“The Winners” completes the 3-book Beartown series.

I read “Beartown” in 2017 —
“Us Against You” in 2018 —
…..and now…..the conclusion —
“The Winners” in 2022.

In “The Winners”….
“Two years have passed since the event that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there’s something about this place that prevents it. The residents continue to grapple with life‘s big questions: What is a family? What is a community? And what, if anything, are we willing to sacrifice in order to protect them?

It’s been five years since I first read “Beartown”……..
I thought it was brilliant— totally PHENOMENAL [ambitious, complex, substantial depth, and wonderful characters].
I thought - at the time - it was a stand alone book.

I was very surprised when Book 2, “Us Against You” came out. It was ‘good’…..better than ‘average-good’....but not phenomenal. I remember being frustrated with the heavy repetition for the first 3/4 of the book — much too much rehashing from book 1….
I still enjoyed the characters from, “Beartown”, that returned: Maya, Ana, Benji and others from the first book……
But…..
I wasn’t crazy about the new characters, the hoodlums, the violence, and the crazy tragic-twisty events.
I felt the overall story lost some of its original ‘Wow-Ness’…..it lacked a depth of real emotion (something that was organically real in Book 1).

“The Winners”……was good. “IT STARTED WITH A STORM”……
I especially enjoyed re-connecting with the original characters from book 1: “Beartown”…..
And…..
I ‘did’ feel the ‘organic’ emotions were back - which were missing for me in book 2.
But….. where there was a little bit too much violence, corruption, and criminality in Book 2….
In Book 3, there were pages among pages about the ongoing dealings of …..
corruption, embezzlement, conjuring tricks, dirty money, taxpayers’ money of small crimes, sustainability issues, endless arguments about resources, parents trying to influence team picks, coaches whose ideas were grinding, unspecified costs, hypocrisy, a pyramid scheme: unethical business that wasn’t visible….
every decision, every contract, slipped closer and closer to being a criminal act:
”the club has debts and asks the council for more money, but the council is concerned about what voters will think. So instead the club finds a new sponsor, a consultancy firm registered abroad, which for some mysterious reason agrees to pay off all the debts. The consultancy firm is owned by a local construction company in Beartown, whose largest client by far just happens to be the council”…..

Yep…..it started with a storm…..
Backman is a terrific storyteller but it took some patience to read through club-run-business dwellings.
I can’t imagine that every reader wouldn’t also begin to think that some of the details were tedious. …..(no matter how much one loves Backman and or hockey)…

About 60% into the book….I just wanted to know the ending already…..(the climatic events closer to and including the ending ‘WERE RIVETING’) > our emotions catch fire!!!….
but the journey to resolution could have been tighter…..

The story held my interest most when I experienced intimacy ‘while’ addressing issues that our society and humanity deals with….
But….
After awhile …..I admit to feeling ‘Beartown-Fatigue-Burnout’.

That said…..
Backman’s great gift — for me — are those times he pulls at my heart strings….with warmth, sadness, humor, and love……
[hint: Go Girls, Go Elizabeth Zackell]….
and by getting to the heart of the matter….punching those intelligent-moral-powerful daggers at us…..and giving us a little victory.
“Everyone needs to feel that they won something”.:


A few small excerpts…..
“Do you want to understand people? Really understand them? Then you need to know all the best that we are capable of”.

“Home. There really ought to be more words for that. One to cover the people we have there, another with room for those we have lost”.

“The hardest thing in hockey is to change your perception. The hardest thing to change your perception about is yourself”.

Overall ….I’d rate “The Winners” …..the trilogy-conclusion-series about a 3.7 rating. Rating up: 4 stars.

What a stunning and gut-wrenching ending to the trilogy. It showcases Backman's brilliant storytelling and unique writing that is engaging from the first page to the last.