Us Against You by Fredrik Backman

*Beartown, book 2*

Beartown was the first book I read in 2018 so when I heard there was a sequel, I ran to the library to scoop this up.

Just a few months after the end of Beartown, Us Against You tells the story of Beartown versus Hed and how the split in hockey takes its toll on the people of Beartown. Backman's writing is beautiful and he's so good at building tension. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and I can't wait to pick up my next Backman book at the library.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

When Nadia and Saeed first meet, their country is being torn apart by war. Islamic militants take over their city and eventually the entire country. Their love is heightened by the atrocities they witness against neighbors and loved ones. When they hear whispers about doors leading to other, better countries, they're desperate to find one. Saving and scrimping, pretending to be married, the couple slips through one door, into a refugee camp. The next door brings them farther from their homeland and everything they know. But it's the final door that makes them question not just each other, but themselves as well.

This is a brilliant book about the horrors people face in the homelands before they become refugees, as well as the indifference, hatred, and bigotry they face as refugees. I love the prose, I think Hamid's writing has a nice flow to it, and I'm amazed that he could be vague and specific at the same time. The only aspect of the story I didn't like was Nadia's insistence on wearing the black robe in public, especially after leaving the country, because she thought it made her safer. 

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Many members of the Russian aristocracy were executed, banished, or fled under cover of darkness. This is the (fictional) story of one under house arrest in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. Count Alexander Rostov cannot step outside of the hotel without fear of being shot on sight. He meets many interesting characters, both long-term workers at the Metropol and regulars at the Boyarski, the high-end restaurant in the hotel. His sudden adoption of a young girl changes everything and he uses his Bolshevik and resistance friends to change his circumstances. 

I almost stopped reading this book because Towles takes too long to convince us why we should like his Count Rostov. Once he hooks us, we're in and desperate to figure out how he can live within the confines of a hotel, in a tiny room in the attic. His relationships (and eventual job) are the meat of the story. I mean, really, how could someone live in the attic of a hotel without making friends with everyone?

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Alias Grace is the semi-fictionalized story of Grace Marks, Canada's most notorious murderess of the 19^th Century. Her story was sensationalized at the time, and Atwood takes this sensationalism to explore a supernatural explanation to Grace Marks' loss of memory during the murders of her master Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery. Atwood digs into her fictional Grace through a psychologist, Dr. Simon Jordan, after Grace has been in prison for fifteen years. She tells her story while we see how she lives in prison while working the Prison's Governor's home. Dr. Jordan's story is also told, and we see how desperately he wants to believe that he can figure her out and fix her so that he can legitimize his work. The key to unlocking Grace's memory is Mary Whitney, an old friend who died too young. But how can a dead girl answer questions? In ways you couldn't imagine.

I'm still new to Margaret Atwood, but I was pretty disappointed in her storytelling here. Maybe it's because this wasn't the usual dystopian I'm used to from her, or maybe it's because I was expecting a bigger, better explanation. It took forever to get through the first 100 pages, but after that the story moved quickly. Without adding any spoilers, I'd just like to stay there was a specific (and obvious) scene where I feel like I figured it all out. I know why Grace did what she did, even if she couldn't remember. And while I don't have a problem with that type of storytelling, I tend to see Atwood as wanting to keep her readers in the dark as much as possible, or at least as much as her characters.

I loved the story and I'm looking forward to watching the mini-series on Netflix, which was my main motivation for reading this. I will post a link to my review of the mini-series once I watch it. 

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

A Man Called Ove is the heartwarming and heartbreaking story of Ove, a man so grumpy that it takes a village to wake him up and remind him who he is. Ove is a man who was set in his ways as a child; he's a man of a certain generation, a man who can learn everything about someone by what car they drive. When Ove has given up, a new family moves into his neighborhood and shows him that there's still love and laughter in the world and more importantly, there's always someone to fight for.

Fredrik Backman reaches out to all of us with this story. I laughed just as often as I cried, and sometimes the tears were brought on by laughter and joy. Parvaneh, Ove's newest (and very pregnant) neighbor, irritates him so much that he feels he needs to help her. Then he helps someone else, and then a cat. Everyone knows and Ove; I jokingly told my husband I was reading his best friend's biography! This book is filled with so many wonderful and colorful characters, not just Ove and Parvaneh. Ove has just as many rough edges as soft spots, and this isn't a story to miss.

 

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Min Jin Lee's Pachinko is the story of one Korean family in 20^th Century Japan. Sunja is brought to Japan from Korea in 1933 as the wife of a Korean Christian minister. Her story, along with her children's and grandchildren's, are shown through hardship, war, and racism. The 2^nd class status Koreans held in Japan is explored alongside the 2^nd class status of women in both Korean and Japanese cultures. The tragedies that befall this family over four generations are the same as many, if not all, people who have been relegated as 2^nd class citizens throughout history, stretching even to today.

This is a story about suffering. Many of the characters we meet have secrets that would not only destroy them, but their entire family. One of the main themes in this book is the belief that women must suffer. They must suffer more than men and they must suffer in silence. This is not a new concept, it's been repeated and reinforced in cultures all over the world. It's a belief that has been so ingrained in women that many of them still believe it to this day. But the larger story in Pachinko is the suffering this Korean family faces while living in Japan. At this point in history, Japan was an occupying force in Korea and Koreans in Japan were Korean citizens, not Japanese citizens. We recognize the prejudices faced because many of us have faced them too, here, in America. 

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

This multi-generational family saga begins in Ghana in the mid-18^th Century and ends at the beginning of the 21^st. Effia and Esi are half sisters who have never met and don't know the other exists. Effia is married to Ghana's British Governor while Esi is kidnapped and sold into slavery, bound for America. Following seven generations, Homegoing tells the untold story of Africa and America through slavery and war. The similarities and differences between Africans and African-Americans are explored through each generation.

Homegoing is the story we didn't realize we needed. Too many African-Americans don't know their heritage and too many white Americans don't care. We don't want to be reminded of what our ancestors did to their ancestors. The beauty of this novel is it's simplicity. Each chapter follows a different character, starting with Effia and then Esi. We follow their children through life in Ghana and life in America. We see how they struggle with trying to fit in; because Effia's husband was white her family was marked as different and Esi's descendants were slaves, then free, then slaves again. Each chapter is only about 20 pages but Gyasi packs so much depth and history into each character that you feel like you know them. 

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

Fredrik Backman's Beartown focuses on a small hockey town in the middle of a Swedish forest. Outsiders believe the town is finished, but the town believes in the promise of their young hockey stars. These stars are children, teenagers still in high school. As the team gets closer to the national finals, they begin to unravel. They seem to believe they are gods and they love the adulation of the town, especially the teenage girls. When the team captain makes a mistake that can't be undone, the town begins to unravel. Violence and accusations rage across the small town in the middle of a forest until someone finally snaps and someone else does the right thing.

 This novel hooks you from the first sentence and does not disappoint in keeping you on the edge, always uncertain what's going to happen next. Backman's style is short, concise scenes that fit together in a way that each chapter seems to have its own theme. I felt the whole range of emotions while reading this, from sadness, anger, and rage to happiness and incredulity. All of the characters were fully formed, even those who didn't warrant actual names (Kira's colleague, Kevin's father and mother). Both the best and the worst aspects of human nature are explored in a way that shows communities can come together with a common goal, but that goal might be misguided and downright harmful.