Things My Son Needs to Know About the World

I believe I pre-ordered this book one second after it was announced.

Yes, because I have young sons and it's a bit of a mystery how I can raise them to grow up and be smart, caring, romantic, independent grown-ups. But, also because everything Fredrik Backman writes is instantly my favorite thing to read. This was a departure from the novels that I've raved about in the past; it's every bit as heartwarming and delicious.

In this book, Backman writes to his young son about everything from the rule you MUST follow in Ikea (he lives in Sweden, it's a big deal) to why every man should join a band (for the t-shirts, of course, but also the friendships.) It's sweet, really funny and includes the universal truths that make his writing so special and memorable.

I love that it's not mushy in any way - he refers to toddlers as "tiny telemarketers" for their demanding nature. He acknowledges that little kids can be absolute assholes from time to time. You laugh... then, you sigh when some chapters feel like they're written less for his son and more as a love letter to his wife.

Backman manages to be sweet and tender and even a little crude at times. He's also so damn profound, there's a sentence every so often that takes the wind out of you with an emotional punch to the chest.

I don't want to give any of it away and I couldn't do it justice if I wanted to, but there's a chapter about good v. evil when Backman expounds on the tough lessons his son will learn and all the bad things we encounter in the course of ordinary life. Then, he hits you with the counter-punch: "It's also full of all the other stuff. The small things. Kindness between strangers. Love at first sight. Loyalty and friendship. Someone's hand in ours on a Sunday afternoon. Two brothers reconciled. Heroes who stand up when no one else dares. A fiftysomething man in a Saab who slows down when he sees your turn signal and lets you into his lane during rush hour. Summer nights. Children's laughter. Cheesecake."

Backman, man.

Reading this helps me understand why Backman writes fiction the way he does. It made me appreciate his novels even more. If someone told me Backman was writing a book about the inner workings of my sewer pipes, I'd read it. Thankfully, he wrote this instead. And, I loved every second.

Did I learn how to raise better sons? Not explicitly. But, I did learn that a man can be sweet and thoughtful and crude and write beautiful books that make you think differently about the world. That's an even better lesson for a woman raising sons.