Fredrik Backman’s Beartown series is a love letter to the sport of ice hockey. In the fictional small town of Beartown, nestled deep in the northern Swedish forests, everyone is hockey-obsessed—just like in Hed, the eternal rival town next door. Using the sport as a backdrop, Backman paints an intensely emotional portrait of small-town identity and the unifying power of family and community. The Winners is the final installment of this trilogy.
What’s Left to Say About Beartown?
Truth be told, everything has already been said.
The first book delves into the fallout of a sexual assault. The star player thinks everything is his by right. A large part of the town agrees, since he’s their ticket to putting Beartown back on the map after decades of obscurity. But the Anderson family stands their ground—and in doing so, they split the town in two.
The second book, Us Against You, continues the story of the now-familiar characters but focuses primarily on the mass psychology of small-town sports. Specifically, the residents of the two neighboring towns go totally nuts over their rivalry and beef with each other. The tension rises. Then rises some more. And more. And more…until it boils over.
If you think Cornwall was one of the UK’s most vibrant, culturally advanced, and innovative regions at the end of the 18th century, well, you’re wrong. Very wrong. It took exceptional courage for an author to set his epic family saga in this era. Winston Graham had that courage. And persistence. Warleggan is now the fourth part of the Poldark family saga.
Back to the Copper Mines
What can one do in Cornwall at the end of the 18th century? Besides fishing and smuggling, of course. Well, mining. The area is full of copper. The fact that copper prices have been in the gutter for about a decade doesn’t seem to bother anyone.
It’s almost comical, this stubbornness that defies all logic, with which Poldark teeters on the edge of bankruptcy and collapse, only to be granted yet another short-lived reprieve thanks to unexpected twists, allowing him to keep struggling against fate.
But there’s no need to worry. You know full well that he only needs to hold out a little longer, and once war breaks out between England and revolutionary France, prosperity will return.
If you’ve read tons of crime novels, you’re well aware that American, British, Scandinavian, etc., detectives work their guts out when there’s a case. They know that as time goes by, it only gets harder to catch a criminal. But what do the Basque cops do in comparison? At least, if we’re going by The Silence of the White City. Well, they just don’t give a good goddamn about the whole thing.
They take it easy over the weekend—even if Spain’s most brutal serial killer in history is massacring half the city. They head to the countryside for a little gardening, plan their upcoming weddings, that sort of thing. Meanwhile, the bodies are piling up like nobody’s business.
Something’s Off with The Silence of the White City
Eva García Sáenz De Urturi’s book feels a bit… off. The foundations are mostly solid, but the quality fluctuates wildly. There’s nothing catastrophically wrong with it, but the constant little irritations keep it from rising above average.
To start, it’s helpful to know that Australia is scorching hot. It’s a wonder half the continent hasn’t caught fire. Oh, wait—it already has. Much like The Lost Man, Jane Harper’s first novel, The Dry, was set against this intense heat. However, The Dry turned out to be a fairly average crime novel (despite trying to present itself as more) and left me questioning whether I should bother reading anything else by her.
But of course, I couldn’t resist. (Damn curiosity!) And in the end, I didn’t regret it. The Lost Man is definitely an improvement over its predecessor, though for a long time, you might not even realize you’re reading a crime novel—it’s unclear if a crime has even taken place—or a leisurely paced family drama. In reality, it’s a bit of both. Regardless of what it turns out to be, I can imagine that the slow pacing might eventually deter some readers.
Australia’s Loneliest Man Investigates
The middle brother, who runs the family’s vast property far away from anything—except the desert—is found dead in the middle of nowhere. He left his car behind. Now, anyone who abandons their car in a place where 45°C (113°F) isn’t considered too hot is he is done for. Nathan, the LONELIEST PERSON in all of Australia and the estranged brother of the victim, doesn’t exactly conduct an investigation; like the rest of the family, he’s just trying to process the tragedy.
Colonel Ludlow, weary of the Indian massacres, settles down in the remote Montana long-long ago, three sons are born, and so on. And when the youngest brings his bride, the STUNNING Suzannah, even the other two boys start to drool over her. As if that wasn’t enough, World War I breaks out just then.
And what’s the point? It’s not good to throw around big words, but there’s nothing to be done when this is the situation. Now listen: the film drama “Legends of the Fall” teaches you that no matter how diligently you obey all laws of God and man, you can still end up with EVERYONE loving someone else who outrightly flouts these laws. Can you do anything about it? Nothing, you just got screwed. Thanks a lot!
At most, you can toughen up your soul, because this film is shamelessly and unabashedly manipulative, every effort aimed at bringing tears to your eyes.
Little “M” for example, kept watering the mice, so eventually I had to keep a list, and in the end, it turned out that Edward Zwick’s esteemed masterpiece brought tears to the little one’s eyes precisely a dozen times during viewing. Quite an achievement!
This goddamn film affects the viewer like this, even if you know exactly that most of the characters’ troubles – alongside the damn scriptwriters – are caused by stubbornness bordering on stupidity or incomprehensible self-will, and they wouldn’t get into such a mess if they showed a little more empathy or at least some PATIENCE towards each other.
So if you feel as tough as nails, but just to be on the safe side, you want to check, watch “Legends of the Fall.” And if your eyes don’t well up once during it, well then you really are!
