BearTown
I have been wanting to write about this book since some time. This is not a book review as I have not divulged the story details. Just a note about some of my favourite quotations from the book and a preface to it. BearTown by Fredrick Backman is the strory about people living in a small town named "BearTown". While the passion for ice hockey drives a lot of them, it is also an abhorrence for the game ,few others bear. The nuts and bolts about life and people which Backman has put in few lines here and there, is something which captivates the reader. The story is partly about an ice hockey tournament which the bears(thats how the boys refer themselves) are set to play .Backman's description about the characters are so vivid that you could easily think about someone from your life who are like them.
There are many downsides about living in a small town . Firstly, a sentence becomes a story and spreads faster than a fire in the forest. Secondly, your past is not something that you have left behind instead its like a shadow that is looming large. And third, its like being trapped in a maze because everybody is related to the other and if there is a problem it makes it complicated to pull yourself through. Below are some quotes from the book which I loved.
“All adults occasionally wonder about another life, one they could be living instead of the one they’ve got. How often they do so probably depends on how happy they are.”
"Hate can be a deeply stimulating emotion. The world becomes easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil. The easiest way to unite a group isn't through love, because love is hard, It makes demands. Hate is simple."
"All adults have days when we feel completely drained. When we no longer know quite what we spend so much time fighting for, when reality and everyday worries overwhelm us and we wonder how much longer we’re going to be able to carry on. The wonderful thing is that we can all live through far more days like that without breaking than we think. The terrible thing is that we never know exactly how many."
“We love winners, even though they’re very rarely particularly likeable people. They’re almost always obsessive and selfish and inconsiderate. That doesn’t matter. We forgive them. We like them while they’re winning.”
“Any living thing that is kept behind bars for long enough eventually becomes more scared of the unknown than its own captivity.”
“Humanity has many shortcomings, but none is stronger than pride.”
“Bitterness can be corrosive; it can rewrite your memories as if it were scrubbing a crime scene clean, until in the end you only remember what suits you of its causes.”
"Being a parent makes you feel like a blanket that's always too small. No matter how hard you try to cover everyone, there's always someone who is freezing."
"There is an obvious difference between the children who live in homes where money can run out and the ones who dont. How old you are when you realise that also makes a difference."
