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"Someone tickled me behind my ears, under my arms. I curled up, became a full moon, and rolled on the floor. I may also have emitted a few hoarse shrieks. Then I lifted my rump to the sky and tucked my head beneath my belly: Now I was a sickle moon, still too young to imagine any danger. Innocent, I opened my anus to the cosmos and felt it in my bowels. A bear, born and raised in captivity, is devastated by the loss of his keeper; another finds herself performing in the circus; a third sits down one day and pens a memoir which becomes an international sensation, and causes her to flee her home. Through the stories of these three bears, Tawada reflects on our own humanity, the ways in which we belong to one another and the ways in which we are formed.
Reviews with the most likes.
3 portraits of 3 generations of circus/zoo polar bears that are part of a surrealistic world where bears (sometimes) can talk, write, get publishing deals, rent apartments, write emails, communicate through dreams, ... Each of the three parts are different in style of narration and level of magical realism, which feels inconsistent but could also be intriguing, if I wasn't so surprised by the inconsistencies at first. I liked the first part the most as it was the most adventurous the most absurd, while the second part was only half a story of a polar bear and strangely rather an autobiography of a circus worker, and then the last part was good but sad as it had the most realism in presenting the life of a zoo animal.