all your faults, but that you have to live with me seeing them.
I think, just due to its length, there were a few parts I skimmed. There are some bits that get preachy, where I think the author is probably trying to undo what some readers may have perceived as his overly rose-colored-glasses view of what happens when you report an assault. (Beartown has a huge up-hill battle but ultimately most people believe the victim. It seems the author is trying to say with this book that he understands that is not always the case.) There’s also a more explicit description of an assault than I remember from Beartown, which I did not wish to dwell on.
The Winners was worth the time investment, and more. You’re looking for heroes, and you find them. You’re looking for villains, too, but you mostly find deep sadness, guilt, confusion, insanity, a history of abuse, and a lot of conflicting feelings of judgment that make you think. Makes you worry. Makes you want to talk to your kids more about difficult topics.
The ending of this trilogy is so satisfying. Backman gives you glimpses into the future of every character so you know how their stories end — even minor characters get the full-future treatment so you can really imagine the generations to come. It’s magic. There’s 300 books, at least, in this novel — a Backman paragraph is better than a novel from a lot of other authors.
This book has the best final two lines, I think, of any novel I can recall reading. I want to tell you but I promised no spoilers.
Grr. I want to tell you though. It’s just so good.
Go read the book.
The last two sentences are bliss.
