Book Review: The Bear (OT)

The Bear, by Andrew Krivak* (Bellevue Literary Press, 2020, 221pages, $16.99)

So melodic it flows and takes you along with it. Rhythmic, short sentences that also flow. Sweet. 

Simple and readable and short ("the beauty of small things" page 32) yet enthralling, despite the plethora of descriptions. 

Elegant. Profound. Peaceful. Smooth, it rolls along as it tells of mankind and the flora and fauna and the end of it.

Touching

A girl and her father. He teaches her about the world of literature and history and nature, passing on its secrets. The mother passed away shortly after childbirth but had made five pairs of moccasins for her child, each one a size larger than another so that when she wore out the largest pair, she would be old enough to learn to make her own.

The mother now lies beneath bear-shaped boulder formation atop a mountain** that stands alone and resembles a bear. A good bear. A shy wandering male bear. A bear in an inside story tells the people not to leave without him, just as the girl's bear does, before his long winter sleep.

Every year on the summer solstice, the girl and her father trek up the mountain. This is the day the girl was born so the father gave her something useful with which to focus the year's lessons: a compass, a bow and arrow, . . .

Fables within a fable. One story after another about the animals they shared the world with. Words turn to smoke as life turns to ashes. Loss. . . .

Is The Bear the story of raising children, teaching them what they need to know before we are gone? And when we are gone, will there be a bear and a puma and an eagle to take over the lessons? And what about those slow long conversations with wise trees?

A Lyrical Foreboding

Somehow you read sad. Somehow you know the girl and her father are the last two living on this earth and you surmise that the story will reveal how that came to be. And, of course, the father will die first because he is older but will he have time to teach her all she needs to know?

Journey for Creatures of Habit

All animals are creatures of habit. The difference is that animals change when they are afraid while we can choose to change our habits. (p. 181)

Team of Two

The bear replaces the girl's father and talks to her, telling her how all the animals used to be understood by humans. The wise bear and the young girl make a good team as they make their way home: the bear smells food and the girl uses her opposable thumbs. And then will come a puma and an eagle to teach her on her journey alone back home to bury her father with her mother.

To survive in order to return home after a winter journey, the girl looks to the night sky and measures the days to discern the equinox and her location.

If you liked The Life of Pi, you will love The Bear, a long short story.

Caveat: This book was sent to DogEvals for review and I am so glad. Krivak's three novels can be found at the Howard County, MD, public library.

*author of The Signal Flame (2017), a Chautauqua Prize finalist,

and The Sojourn (2011), a National Book Award finalist and winner of the Chautauqua Prize (2012) and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction (2012)

**"We all have to sleep on the mountain one day. . . Even when we struggle with all our will not to." (page 36)