Britt-Marie Was Here

 

Britt-Marie Was Here – Fredrik Backman

If I had to guess, I would speculate that “A Man Called Ove” is author Fredrik Backman’s most popular release.  I read it and enjoyed it. In many ways, “Britt-Marie Was Here” almost seems a companion to that one.  I don’t remember that much about “Ove” other than he was kind of a grouchy old sod, but he had an awful lot of effervescent neighbors and companions that seemed to pull the crotchety guy out of his funk and make him somewhat lovable; or at least bearable.

Like Ove, Britt-Marie is old – or at least “old-ish” and she’s a bit of a weird duck as well.  Britt-Marie has had a bit of a rough life and ended up marrying a man who really didn’t care that much for her. He’s used her more as a servant than a loving partner, but due to Britt-Marie’s upbringing, she really doesn’t know any better.  So when she gets to her somewhat advanced years and her husband is now gone (with no children of her own), she’s not really sure what to do.  She obsessive about cleanliness, she likes order, and she’s very stubborn about anyone’s behaviors when they don’t coincide with hers.  But Britt-Marie is single now, so she turns to an employment agency for help. She needs a job, but doesn’t really know what to do with one if and when she gets it.

I should point out that Fredrik Backman is from Sweden and apparently his books have all been translated into English.  I mention this because, as someone who has never been to Sweden, many of the behaviors and environments that I read about in Backman’s books seem very….well….foreign.  There’s something about the people, the places, the culture that just seems a bit bizarre and unfamiliar.  I’m sure I wouldn’t feel that way if I were an indigenous Nordic, but the strangeness is overtly obvious.  Fortunately, though, none of this takes away from the enjoyment of the story.

As an example, Britt-Marie gets a job through the employment agency as a worker at a recreation center in a small, dying town.  This is one of those towns where everyone is out of work and seems to drink alcohol as a hobby.  There’s a pizzeria in this town along with the rec center, but nothing else.  I kept wondering how people can afford to go to a rec center or eat out at a pizzeria (let alone drink alcohol), but it’s best not to overthink these things.

There are a lot of children in this town, and soccer is their passion.  Britt-Marie feels slightly uncomfortable around all of these urchins, yet when you work at a rec center, you can’t escape something such as soccer that’s such a passion for these kids.  So Britt-Marie begins to slowly find herself, and she allows herself to get close to these strange people which is definitely a new thing for her.

So it’s fun to watch Britt-Marie in her journey. It’s fun to watch her finally become a person who has some human interactions.  Yes, she’s quite annoying (as was Ove) but people in Backman’s stories seem to overlook such peculiar idiosyncrasies of people such as this odd out-of-towner. It’s enjoyable to watch everyone grow and cling to each other during such tough times.

Again, the people and places seemed a bit strange, and maybe if I were to see a movie with this strangeness in front of me, it might be easier to assimilate. So I had a lot of questions about certain people and what they did, or why they were presented a certain way, but this seems to be common with the author’s work and it certainly didn’t deter my enjoyment.  A bit different and strange, but a satisfying read nevertheless.