The Bear is a story of a family camping trip gone very wrong. Inspired by the 1991 bear attack in Algonquin Park that left two campers dead, author Claire Cameron re-imagines the story from the perspective of five-year-old Anna, who, along with her two-year-old brother Alex (who Anna calls “Stick” or “Sticky”) survive the attack and spend several days in the wilderness on their own. The survival story creates a framework for what becomes an extended monologue in which Anna reflects on love, fear, and loss from a child’s perspective. It is by no means easy to create a child’s voice that is authentic but Claire Cameron does it well, even if at times it seems a bit affected. Through Anna’s reflections the reader is made to understand that her parents’ relationship had been in trouble before the family camping trip, and the immediate experience of abandonment, fear and loss resulting from her parents’ death is filtered through Anna’s experience of her parents’ earlier separation. It is a neatly constructed conceit, and the author plays it out so that the two story lines pull against and illuminate each other. Nonetheless, for this reader, the bear attack and the children’s subsequent struggle to survive is too immediate and urgent to allow the reader to patiently indulge the long passages of Anna’s lyrical observations, and while both narratives are engaging for very different reasons, they might have been better as two separate writing projects - a short story about the bear attack, and a longer novel about Anna’s coming to terms with her world. Other reviews of this book I've read from the internet describe it as "riveting", "taut" and "unforgettable". I'm not so enthusiastic. I would have given this novel a rating of two and a half if that was an option, but I’ve rounded it up to three stars because I think others might enjoy it more than me. If you liked Emma Donoghue’s Room, you will likely enjoy The Bear (that is if, unlike me, you are a patient reader who is happy to let the story unfold at its own pace, and don’t feel a need to skim through the meat of the novel just to see how the damn thing turns out!) This is the author’s second novel and is a best-seller in Canada. It was released in February of 2014 and was longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize).Excerpt:When you have a dream and it feels real it means you might pee the bed. I need to pee. And I shout and shout and Daddy doesn’t come. He helps me pee at night if I am scared because sometimes there can be monsters in a closet or under a bed at night and you never know. It is only Stick lying here. He rolls over and boinks me with his head. His nose breath goes in and out. We are two. I don’t want Stick I want Daddy and I miss him so much it makes my tummy feel weird. Daddy is warm and he tastes like salt on his arm. He has big eyebrows that go up when he is laughing and big teeth too. He has a temper and that means that you tiptoe when his eyebrows are down.When Daddy’s eyebrows are down that is a very important thing and it doesn’t mean that Daddy is bad. It does mean that if I am naughty his hair will get more sticky up on his head and his big teeth show. He growls sometimes. That is not because he doesn’t love me but he is tired or hungry so it’s not just his belly that growls but his mouth too…I am not in bed and there are sounds like animals outside and I feel so scared. Daddy is mad and isn’t here. His face was outside the car. I was in the backseat with Stick and Gwen and Momma had her hands on the steering wheel and turning it and her face white and Stone. Daddy’s seat was empty because he was standing outside and I looked at him and I wanted him inside the car. After a rogue black bear attacks 5-year-old Anna's parents, she has to save herself and her toddler brother. The first part of the story was gripping especially when Anna and Alex are hiding (or more precisely have been hidden by their father) and the bear is still roaming the campsite. The middle drags a little due to the narrator's 5-year-old voice, but the ending was satisfying. All in all, the concept of the story is a good one, but reading the narrative as told in a five-year-old's voice got a little tiresome and rambly after awhile. Anna's voice was authentic, but it was hard to follow at times. I did find it hard to believe that Anna never realized that the "black dog" was really a bear. She had knowledge of bears, so it seems like she should have known what it was. Perhaps it was just her coping mechanism to think it was a dog rather than something more dangerous like a bear.
What do You think about The Bear (2014)?
I loved this book, very emotional and well written.
—marksT
