The Bear

This review originally appeared as part of Pageturners: sometimes mysterious on Buried.In.Print.

The perspective in The Bear is five-year-old Anna’s; imagine hers to be the larger silhouette on the cover, with her nearly-three-year-old brother in tow.

Imagine her to be tugging him away from the campsite ransacked by a bear in Algonquin Park; imagine these two children left to their own devices in the woods.

Imagine the irony of their mother’s statement below, in a scene which unfolded when the worst problem Anna faced was how to get a cookie without her mother seeing and which is remembered when the cookies are suddenly essential sustenance not a desirable treat.

“I snuck a cookie when Momma wasn’t looking. She found the lid off show more when I forgot to put it back because the cookie was so good I had to eat it right away. She looked at the lid off to the side and put it back. She looked at me and smiled and said ‘ A bear must have gotten into our cookie tin.’ And I smiled too and shrugged my shoulders so she wouldn’t know. I get the lid off and whoa the smell of cookies and there are chocolate chips and I stuff one into my mouth and take another and give one to Stick. Finally he is eating a cookie and he is quiet and we are sitting in ankle water in the canoe with sopping wet bums.”

Having the novel narrated by a child creates a deliberate confusion for readers; this is sometimes a delightful puzzle, and sometimes a frustration, which both illuminates the unexpected and muddies the story.

Sometimes it is charming, and sometimes it is horrifying. And it is successful, primarily because the book is limited in length to the same degree that Anna’s comprehension is limited.

“The black dog noses around and it grabs something in its mouth and I look and I can’t tell what it is besides long. But it waves around and on the end it’s red and it might be the meat with Daddy’s sneaker. Daddy won’t like a bear chewing his sneaker.
‘Hey,’ I say.”

Gulp.

This is not the first time that a bear has made an appearance in Claire Cameron’s fiction; The Line Painter was a page-turner too, although because of the two-legged characters, not the bear.

“The bear was at the base of the tree, a paw on my bag, watching me climb. His eyes flickered with amused curiosity. Seeing I’d stopped, he quickly lost interest. He got a firm hold on my bag with his mouth, strolled over to a patch of sun by the lake, and sat down with a thump.”

The Bear has the patch of sun and the lake too, but a very interested bear. And even the adult narrator of The Line Painter was deeply affected by her encounter.

“I was shaky and feeling weak, tired, and a bit homesick. The bear had scared me to my core.”

So it’s unsurprising that the encounter described in The Bear would have lifelong repercussions on any survivor(s). And without going into detail this is considered in the final segment of The Bear.

What touched me most as a reader was the immersive experience of reading Anna’s story in her own voice, which comprises the majority of the novel; the reflective aspects of the novel did not have the same resonance for me.

Many readers are comparing The Bear to Emma Donoghue's Room, Anna’s experiences to Jack’s, and I enjoyed the “before” aspects of that story more than the “after” aspects as well; but whether “before” or “after”, the author’s ability to tell an incredibly compelling story is impressive in both of her novels.

Both of Claire Cameron's novels are un-put-down-able: truly. show less

Two small children camping in the Canadian backwoods with their parents survive after their parents die in a bear attack. The children, Anna about 5 years old, and her 2 year old brother "Stick" are alone in the wilderness with no food, water or shelter. What I liked about this book is that it is narrated by Anna, and Cameron captures the voice of a young child perfectly. She enters the state of mind of a 5 year old who can worry as much about her doll as the circumstances in which she and her brother find themselves. Anna can want to protect her brother one minute, and the next minute push him away in a fit of juvenile anger, or wander off and forget his existence altogether. Since we are learning the story from Anna's pov, it's show more sometimes not clear as to what is actually happening, as we can only understand what Anna understands, and sometimes not even that. This is stream of consciousness of a 5 year old's mind.

Cameron got the idea for the novel from a real-life bear attack that killed a young couple in a Canadian park in 1991. There were no children involve in the true event. Lots of reviewers did not like the use of the child pov. I loved that aspect. This book was longlisted for the Baileys's Prize. Highly recommended if you are not turned off by a child narrator. (Note: This is not a YA novel--it's actually quite difficult to read, puzzle out, and comprehend.)

4 stars show less

It's based on a true incident where a couple lost their lives to a bear while camping on a remote lakeshore. Here the author added the characters of two young children, and told the story from their point of view.

Anna is five and her little brother is almost three. At night in pitch darkness a bear enters the campsite. The children don't understand why their parents are screaming and they hide, afraid of being in trouble. As his last act their father shuts them into a large metal cooler, saving their lives. When they emerge in the morning to the wreckage of camp, it's clear from the girl's narrative that she doesn't comprehend what has happened, nor how serious the situation is. Her seriously injured mother talks her into taking her show more little brother for a ride in the canoe- and thus they flee to the other side of the lake. Where they stumble alone for days through the woods, suffering from hunger, cold, insect bites and more.

This was very gripping, sad and even funny in some moments. I thought the voice of the young child was really well done- it veers around a lot following trains of thought which show how the little kid's mind makes connections that might seem unreasonable to an adult. It seemed authentic- the magical thinking, the disconnect from real danger, oblivious to certain things and heightened attention to others. Through Anna's memories that crop up during the story we gradually get a wider picture of her family's history, her personality and understanding of things. She struggles to stay in control of her emotions (one moment angry at her parents for not being there, the next feeling guilty- thinking they abandoned her on purpose), to take care of her little brother, to think what to do next. I'm glad the tale didn't stop short at the point the children were found, but followed through with a few more chapters showing the aftermath, the reactions of extended family and neighbors, how the children readjusted....

from the Dogear Diary show less

The backstory: The Bear, Canadian author Claire Cameron's second novel, is on this year's Bailey's Prize longlist.

