We are all living in a Beartown

It is an excellent read. Backman is a master of making characters and storytelling. There are so many people in the book and each has their own stories. But there is no confusion, and each character is touchable. Amazing!

This is a story of a hockey town called Beartown, but it’s also a story of the community everybody is living.

In this community, we have rich people and poor people; we have rich kids and poor kids; we have people working hard and lazy people; we have ambitious people and people only want simple days; we have some people with talents and some people mediocre.

But no matter who you are, we are all in the same community competing for the limited resources - not even kids can escape from. Survival seems the only important things and winning is the only purpose of our lives. Winner takes all. We only have winners and losers. There is no middle ground. “you can’t almost get on a boat. You’re either on the boat or in the water. And when all the other buggers are in the water as well, no one gives a shit that you were the last one to end up there.”

But the author is trying to tell us, through his story, that you can try to win, but that is not the only thing in our lives. There is love - the love of family, the love between lovers, the love of friendship, the love between teachers and students, the love to justice, the love to courage, the love of compassion, and the love of a bright future.

There is only one thing I disagree with the author: I believe that everyone should still try their best to win, no matter whether we can winner. This is the only way, as a society, we humans can make progress and survive.