Bear

This book was better than I was expecting...even though I don't know what I was expecting, considering it's a book in which a woman has sex with a bear that was pushed to publication by Robertson Davies and then won the Governor General's award. There's a lot of conflicting information there. But, as I was reading it, I could not judge Lou for her choices. I mean, I would not have made the same choices as her, but I can't really blame her. Especially considering the bear is a smybol of...men? or her life? or something? I'm sorry, it's hard to read past the text to the subtext when the text includes a woman fondling a bear's testicles.

So Lou is an independent young woman, unattached, with a career that she kind of likes but is starting to bore her, she's in a rut, she can't make connections with men on any meaningful level, so she jumps at the chance to live on an island in the middle of nowhere for a summer cataloguing books. Only there's a bear who lives on the island with her, a pet of the previous owner of the house, and she's expected to feed the bear but not much else. She enjoys the solitude of the wilderness, and soon develops a bond with the bear, and one night, in a fit of passionate loneliness, allows the bear to, y'know, help her out. She didn't seek out the bear, she just...didn't stop him. Can you blame her? I mean there are plenty of ways for a woman to react to that which don't look like bestiality but whatever floats your boat. It was consensual anyway. Lou falls in love with the bear over the summer, because he doesn't judge her or make her feel empty. She's fully aware of the fact that he's a bear and doesn't have feelings, but love is love! In the end, while attempting to actually consummate their relationship, the bear rips her back open with his claws ('cause he's a bear, we all saw that coming) and decides that she's actually not really in love the bear anymore, and maybe she should just look for a new job to get herself out of her life rut. If it takes a bear going down on you/mauling you to figure that out, I kind of feel like you need to take a look up outside of your own self once in a while.

I actually liked this book quite a bit. The writing is good, and I think when I read it again one day I'll be able to look past the sensational bits and hear the message of the book a bit better, but I do recommend it! Unless you don't like swear words. Or bear testicles. On the other hand it is reallllly Canadian!