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A review by allieginn
The Winners by Fredrik Backman
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I really, really thought that I wasn't going to give this 5 stars when I first finished reading this last night, I felt like maybe a 4.5 or maybe even 4.25 would have been more appropriate. But the longer I have sat with it (about 10 hours hours now), the more I have grown so fond of this story that Backman needed to tell. One last gut punch before saying goodbye to these towns and these characters forever.
I don't remember the last book to make me genuinely weep, but the last 70 pages of this novel had me practically dry-heaving from crying so much. Crying mostly because of sadness, but also because of loss. The characters and connections and towns created within the 1600-or-so pages Fredrik Backman decided to dedicate to this trilogy, are so real and vivid and feel like people that I know and places that I have been.
I laughed, I cried, I felt deep moments of sorrow, but also deep moments of joy and elation. This story which took me over a month to read because I never wanted to say goodbye to this little town in the forest of Northern Sweden, say goodbye to the men who love a sport and a team so much that they put on black jackets every day prepared for a fight to defend them, say goodbye to a young boy who was born on the other side of the world where it never snows but was born to play a game on ice, say goodbye to the hunter's daughter who loves so loudly and so fearlessly, say goodbye to the family who broke together but who put each other back together piece-by-piece, and mostly, to say goodbye to my number 16, the boy with the sad eyes and the wild heart, my Benji.
Someday I might maybe write about the ways in which I have felt so connected and seen in a character like Benji Ovich, but I am not prepared to do that now. So I will just end this review by saying this: still the bravest bastard I know.
I don't remember the last book to make me genuinely weep, but the last 70 pages of this novel had me practically dry-heaving from crying so much. Crying mostly because of sadness, but also because of loss. The characters and connections and towns created within the 1600-or-so pages Fredrik Backman decided to dedicate to this trilogy, are so real and vivid and feel like people that I know and places that I have been.
I laughed, I cried, I felt deep moments of sorrow, but also deep moments of joy and elation. This story which took me over a month to read because I never wanted to say goodbye to this little town in the forest of Northern Sweden, say goodbye to the men who love a sport and a team so much that they put on black jackets every day prepared for a fight to defend them, say goodbye to a young boy who was born on the other side of the world where it never snows but was born to play a game on ice, say goodbye to the hunter's daughter who loves so loudly and so fearlessly, say goodbye to the family who broke together but who put each other back together piece-by-piece, and mostly, to say goodbye to my number 16, the boy with the sad eyes and the wild heart, my Benji.
Someday I might maybe write about the ways in which I have felt so connected and seen in a character like Benji Ovich, but I am not prepared to do that now. So I will just end this review by saying this: still the bravest bastard I know.