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I was a little disappointed while reading the book because I reached to the right conclusion at the very beginning of the story based only on three pieces of information:

1) The train was unusually packed. “It is incredible, Monsieur. All the world elects to travel tonight!” And the author told us some possibilities through M. Bouc, “Ah, without doubt there is some party of journalists–of politicians–?” This told us that it was not a coincidence that all the travelers gathered on the train.

2) Multiple people stabbed the body. Some blows were struck with the left hand, while the others obviously right-handed. Some blows were struck in such a great force that they must be delivered by men, while others were so light and likely by feeble women. This matches the fact that there were all kinds of travelers on the train at the same time.

3) The Armstrong kidnapping case. It was such a tragedy, especially when the guy behind all the abhorrer was escaped by bribing. This gave a good reason that many people wanted him to die.

Based on these three reasons, it was not so difficult to guess that several, if not all, of the travelers are involved in the murder.

I guess this is a common issue while reading the classic mystery thrillers. These stories are so well-known and their plots are wildly borrowed by many other books and movies. So I often have the feeling that these classic stories are “familiar”.

At the beginning, I just could not understand the relationship between Ove and Parvaneh. It looks wired. Parvaneh is active and Ove passive. Parvaneh is always asking and Ove always giving. It was unbalanced. I did not know why Ove allowed her to get into his life. Maybe Ove liked Parvaneh because her personality likes his deceased wife Sonja? Maybe Parvaneh knew this and took the advantage of him? Or did Parvaneh love Ove, not the father-and-daughter’s love, but lovers’ love? It made little sense to me.

Until one day I suddenly understand why Ove could have this relationship with Parvaneh -- he wanted to be useful, too.

Ove lost his wife and then his job. He did not have any children or relatives. His friend had Alzheimer’s disease. The world dumped him. He was USELESS. This is the worst thing could happen to a human being. We are so hungry for the feeling of importance; we are craving for being needed -- being needed by family, by colleges, by friends and by the society. Even for kids, they want your attention. If they could not get it, they make a fuss to attract your attention.

Parvaneh knew that. So she asked Ove for help, starting from small things like borrowing a ladder to giving her a ride to acting as a grandfather to her kids. Slowly, she broke the ice in Ove’s heart, gave him reasons to be alive because they NEED him. She used her action, but not words, to tell him that he is useful and important. What a smart woman!

Ove was a miserable man, but he was lucky to meet Sonja and Parvaneh.

Here are two paragraphs I love so much:

A few mornings later Ove walked past the neighbor’s house and saw the elderly man feeding the birds in the company of a little boy. A grandchild of his, Ove realized. He watched them surreptitiously through the bedroom window. The way the older man and the boy spoke in low voices with each other, as if they were sharing some great secret. It reminded him of something.

“Now, you listen to me,” says Ove calmly while he carefully closes the door. “You’ve given birth to two children and quite soon you’ll be squeezing out a third. You’ve come here from a land far away and most likely you fled war and persecution and all sorts of other nonsense. You’ve learned a new language and got yourself an education and you’re holding together a family of obvious incompetents. And I’ll be damned if I’ve seen you afraid of a single bloody thing in this world before now.”

Us against you is an excellent book with stories well told and characters well constructed. Many things happened, and many people lived in the book, but today I only want to talk about three people and one thing - when should we give up our dreams?

Peter was a famous hockey player and is a general manager of the Beartown hockey club. To him, hockey is everything and is the only thing. He devotes his life to the team, but as you’ve read. The team has been turned to a political chip. What he can do is so little. Facing the breakage of his marriage, plus the dead of a player, he gave up his dream of making the Beartown hockey team famous again.

Kira is a lawyer giving up her dream to take care of the family because peter spent too much time in the rink. At last, she picked up her dream and opened a start-up with her best friend.

Beji is a hockey player who can only find peace on the ice. Playing hockey is the only sanctuary for this troubled body. He gave up the hockey when the other people cannot accept that he is a guy.

We all have dreams, and we’re all struggling to keep up. Life is too hard; never giving up is just too hard. Sometimes, maybe most of the time, you just don’t stand a chance to win because you lack the ability or the luck. You’re just stuck there, slowly losing your grip to everything.

But how do we know if things would turn better? There are plenty of famous examples that they won at the edge of complete bankruptcy. We can’t trust ourselves because we always biased. But we can’t trust other people either, because they are even more biased. How do we know when to give up?

In the novel, Peter will be happy because he chose another life which he may be more useful and will keep the family together. Kira is happy because she can finally do what she wants to do. Benji is lost...

I’m lost, too...

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.