us against you book reviews

• ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

US AGAINST YOU

by Fredrik Backman ; translated by Neil Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 5, 2018

Backman plays the story for both cynicism and hope, and his skill makes both hard, but not impossible, to resist.

Shockwaves from the incidents in Beartown (2017) shake an economically depressed hockey town in this latest from the author of A Man Called Ove .

Swedish novelist Backman loves an aphorism and is very good at them; evident in all his novels is an apparent ability to state a truth about humanity with breathtaking elegance. Often, he uses this same elegance to slyly misdirect his readers. Sometimes he overreaches and words that sound pretty together don’t hold up to scrutiny. This novel has a plethora of all three. Grim in tone, it features an overstocked cast of characters, all of whom are struggling for self-definition. Each has previously been shaped by the local hockey club, but that club is now being defunded and resources reallocated to the club of a rival town. Some Beartown athletes follow, some don’t. Lines are drawn in the sand. Several characters get played by a Machiavellian local politician who gets the club reinstated. Nearly all make poor decisions, rolling the town closer and closer to tragedy. Backman wants readers to know that things are complicated. Sure, many of Beartown’s residents are bigots and bullies. But some are generous and selfless. Actually, the bigots and bullies are also generous and selfless, in certain circumstances. And Lord knows they’ve all had a rough time of it. The important thing to remember is that hockey is pure. Except when it inspires violence. This is an interesting tactic for a novel in our cultural moment of sensitivity, and it can feel cumbersome. “When guys are scared of the dark they’re scared of ghosts and monsters,” he writes. “But when girls are scared of the dark they’re scared of guys.” Margaret Atwood said it better and with more authority decades ago.

Pub Date: June 5, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-5011-6079-0

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: April 30, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018

GENERAL FICTION

Share your opinion of this book

More by Fredrik Backman

BOOK REVIEW

by Fredrik Backman translated by Neil Smith

by Fredrik Backman

by Fredrik Backman ; translated by Neil Smith

THE THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2004

Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.

Life lessons.

Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.

Pub Date: July 1, 2004

ISBN: 0-345-46750-7

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004

More by Kristin Hannah

by Kristin Hannah

THE VEGETARIAN

by Han Kang ; translated by Deborah Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 2, 2016

An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.

In her first novel to be published in English, South Korean writer Han divides a story about strange obsessions and metamorphosis into three parts, each with a distinct voice.

Yeong-hye and her husband drift through calm, unexceptional lives devoid of passion or anything that might disrupt their domestic routine until the day that Yeong-hye takes every piece of meat from the refrigerator, throws it away, and announces that she's become a vegetarian. Her decision is sudden and rigid, inexplicable to her family and a society where unconventional choices elicit distaste and concern that borders on fear. Yeong-hye tries to explain that she had a dream, a horrifying nightmare of bloody, intimate violence, and that's why she won't eat meat, but her husband and family remain perplexed and disturbed. As Yeong-hye sinks further into both nightmares and the conviction that she must transform herself into a different kind of being, her condition alters the lives of three members of her family—her husband, brother-in-law, and sister—forcing them to confront unsettling desires and the alarming possibility that even with the closest familiarity, people remain strangers. Each of these relatives claims a section of the novel, and each section is strikingly written, equally absorbing whether lush or emotionally bleak. The book insists on a reader’s attention, with an almost hypnotically serene atmosphere interrupted by surreal images and frighteningly recognizable moments of ordinary despair. Han writes convincingly of the disruptive power of longing and the choice to either embrace or deny it, using details that are nearly fantastical in their strangeness to cut to the heart of the very human experience of discovering that one is no longer content with life as it is.

Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-553-44818-4

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Hogarth

Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015

More by Han Kang

by Han Kang ; translated by Deborah Smith & Emily Yae Won

by Han Kang translated by Deborah Smith

More About This Book

• Discover Books Fiction Thriller & Suspense Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Nonfiction Biography & Memoir Teens & Young Adult Children's
• News & Features Bestsellers Book Lists Profiles Perspectives Awards Seen & Heard Book to Screen Kirkus TV videos In the News
• Kirkus Prize Winners & Finalists About the Kirkus Prize Kirkus Prize Judges
• Magazine Current Issue All Issues Manage My Subscription Subscribe
• Writers’ Center Hire a Professional Book Editor Get Your Book Reviewed Advertise Your Book Launch a Pro Connect Author Page Learn About The Book Industry
• More Kirkus Diversity Collections Kirkus Pro Connect My Account/Login
• About Kirkus History Our Team Contest FAQ Press Center Info For Publishers
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC.   All Rights Reserved.

Popular in this Genre

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

Create a new bookshelf.

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Already have an account? Log in.

Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

• Industry Professional

Welcome Back!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Contact us: 1-800-316-9361 or email [email protected].

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Magazine Subscribers ( How to Find Your Reader Number )

If You’ve Purchased Author Services

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up.

clock This article was published more than  6 years ago

Fredrik Backman returns to Beartown in ‘Us Against You’

If Alexander McCall Smith’s and Maeve Binchy’s novels had a love child, the result would be the work of Swedish writer Fredrik Backman. His new book, “Us Against You,” continues the saga of a small place that readers fell in love with in “Beartown” (2017).

But if Beartown is small in size, it’s huge in human drama. With his wry acceptance of foible and failure, Backman combines a singular style with a large and compassionate perspective for his characters.

