Us Against You

“He's twelve years old, and this summer he learns that people will always choose a simple lie over a complicated truth, because the lie has one unbeatable advantage: the truth always has to stick to what actually happened, whereas the lie just has to be easy to believe.”

An apt sequel. I enjoyed getting back to the inhabitants of Beartown and it was a satisfactory wrap-up to the story.

I didn't enjoy this one whatsoever, but it's still Backman so it's well written and has lines every so often that really make you think, so it skirts by with a 3 star by the hairs on its chinny chin chin.

Here's what I think happened. I think Backman did Beartown, and then his community got together and took him hostage and was like, “you didn't portray hockey as important enough, you better DO IT AGAIN BUT THIS TIME, THE HOCKEY IS POSITIVE.”
There's a lot of things I didn't like, but a good amount of them are spoilers. The first problem I had is that I don't think this book justified itself. After finishing it, I do not think one storyline in it needed to be told. Obviously Backman can write whatever he feels he wants to, but nothing really came together at any point. It was just a bunch of people and once in a blue moon, something happened. The first half of the book is excruciatingly melodramatic, wallowing in the events of the first book. (which, for certain characters, aka the ones that were directly effected, makes sense. But literally half the book is people just pouting “we want hockey and now there's no hockey, boo hoo”).
There's also a political storyline with the hockey that is, for my personal taste, literally the least interesting thing a person could read. That one's on me, I'll take the hit here.
The way hockey is portrayed in this book is much more positive and central than the first book. This provides a disconnect because it was very obvious that the hockey culture was the problem in the first book, but the narrator doubles down and constantly talks about just how fucking GREAT AND WONDERFUL hockey is. I hated this, not sure if that was intentional or not but I doubt it.

The constant refrain of, “it's not important. It's just sports” as some sort of profound “oh wow sports can totally change your life, why didn't I see it before!” Epiphany was REALLY grating on me. I don't think anybody suggests sports are NOT important to the people playing them, and that they obviously can heavily impact your life. So this just seemed like a really stupid and bizarre thing to keep repeating and flies directly in the face of the first book, where the sports culture is VERY MUCH the problem that makes the central event so troubling. Yeah, sports are important, but toxic hockey cultures and entire towns worshipping teenager's abilities is decidedly not healthy, and you know that Backman...because you wrote the first book? This heel turn seems unjustified and like trying to walk back all the points from the first one.

The town of Beartown is like 100 times more insufferable in this one. But the narrator is still trying to make you think, “hey, these people are complicated!” and they totally aren't. They're aggressive, backwater, stupid, homophobic, stuck in their rut and unwilling to change. The town is portrayed so aggressively unlikeable for most of this book, except when they randomly decide not to be (like retiring a number on a jersey for someone and then cheering for 20 YEARS whenever that number is brought out). In Beartown, I understood why people would live in Beartown, even if I personally never would. In Us Against You, I think Beartown is a place where bad people go.

They also talk about this character, Vidar, for the entire book. He fuels SO MUCH of the narrative for the first half, and does not appear until 70% into the book! What! And then he shows up, is in a few scenes, has no personality, does one thing, and then the book ends. Everything about this is perplexing.

That's all I can think of without straight up ripping on the plot beat by beat. I'm genuinely upset I didn't like this one like the other Backman books I've read, but it was a mostly unpleasant experience that I kept wishing was over. I hope he releases the third book soon, so I can not read it, and then he work on something better.

3.5 rounded upwards

a grand portrayal of a small town, a bit of a mess yet so sincere and so committed to the stories it tells. for every questionable or unnecessary bit of writing (or lack of writing - seriously, why was there so little focus on amat?) there's two moments that flat out made me want to cry. very clearly the middle child of a trilogy, there's a lot of set-up that is never acted upon which is quite clearly intended for book 3 (leo, alicia, etc etc). and for how blunt the metaphors and foreshadowing can be, i also find them incredibly effective. there's a certain implication about benji's fate, for example, that's been frequently set-up from book one and it still hits hard.

in short: some things could be chopped off or toned down a bit, yet it's ultimately a very cohesive and poignant piece of fiction. maybe the sort of thing that i won't love in a few years, yet for the time being it's really clicked.