Beartown: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

The “banging” comes from the Erdahl family garden. Kevin Erdahl is shooting pucks. At age seven, Kevin scored all the goals in his very first hockey game, but he missed his final shot and was inconsolable. Late that night, Kevin went missing, and the entire town searched for him. Eventually, they found him shooting pucks on the frozen lake, trying to master the angle he had missed in the game earlier that day. He was carried home, sobbing, with frostbite. The whole town recognized that Kevin “had the bear inside him. That sort of thing can’t be ignored.”

After that, Kevin’s parents had a small rink constructed in their garden. At 17, he’s now the most talented player the town has seen in decades. He knows that hockey demands his all, so he goes running in the forest early every morning, practices on his rink before and after school, and practices with both the junior team and the A-team. He’s already had offers to move and play for bigger teams, but he and his dad are Beartown men.

If Beartown’s junior team wins the youth tournament, the politicians might build a hockey school here, which would attract more talent and sponsors. In turn, that could lead to an economic revival for the town—better roads, more businesses, more jobs. It would rejuvenate the town’s pride. Because of all that, Kevin bears “the weight of an entire community on his shoulders.”

On the opposite end of town from the wealthy houses on the Heights, there’s the Hollow, which sits on the edge of an old gravel pit and consists of apartment blocks. Fatima and Amat live there in a two-room apartment. Early every morning, they take the bus to the rink, where she works as a cleaner and Amat claims extra practice time.

If Amat works hard, he might make the junior team next year, from there advance to the A-team, and finally turn professional. His goal is to someday take his mom away from her cleaning job and away from Beartown. He doesn’t care about money—he just wants Fatima to be able to rest her aching back, and to no longer have to constantly add and subtract money in his head.

Each morning, Amat helps the rink’s elderly caretaker with chores and then has an hour to himself on the ice before the figure skaters arrive. It’s the best part of his day. Repeatedly, he charges back and forth across the ice, as fast as he can go. When she gets a chance, Fatima watches Amat while she works. To her, having moved from a place without snow, Amat’s talent is a “divine mystery.”

In a small house in the center of town, Peter Andersson gets ready for work. He’s barely slept, and he’s been sick twice. He knows his wife, Kira, doesn’t fully understand why grown men get so worked up about hockey. He’s tried to explain to her just how badly Beartown needs a win. She’d just kissed him and told him he’s an idiot, which Peter already knows.