“Beartown” saw Backman leave behind the apartment-house set of novels that he first became well known for among American book groups — “A Man Called Ove” and “My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry” — and turn to a place consumed by ice hockey. The entire population of Sweden’s Beartown is obsessed with the game, its players and their club headed by a local son who made it to the National Hockey League before returning home and running the club nearly into the ground.

Peter Andersson, his wife, Kira, and their daughter and son are back in “Us Against You.” And Beartown continues to struggle on and off the ice , with the aftermath of sexual violence. A mysterious new coach promises great things, but can Beartown regain its edge against the other local hockey team? Or will the little burg finally collapse beneath the weight of its past and present sins?

If you have no interest in hockey, you might assume you’ll have no interest in this novel. You would be wrong. Backman writes about hockey the way Balzac writes about, say, the French military, meaning that his point lies far from his subject. Backman’s novels have wide appeal, and for good reason. “Us Against You” takes a lyrical look at how a community heals, how families recover and how individuals grow.

Some readers may find Backman’s quiet attempts at philosophy clumsy, e.g. “Life is a weird thing. We spend all our time trying to manage different aspects of it, yet we are largely shaped by aspects of it we cannot control.” But others will appreciate being allowed into this indefatigable place. In “Us Against You,” it’s really all for one, and one for all.

Bethanne Patrick  is the editor, most recently, of “The Books That Changed My Life: Reflections by 100 Authors, Actors, Musicians and Other Remarkable People.”

Us Against You

By Fredrik Backman

Atria. 448 pp. $28

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

• Member Login
• Library Patron Login
• Get a Free Issue of our Ezine! Claim

Book Summary and Reviews of Us Against You by Fredrik Backman

Summary | Reviews | More Information | More Books

Us Against You

A Beartown Novel

by Fredrik Backman

• Critics' Consensus:
• Readers' Rating:
• Genre: Literary Fiction
• Publication Information
• Write a Review
• Buy This Book Amazon Bookshop.org

About this book

Book summary.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Beartown returns with an unforgettable novel.

Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did. Have you ever seen a town rise? Ours did that, too. A small community tucked deep in the forest, Beartown is home to tough, hardworking people who don't expect life to be easy or fair. No matter how difficult times get, they've always been able to take pride in their local ice hockey team. So it's a cruel blow when they hear that Beartown ice hockey might soon be disbanded. What makes it worse is the obvious satisfaction that all the former Beartown players, who now play for a rival team in the neighboring town of Hed, take in that fact. As the tension mounts between the two adversaries, a newcomer arrives who gives Beartown hockey a surprising new coach and a chance at a comeback. Soon a team starts to take shape around Amat, the fastest player you'll ever see; Benji, the intense lone wolf; always dutiful and eager-to-please Bobo; and Vidar, a born-to-be-bad troublemaker. But bringing this team together proves to be a challenge as old bonds are broken, new ones are formed, and the town's enmity with Hed grows more and more acute. As the big game approaches, the not-so-innocent pranks and incidents between the communities pile up and their mutual contempt intensifies. By the time the last goal is scored, a resident of Beartown will be dead, and the people of both towns will be forced to wonder if, after everything, the game they love can ever return to something as simple and innocent as a field of ice, two nets, and two teams. Us against you. Here is a declaration of love for all the big and small, bright and dark stories that give form and color to our communities. With immense compassion and insight, Fredrik Backman reveals how loyalty, friendship, and kindness can carry a town through its most challenging days.

• "Beyond the Book" articles
• Free books to read and review (US only)
• Find books by time period, setting & theme
• Read-alike suggestions by book and author
• Book club discussions
• and much more!
• Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
• More about membership!

Media Reviews

Reader reviews.

"Starred Review. There is even more potential for book group discussion here as Backman explores violence, political maneuvering, communities, feminism, sexuality, criminality, the role of sports in society, and what makes us all tick." - Library Journal "Darkness and grit exist alongside tenderness and levity, creating a blunt realism that brings the setting's small-town atmosphere to vivid life." - Publishers Weekly "Backman plays the story for both cynicism and hope, and his skill makes both hard, but not impossible, to resist." - Kirkus

Author Information

• Books by this Author

Fredrik Backman Author Biography

Photo: Henric Lindsten

Fredrik Backman is the #1  New York Times  bestselling author of  A Man Called Ove ,  My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry ,  Britt-Marie Was Here ,  Beartown ,  Us Against You , and  Anxious People , as well as two novellas and one work of nonfiction. His books are published in more than forty countries. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children.

Link to Fredrik Backman's Website

Name Pronunciation Fredrik Backman: Backman's name is pronounced broadly as it sounds, but his famous character Ove is more challenging, it rhymes with hoover

Other books by Fredrik Backman at BookBrowse

More Recommendations

Readers also browsed . . ..

• The Book of George by Kate Greathead
• Suggested in the Stars by Yoko Tawada
• Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
• Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
• The Rest of You by Maame Blue
• Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
• My Friends by Hisham Matar
• The Sisters K by Maureen Sun
• Season of the Swamp by Yuri Herrera
• The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich

more literary fiction...

BookBrowse Book Club

Who Said...

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Solve this clue:

and be entered to win..

Your guide to exceptional           books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Subscribe to receive some of our best reviews, "beyond the book" articles, book club info and giveaways by email.