BEAR TOWN

This seemed the perfect book to review on a snow day! In it, Fredrik Backman, author of beloved novel A Man Called Ove, writes about a tiny, frozen town in Sweden obsessed with its high school ice hockey team. When the community is gripped with a scandal that forces its members to choose sides, the moral fabric of the town begins to unravel, with unexpected and tragic consequences.
I have delayed reviewing this book because I try to be positive here, and truthfully I am in what seems a very small minority of people who didn’t love this book. I didn’t find think the characters were well-developed, and I found the oddly cryptic ending deeply unsatisfying. However the dialogue this book may spark is an important one, and there were a few characters who were ultimately compelling. This book is often billed as a "hockey Friday Night Lights" but while reading it, I thought more often of Joyce Carol Oates's We Were The Mulvaneys, for reasons that will be apparent to readers of both books. I look forward to reading Backman’s other novels; this one just didn’t resonate with me.

With gratitude to my Swedish aunt, who made these meatballs for our family for years and kindly shared her recipe with me. I made a turkey version here, and seeing them brings back lots of lovely childhood memories eating similar meatballs surrounded by twinkling holiday decorations and other traditional Swedish treats. Utsøkt!