8/10
Legends of the Fall (1994) (IMDb) Director: Edward Zwick, Stars: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Aidan Quinn, Julia Ormond
You have no idea what anime is? Neither did I, really. (It’s a cartoon, basically.) But Little EM nagged me for a whole year—well, if you can call open and shameless blackmail nagging—until I had to give in. “Attack on Titan is the best anime! Everyone’s watching Attack on Titan!” claimed Little EM. Maybe so, although the real question is how long they’re watching. If you want what’s best for yourself…
How does the series start anyway? It starts off damn well. Humanity has been living behind enormous walls for a hundred years. Outside the walls, there are naked, androgynous, and horribly stupid giants who hunger for human flesh. It’s like zombies, only bigger than apartment buildings. In the first episode, the giants break through the wall. After watching it, you’ll probably just gawk and say, “I’ve never seen a stronger series opener, not even Lost or The Shield, compare to this.”
Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from there. It feels like the creators locked a bunch of twelve-year-olds in a room, had them compete to come up with the dumbest idea, and the winner’s idea got passed along. There’s no sense to the story; it’s like they’re always trying to make something big happen, and as quickly as possible. The first two seasons could have easily explored how humanity recovers from the initial shock, how they slowly gear up for an unequal fight against the almost unbeatable enemy. Instead, they throw in two twists, right at the beginning (the first being the protagonist’s, uh, transformation, and the other involving the giant girl), which completely undermine the otherwise strong premise. And don’t even get me started on the Abnormals, special giants with unique abilities. Armor, teleportation, who knows what else. All these elements successfully reduce the series to a stupid fairy tale.
And believe it or not, that’s the lesser issue. The bigger problem is that the creators of Attack on Titan are incapable of writing sensible dialogue. All the conversations are garbled, pompous repetitions. Plus, most of the characters, whether necessary or not, SCREAM AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS. Especially Eren, the protagonist, who can ONLY COMMUNICATE BY SCREAMING. So, if his little buddies in the Scout Regiment disagree with him, they don’t politely ask,
“Hey, what the frakkin’ hell are you doin’, chimmy-chummy?”
Instead, they SHOUT in his face, “You’re preparing for the downfall of humanity with your actions. Admit that you’re an enemy of humanity!” And so on. This compulsive grandiloquence renders every conversation completely unbelievable and ridiculous.
But the childishness and thoughtlessness extend to every other aspect of the series as well. Whenever the characters find themselves in a crisis (which happens quite a few times), with about 10 seconds to avert the crisis, you can bet 500 yen against the armored giant’s left testicle that they’ll spend AT LEAST 10 minutes lamenting, philosophizing, or struggling with themselves over what to do—while you angrily pound the armrest of your chair in front of the TV and start SHOUTING yourself: “Your time’s up, you miserable idiots!”
At least one recruit participating in military training has a HYSTERICAL BREAKDOWN due to the bleak future ahead, and a third of the episode is spent with the others comforting them. Meanwhile, in sharp contrast, and only incidentally, it turns out that due to overcrowding behind the walls, 250,000(!) civilians were driven out to fight against the giants—to reduce the population inside. The brilliant plan was a success. The giants ate them all. Problem solved. It couldn’t have been easy to convince these 250,000 civilians to join the action; they were probably all forcibly pushed out the gate and weapons were thrown after them at the end, to prevent any recklessness inside. Or if not, they all were probably EASILY INFLUENCED retirees.
With these immortal words, the Saga comic series by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples kicks off—in the middle of a childbirth scene, no less. If your immediate reaction is to think, “Maybe this is trying to shock me,” well, you wouldn’t be wrong… But hey, it’s the 21st century, so who doesn’t give a FUCK? who doesn’t give a GOOD GODDAMN?
That said, I wouldn’t exactly recommend the Saga comic to prudes in good conscience, as this is far from the ONLY instance like this.
For example, you’ll encounter dangling male genitalia more than once, swinging in all its glory. Then, you’ll visit a brothel planet and stumble straight into a full-blown orgy. Later, you’ll meet a character with more legs than arms and more eyes than ears. And at this point, you might start doubting yourself: could it be, purely by chance, that you’re just a tad bit twisted for thinking this bizarre creature is sexy as hell…?
But oh yes, it’s entirely possible!
(Oh, and she spends every one of her scenes rocking a monokini. So, if you didn’t already know what arachnophilia is, you’re about to find out.)
After the tragic death of her husband, Nina Locke moves back to her late spouse’s childhood home, Keyhouse, in Lovecraft, Massachusetts, along with her three children. However, as it turns out, the protagonists of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s Locke & Key couldn’t have chosen a worse place to start over. (And let’s be honest, even the town’s name isn’t exactly promising.)
Keyhouse is an incredibly dangerous place. The members of the Locke family share a supernatural connection with the house, which harbors countless secrets. Scattered around the house—or carefully hidden—are various keys that unlock doors leading to unexpected destinations. Some open physical spaces (think something mundane, like our dear Aunt Maggie’s pantry), while others provide access to far more extraordinary places—like inside someone’s BRAIN. There’s even a key that separates your soul from your body.
But with these keys, the Locke kids could also accidentally summon creatures straight from hell if they’re not careful.