The basics: Based on the true story of a couple killed by a bear at a Canadian campsite in 1991, Claire Cameron re-imagines the story to include two young children camping with the children.

My thoughts: I've never been camping, and I have no real desire to ever go. As I read this gripping novel, I asked my husband, "are there really people who take a five-year-old and an almost-three-year-old camping?" It sounds excruciating to me, but I was fascinated by the characters and story. Cameron smartly opens with a descriptive author's note identifying the real-life inspiration for this novel. The novel reads so real, I likely show more would have been researching its origins as I read if I didn't already know.

Anna, the five-year-old daughter, narrates this story. Traditionally, child narrators are hit or miss for me. Aside from Room (my review), one of all-time favorite novels, I too often find them distracting or unnecessary. Perhaps there's a magic for me as a reader with a very young narrator. Or perhaps there's magic in a child narrator telling a story no one else is around to tell. Or perhaps its as simple as having a child narrator sound like an actual child rather than also including adult observations. As a writer, I imagine it takes incredible restraint to truly tell a story through the eyes and words of a child, but Cameron does it well.

As much as I enjoyed this novel as I read it, I guessed it might be one I enjoyed while I read because of its fast pace and compelling narrative but might not stick with me. Admittedly, I am more partial to an epilogue than the average reader, and this novel's epilogue took the novel to the next level for me.

The verdict: The Bear is a captivating and haunting novel of a very dark subject. I raced through it in less than a day and haven't stopped thinking about it since I turned the last page. I would not be disappointed to see it on the Bailey's Prize shortlist.

A note on the cover: I rarely comment on covers, and this one certainly didn't grab me until I picked up the novel, but it captures the action of the novel beautifully. Looking at it haunts me, although I wish Anna's other hand held her stuffed bear. show less

(Literary Fiction, Canadian)

(True story:) In October of 1991, a pair of campers was attacked & killed by a black bear in Algonquin National Park, in northern Ontario, Canada. Author Claire Cameron was a counsellor at a summer camp at Algonquin that year. “The Bear [the novel] is based on my memories of and research into this bear attack. I added the kids.”

(The novel) is told through the eyes and voice of five year old Anna, one of those kids. She and her two year old brother Stick are the survivors of an attack that kills their parents.

With her dying words, her mother tells Anna to leave the island in a canoe, and thus begins the children’s sojourn alone through the vast wilderness that is Algonquin. The tension as the children show more suffer through each tribulation (hunger, thirst, mosquitos, shelter, and so on) rises steadily. I couldn’t put this down.

Read this if: you want to know if the children survived; or you think you ever want to go wilderness camping.

4 stars show less

This is a nightmarish tale of wilderness survival told from the point of view of a five year old girl. On a summer’s night, while she and her parents and her younger brother are camping on an island in a lake in Algonquin Park, her parents are attacked and killed by a black bear. Anna and her brother Alex, nicknamed ‘Stick’, survive due to their father’s quick thinking. He places them inside a large metal Coleman coolchest. Their harrowing escape and further day and night lost on the mainland are enough to bring your heart to a stop, or start it racing out of control. And in the affecting voice of young Anna, it is almost too much.

Certainly Cameron succeeds in emotionally capturing her reader. You’d be pretty hard hearted to show more be immune. But I worry that this kind of affecting narrative can never be really anything more than that. We have very few insights into the mind of a five year old with which to judge the aptness of this representation. And the demands of a lengthy narrative force the author to significantly expand a child’s vocabulary, insight, and foresight. In the end, however well written the story might be, we simply can’t judge it as either universally applicable or a perfect rendering of a very particular child. And that leaves us only with the emotional flow of the tale.

Perhaps that is enough for some. I confess I want more. So, although I too was caught up whilst reading it, I can’t really recommend this book, even if I would be willing to read something else by the author. show less

Based on the true story of a couple killed by a bear in Canada’s Algonquin Park, the author has pondered on what may have happened if the unfortunate couple had small children with them. Anna and her brother Alex (known as Stick because of his ever present sticky hands) are used to canoeing, camping and hiking with their parents, so when Anna hears strange noises and her parents frightened yelling, she knows something is wrong. Her father has the presence of mind to place the children inside their camp fridge, which they call “Coleman”, ensuring their survival. Anna is enclosed in the small space with her teddy bear, her stinky brother and her fears until the morning when she manages to escape, only to find the remains of her show more father and her mother, barely alive. Anna’s mother has enough breath to tell her daughter to take Stick and escape the island in their canoe. Despite her fear and numerous mishaps, she manages to reach the mainland. But now what does she do? Stick is hungry; he has a dirty nappy and she doesn’t know when her parents will come to take them home.

Anna is the sole narrator of this story. Her voice rings true as a five year old and the almost stream of consciousness style works well. This is a gripping tale during which you will feel quite anxious for young Anna and Stick. But small moments of humour are interspersed throughout this tense story to make it less gruelling. I recommend it! show less