58 pages • 1 hour read
Fredrik Backman, Transl. Henning KochBritt-Marie Was Here
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Britt-Marie has spent 40 years as a housewife to her entrepreneur husband, Kent. Britt-Marie is very set in her ways, especially regarding her dependence on baking soda as a cleaning cure-all, her love of balconies, and her fixation on lists. She fears death.
At the age of 63, she leaves Kent and seeks work at the unemployment office. After being told there were few jobs available that don’t require training, she insistently makes another appointment with the case worker for the following day. Afterward, she buys her dinner and ruminates on her marriage in her hotel as she instinctively waits for Kent to return.
Chapter 2 Summary
Britt-Marie returns to the unemployment office, interrupting a staff meeting to demand a job. Britt-Marie sees soccer stickers on the case worker’s door and is reminded simultaneously that Kent loves soccer, and she hates it. She also recalls a news article about a woman who lived alone and had died suddenly; her body hadn’t been found for weeks.
Later, the case worker finds Britt-Marie waiting for her. Britt-Marie insists on making another appointment with the woman regarding her employment. The staff try to dissuade her, citing a busy schedule and the office closing at five o’clock, but Britt-Marie decides on a six o’clock dinner meeting.
Chapter 3 Summary
Britt-Marie returns to the unemployment office. She recalls some of her habits from her marriage to Kent, including washing his shirts every night. When shopping for dinner ingredients, she is furious that the store didn’t carry any Faxin, her beloved brand of window cleaner. She becomes anxious during her interactions with the cashier and is reminded of her dependence on Kent.
At five o’clock, Britt-Marie seeks the case worker, who is preparing to leave. Britt-Marie implies that the case worker’s haircut indicates that she is a lesbian and demands to be directed to the kitchen so she can cook dinner. The case worker notices Britt-Marie’s fixation with her missing wedding ring and asks about Britt-Marie’s sudden motivation to find a job after 40 years.
Britt-Marie explains that she is desperate for a job because she doesn’t want to become the woman from the news article, whom no one realized was dead. She reveals that Kent was regularly unfaithful to her and that she suspected it due to the perfume—which she doesn’t wear—on his shirts every day. She left him after he had a heart attack while with his lover. Despite Britt-Marie raising his children from a previous marriage, Kent often insulted and neglected her. Now sympathetic, the case worker comforts her and voluntarily compliments her cooking. Britt-Marie is touched.
Chapter 4 Summary
Two days later, the case worker finds a job for Britt-Marie: a recreation-center caretaker in the rundown village of Borg. The job is only for three weeks with negligible pay and is not supposed to exist, as the village is in decline from financial ruin. Britt-Marie accepts the job and travels to Borg. While retrieving the recreation center keys from the post office, her car explodes outside the local pizzeria. Britt-Marie calls the case worker for help. As she struggles with her new cell phone, she observes some local children playing soccer. She also sees an enormous rat, but before she can scream, she is knocked out by a soccer ball to the head.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
The primary function of these four chapters is exposition. Via a limited third-person narrator focused on Britt-Marie’s perspective, the chapters explain her current state and how much her present is tied to her past. While these four chapters are short, they provide concise introductions of every important theme and symbol of the story.
The main theme foreshadowed in these chapters is that of The Cycle of Trauma, Coping, Hope, and Resilience. This is most evident through Britt-Marie’s fear of death, specifically the humiliation of dying alone, with no one to notice or care that she is gone. Britt-Marie even admits to the unemployment office staff that she will take any job, no matter how undesirable, because “[i]f one has a job, people notice if one doesn’t show up” (19). While Britt-Marie’s fear is common, the extent to which she frets about it is not—thereby foreshadowing further discussion of her specific trauma(s) in future chapters. So far, the only hint at her current circumstances is that of her unfaithful and neglectful husband, Kent, who has legally remained married to Britt-Marie for decades but who barely seems to acknowledge her existence. As exposition, this toxic environment posits a possible explanation for Britt-Marie’s trauma, as it impacts her daily life and negatively affects her mental and emotional health, indicated by her fixation on her missing wedding ring and constant rumination.
These circumstances introduce the second major theme of the novel: Self-Actualization and Independence. Britt-Marie is heavily dependent on Kent, despite his own symbolic rejection of her: Without him, Britt-Marie struggles to even shop alone, as he would normally push the cart. Despite having left him, she waits up and saves food for him even in her solitary hostel room. However, her decision to leave him is an important step in her journey to function as an independent adult. Her insistence on finding a job demonstrates that she is capable of achieving her goal, but that she lacks the self-confidence to do so, likely due—at least in part—to both Kent’s insistence that she remain a housewife and his serial infidelity. Even unconsciously, Britt-Marie has her limits. Her position in Borg is another important step in her journey, as it removes her physically from her old life and forces her to start over in circumstances that require her to fend for herself. This metaphor is compounded by the explosion of her car and the soccer ball to her head, both sudden jolts that signal inevitable change. As Britt-Marie dislikes change, they foreshadow the rocky road ahead of her.
The narrative also introduces several significant symbols. First is the symbolism of cleaning agents. Britt-Marie cleans in stressful situations, reflected in her insistence on washing Kent’s shirts every night. More specifically, Britt-Marie turns to baking soda as a cleaning panacea, using it to “purify” her mattresses every day. By using it on a place where she is most vulnerable and metaphorically close to death, she shields herself from elements of fear and undesirability (as well as Kent’s betrayal). Similarly, Britt-Marie adores the window cleaner Faxin and becomes very upset when it is unavailable. As someone who dislikes change, Faxin represents her singular, narrow worldview and life with Kent. When it is gone, she cannot accept any alternative and is thus at a loss about how to continue—both with her cleaning and her life, particularly now that such a dramatic change has occurred. The lack of Faxin in the store foreshadows the extent of this struggle.
On the other hand, although leaving Kent has brought Britt-Marie progress on her journey to independence, she also loses her solace. As she processes this, the symbolism of balconies becomes clear. Despite Kent’s physical absence in Britt-Marie’s life, his presence takes up the majority of their home. The balcony was Britt-Marie’s private space where she could be comfortable. Losing her home also meant losing her designated safe space; while the hostel offers shelter, it lacks a balcony, adding to her feeling that it is “neither a place to live nor a home” (9) and reinforcing her fear of change that affects other aspects of her life—most particularly, her new start in Borg.
Britt-Marie’s transition to Borg hints at the third theme of the book: Social Class as Othering. When the unemployment staff describes the job, she says the pay is so bad, Britt-Marie would make less than she would from government benefits. Britt-Marie’s references to Kent’s business career and her disregard for the measly salary imply that she is comfortable enough financially to not worry about money, implying a more privileged social class. Given the job prospects, in contrast, Borg is the complete opposite, a small town in decline. While Britt-Marie has had little interaction with Borg residents thus far, the theme hints at future lessons for her. Finally, the last symbol, soccer, makes a brief appearance at the end of Chapter 4, when it knocks Britt-Marie unconscious. In this way, Backman hints that Britt-Marie coming to Borg will make a positive change, though she may not always see it coming.
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