Marian engel, who died in 1985 after a tragic struggle with cancer, was among Canada's most celebrated and beloved novelists. Her last, best known, and most controversial book was Bear (winner of the Governor-General's Award) in which a mousy, timid librarian is summoned to a remote Canadian island to inventory the estate of Colonel Cary, who, she learns soon enough, had any number of secrets. But the most surprising and enduring secret is a pet bear. In thirty pages, the reticent librarian meets the not so reticent bear and "wonders if it would be good company." It is good company indeed. Intimate company. Shocking company.
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Review
Bear is a strange and wonderful book, plausible as kitchens, but shapely as a folktale, and with the same disturbing resonance. --Margaret Atwood
From the Inside Flap
After five years buried like a mole amid the decaying maps and manuscripts of an historical institute, Lou is given a welcome field assignment: to catalogue a nineteenth-century library, improbably located in an octagonal house on a remote island in northern Ontario. Eager to reconstruct the estate?s curious history, she is unprepared for her discovery that the island has one other inhabitant: a bear.
Lou?s imagination is soon overtaken by the estate?s historical occupants, whose fascination with bear lore becomes her own. Irresistibly, Lou is led along a path of emotional and sexual self-discovery, as she explores the limits of her own animal nature through her bizarre and healing relationship with the bear.
A daring and compelling novel, Marian Engel?s Bear won the Governor General?s Award for 1976. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Lou?s imagination is soon overtaken by the estate?s historical occupants, whose fascination with bear lore becomes her own. Irresistibly, Lou is led along a path of emotional and sexual self-discovery, as she explores the limits of her own animal nature through her bizarre and healing relationship with the bear.
A daring and compelling novel, Marian Engel?s Bear won the Governor General?s Award for 1976. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A disturbing tale finely told,
By Rick Hunter (Malone, NY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bear (Paperback)
Marian Engel's short novel Bear is an odd book. Winner of the Governor General's Award (Canada) in 1976, it clearly has attained critical success. In broad outline, Engel tells the story of a bookish young woman, Lou, working as an archivist in dusty historical institute, who is given the field assignment to catalog a nineteenth century library located on a remote island in Ontario. The only other inhabitant of the island is the pet bear of prior the occupants, and a strongly sexual - though not consummated - relationship develops between them The subject matter of this book may be very disturbing to some - an afterward in the Canadian edition to this book notes that many have described the book as "pornographic". I do not agree with this censor's view, but agree that it is not a book for children or prudes. The real "subject" of the book is Lou's growth from retiring recluse to more confident woman; although the medium of transformation is through sexual awakening, this is not the sole or even principal end result. Finally, a word must be added about Engel's wonderful writing. Her characters, settings, and descriptions are lively, strongly visual, and at times amusing. Take, for example, her musings on historical Canadians: "The Canadian tradition was, she had found, on the whole, genteel. Any evidence that an ancestor had performed any acts other than working and praying was usually destroyed. Families handily became respectable in retrospect but it was, as [Lou] and the [Institute Director] often mourned, hell on history." More such fine writing awaits the reader of this short but non-complacent novel, which I recommend.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Special Paradise for the few,
This review is from: Bear (Nonpareil books) (Paperback)
And like all paradises, transient, for without loss, a paradise does not exist.
Marian Engel weaves a dense, exposed little world for her character and the reader, I'm not sure I can say more than the other reviewers, but only express my joy with the book. It's funny to see what is disturbing for some, tepid for others, and downright heaven incarnate in the north woods for others.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More than you think,
By
This review is from: Bear (Nonpareil books) (Paperback)
Bear is more than just a story about a woman on an island, interacting with a bear. It is about a woman who finds her place in life, her life wants and goals, and her tracks to her life journey. This is about a woman who was headed in the wrong direction--leading a drab, boring life, a life that seemed to be controlled by the affair she was having. She takes a trip to a historical house on an island in Canada and finds that it was more than she had ever expected. Her life change and new attitude was fueled by a sexual relationship. It is more than just a sexual relationship--she finds out how to love herself and love others as well. Bear is an interesting tale filled with sadness, love, and truth. This story needed to be written and needs to be read.
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