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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ultra-fantastic Satire,
By
This review is from: The Bear Went Over the Mountain: A Novel (Owl Book) (Paperback)
This is a wickedly funny satire of publishing and life, wherein a nice bear stumbles upon a manuscript in the woods and decides to become an author. As authors are notoriously eccentric, his strangeness is discounted by all (he is the next Hemingway, they say, so raw and back to nature). At the same time, the fellow who actually wrote the book is finding that his anger and depression is leading him into the woods where he is becoming more gruff than ever. There are sections here where I was literally snorting with laughter, usually in response to the literal-mindedness of the bear's reaction to humans--their mating rituals, the hoarding of food, those things important in life. Like the best fable, Kotzwinkle shows us through his bear character that all of these things we accept so easily are so much more, and also shows us through the human author that the city life is only part of the story. The methodology of the tale is ultra-fantastic, even "magic realism" if you will. Kotzwinkle constantly reminds us that the bear is a bear, even as he becomes more human-like (and vice versa for the author turned woodsman). It resembles Carol Emshwiller's Carmen Dog in this manner--the animals may speak, but there's still a difference between them and humans. The satire resembles Terry Bisson's "Bears Discover Fire" (you could say this is "Bears Discover Publishing") in that it juxtaposes the raw nature of the beast with the civilized society. As much as I admire Bisson's story, I think Kotzwinkle out-does him, basically just by being able to extend the conceit for an entire novel. This is highly recommended to fans of realist fantasy and humorous works in general.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Laugh out loud funny!,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Bear Went Over the Mountain (Hardcover)
One of the funniest books I've ever read, Kotzwinkles
telling of the story almost has you believing that a bear
could actually pull all this off! The hero of the story is
a bear who one day finds a book manuscript hidden in the
back woods of Maine, reads it and thinks its such a
wonderful story that he takes (steals) it to New York city
with the idea of selling it. After adopting an alias (Hal
Jam), he peddles the book around the NY publishing world
and meets many quirky and self absorbed people on his way
to eventually becoming world famous. Throughout the story he
vacillates back and forth between wanting to remain in the
comfortable but strange and "hard to figure out" world of
man - with its unlimited quantities of sweets and women;
and wanting to return to his beloved forest where life is
so much simpler. The plot is very much like the movie "Being
There", except with a slapstick slant. Everyone that the
bear meets reads deep and profound meaning into Hal's
brooding silences and short, out of context statements. It
kept me laughing out loud for two straight days, I can't
remember the last time a book did that to me!
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read it and weep - with laughter,
By
This review is from: The Bear Went Over the Mountain: A Novel (Owl Book) (Paperback)
There's so much truth about the publishing world in this drop-dead-funny satire that it's a wonder the publishing world ever published it!Outrageous premise of a man who writes The Great American Novel, loses the manuscript in the woods, and becomes so depressed that he goes into hibernation and becomes beast-like. The flip side of the equation, the part that makes this book a dangerous one to read in bed beside a sleeping mate, is that the manuscript is found by a bear who manages to sell it on a trip to New York. The bear is courted by NY's best and finest celebs, and he impresses reviewers, agents, and editors with his hyper-intelligent and deeply moving monosyllabic grunts and one-word responses to interview questions. But the parts that'll make your trying-to-sleep spouse want to kill you are the love scenes between the bear and the object of his affection, a 'fur-bearing woman,' (a lady who doesn't shave her legs). Don't miss it. Buy two, and give one to your favorite quirky friend.
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