The Bear Went Over the Mountain

An English Professor in Maine writes a novel and hides it in a briefcase in the woods because his last novel burned in a cabin fire. A bear finds the briefcase, likes the novel, claims it as his own and travels to New York – after breaking into a store for clothes - to get an agent. Of course it’s published to high acclaim, the bear is a sensation, and no one notices he’s a bear. It’s a beautifully ridiculous story and entertaining throughout, but it’s not fluff. There are lessons about ambition and truth and hard luck.

Miserable University of Maine professor, Arthur Bramhall, has written a book he hopes will save him from teaching ever again. He thinks the manuscript is a winner and will make him millions. Unfortunately, the story goes up in flames when his secluded farmhouse goes up in flames. Never mind. He rewrites it practically word for word only this time it's better. In order to avoid another book ablaze he hides it in a briefcase under a tree...only to have a bear steal it. The bear reads the manuscript and knows a good story when he sees it. He travels to New York to hawk the book and ends up making movie deals and having sex with humans. While the bear (Hal Jam) becomes more human, the professor (Arthur Bramhall) becomes more animal after show more the loss of his manuscript. show less

The moral of "The Bear Went Over the Mountain," William Kotzwinkle's 1996 comic fantasy novel, is about the same as that of "Big Eyes," the new Tim Burton film: Only the precious few can create art, but anyone can pretend to be an artist.

In Kotzwinkle's literary fable, a Maine bear who has become a people watcher and wishes he could become a person himself, gets his chance when he finds a briefcase containing a manuscript for a novel, "Destiny and Desire," by Arthur Bramhall. The bear has taught himself to read from the labels on human food, and he thinks it's a pretty good book. The publishing world thinks so, too, and soon Hal Jam (the bear names himself after one of his favorite foods) finds himself the acclaimed author of a best show more seller.

The story owes a debt to "Being There," Jerzy Kosinski's terrific 1970 novel that was made into an equally terrific film. In that book, Chance is the simple-minded gardener who dresses in his employer's hand-me-down clothes. When his benefactor dies, Chance is turned out of the estate, but he looks so fine in his expensive suits he is taken for a wealthy businessman, and his simple statements about gardening and television shows are taken as words of great wisdom. We get a lot of that in "The Bear Went Over the Mountain." Hal Jam talks mostly about food and his life in the Maine woods, but his listeners invariably interpret his words as something else entirely.

Kotzwinkle loses his readers' attention a bit whenever his story strays from Hal Jam back to Arthur Bramhall. Even so, it proves interesting when Bramhall turns gradually into a bear while the bear morphs into a human being. show less

Wickedly funny allegory. A bear becomes a Wall St. maven, while an English professor takes over the bear's cave. Hilarious commentary both on contemporary business practices and the ludicrous state of current literary theory. Here's an example of an NY

In this completely ridiculous novel, a bear finds a manuscript in a briefcase and goes to New York to get it published. No one he deals with - agents, editors, hoteliers, lovers - sees that he is a bear. Instead, they see him as an eccentric genius, and because he is a "man" of few words, they dub him the new Hemingway.

I'll rate this book A for enjoyment, because it is laugh-out-loud hilarious throughout. Heavy it is not. It hardly seems a novel at all, more like an extended joke, as one of the jacket blurbs suggested. If you loved the movie Being There, you might like this book, because the humor comes from the same premise: pretentious people, laden with status anxiety, investing a dumb creature with their own ideas of wisdom.

Aroostook County, Maine - A bear finds a novel hidden in a briefcase under a tree, and claims it as his own. The novel is heralded worldwide as perhaps the best book ever, and Hal Jam (as he names himself en route to the city) is a society darling. Speaking in short declarations about what matters most ("Honey." "The River.") to him regardless of the question asked, he becomes known as a deep and profound thinker, and wins over everyone from the Vice President to a right wing televangelist. Everyone wants to be associated with him - but no one sees anything but what they want to see. No one sees a bear, even when he rolls on his back in the grass in an extremely bear-like manner.

I was surprised at how much I liked this book. It's an show more in-your-face look at high society and the media. Kotzwinkle has written a very insightful commentary on our nearsightedness when blinded by fame and power. Very good. show less

A tremendously funny satire of the publishing world. A bear finds a briefcase in the woods that contains a manuscript. He takes a pseudonym and turns in the book under his new name. It's an overnight hit, and no one seems to notice that the author isn't human.