How Did "My Friends" by Fredrik Backman End?
What Are the Twists and Spoilers?
Joar gets a bike for his birthday, but sells it for art supplies
With the money that Joar gets from the bike his mother gave him, he can buy "the artist" supplies for his art competition painting.
We learn that the artist's name is Christian, but his friends call him KimKim. His artist name, C. Jat, is a combination of his name, Christian, with Joar, Ali, and Ted.
Joar steals a car to take his friends on an adventure
Joar decides to steal his dad's car so that he can take his friends on a trip. Joar did not have a driver's license, but he had recently found out that his mom did not have one either and she drove - so he took a shot!
Joar's dad was not able to drive to work that day because he was drunk, and his mom did not take the car for fear that she might crash it and anger her husband.
Ali insists that this is a bad idea because she is worried about Joar and the consequences he might face.
Joar takes his friends to the art museum in town and says that one day the artist will be in the museum, and KimKim tells Joar that Joar will be there too, and Joar agrees reluctantly.
Ted and Louisa go to Joar's house
TWISTY, because for most of the book, the language suggested that Joar passed away during some sort of struggle with his abusive father
While Ted is telling this story, he and Louisa have reached their destination and get off the train. They pass through part of the town Ted and his friends grew up in, and stop at a house. We find out that the man who steps out of the house is Joar.
We learn that Joar is now mostly sober, but refers to having had drinking problems in the past, and that he is also wearing an ankle monitor instead of serving a prison sentence. The jail time was due to Joar knocking out a man he saw hurting his wife while their child watched.
Joar realizes the knife he carries is missing
Joar realizes that his mom took the knife he had been keeping in his backpack and replaced it with soap. Ali gave Joar the knife, and he has been keeping it to defend himself against his dad. Joar says that he was planning to kill his father that night. That was why he was checking on the knife. He had planned to pretend to find another bird and show his father the box.
In a panic, they all head home in the stolen car, and when they arrive, there are police cars.
TWISTY because the “blow to the head” that they've alluded to - we were meant to think it was Joar's mom or Joar- but actually it was his dad who was injured at work.
Despite his injuries, Joar's father didn’t die. Instead, he had a significant traumatic brain injury. Joar’s mom will have to take care of her husband for the rest of his life. We discover that Joar also took care of his dad; he became a different person after the accident and was no longer abusive. Joar also shares that after his dad passed, his mom met an incredibly kind man.
While they are at the hospital tending to Joar's dad, KimKim's painting goes missing, and he decides to paint another one. We learn that it was Kimkim's dad who found the painting and kept it.
Interesting side note - Backman writes that it was such a small thing that could’ve made the crane that hit Joar's father change direction. Just the weight of a bird, which is a call back to Joar's dad and his cruelty. He believed that he had smushed the bird that Joar and his mother were caring for.
Ali moves away
Ali's dad got a job in a different town. Ali says that she plans on coming back so that she can be with Joar.
At this point, the painting is finished, but after reviewing the ad for the competition, the friends see that the maximum age is thirteen, and they are now too old.
Joar decides to steal his dad’s car - again
The friends all go back to the museum, and once inside, they hang Kimkim’s art up. A security guard catches them. The friends call Christian’s mom for help - Christian is the dead janitor from earlier in the book who taught the artist how to paint. She comes, identifies the painting, and confirms that it was painted by KimKim. She also sees that the artist has signed the painting with a skull, the same kind that the janitor, her son, used to regularly make in his art.
The artist goes to art school
Christian's mom helps KimKim get into an art school. Unbeknownst to KimKim, his parents have sold much of what they own to pay for him to go. They have kept the drawing that his dad found at the hospital.
Ali passes away in a surfing accident
Joar and Ted tell Louisa that Ali moved away and regularly wrote to Joar about loving the beach and surfing. Unfortunately, around her eighteenth birthday, Ali sent her last letter to Joar because she drowned while surfing.
Christian's mom comes into the kitchen to see the painting that Ted and Louisa have brought back. She has a strong reaction, and then Louisa realizes that she isn't having a reaction to the JCat art, but to Louisa's.
KimKim's art is returned to the local museum
Louisa goes with Ted and Christina's mom back to the local museum and places JCats' art there, where he and his friends had taken it all of those years ago.
People try to get in touch with the original auction art seller to figure out how the painting got there, and the seller says, wink-wink, that he has lost the contact information for the buyer.
KimKim's ashes are returned
The conductor reaches Ted to tell him that he has the ashes that were left on the train. They bury the artist. Ted decides to return to teaching, and Louisa decides to go to art school.
Full circle ending
The book ends with a full-circle moment. Louisa calls Ted in the middle of the night, much like KimKim used to call Ted and Christian would call his mom. Louisa forgets that there is a time difference, and she tells Ted that she has "found someone like them". In this conversation, Louisa suggests to Ted that he write a book, and he answers, asking, "What would someone let me write a book about?"
What other twists and turns were you surprised by reading "My Friends" by Fredrik Backman? Did you see the ending coming or were you surprised!? Did the book end how you had hoped? Comment down below and let me know!
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