Customer Reviews

Bear v. Shark: The Novel

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

If you like The Simpsons and The Onion and were waiting for a brilliant young novelist with that sensibility to incorporate that kind of satirical aim with silky prose, loaded with original aphorisms and biting observations about infomercials and an entire culture drugged by TV hype, I suspect you will like this novel. Close to a hundred chapters with each chapter around two pages, this novel is comprised of potent epigrams that made me sometimes think I was listening to one of my favorite comediens Steve Wright or at other times watching my favorite cartoon The Simpsons, or at other times reading something from The Onion. As far as plot goes, a family goes to Vegas to watch a pay per view special event, what is a hyped up battle between a bear and a shark, hence the title. Of course, this premise is simply the excuse to write his satire. If you read "page turners" in the sense of "what happens next?", then this is not your kind of novel. But if you love the humor of Steve Wright, The Simpsons, and The Onion and appreciate incredible writing style and polish, I'm almost sure you'll love this novel, as I do.

I really enjoyed this excellent satire on the media, however it may not be for everybody.

There is something intrinsically difficult about satirising one type of media in another. Bachelder attempts to get around the problem by using a very fragmented structure - there are lots of very brief chapters (usually only a page or two) and even within the chapters the style is highly fragmented. He often appears to be attempting to create the sensation of media and information overload, interweaving multiple threads simultaneously (internal monologues, conversations, radio shows, baseball scores). For me, he succeeds most of the time but the style is occasionally a little wearing. It helps that the book is packed with cultural and historical jokes - often delivered in the form of malapropisms - constantly making the point that information does not equal knowledge.

The book is set in the near future where the media, primarily television and the Internet, are even more all pervasive than today. Televisions sense that the viewer is bored and changes the channel automatically. Everybody is on-line all the time. It is a future with zero attention span.

Bear v Shark is the question/joke/theme that runs through the book. "Given a relatively level playing field -- i.e., water deep enough so that a shark could manoeuvre proficiently but shallow enough so that a bear could stand and operate with its characteristic dexterity -- who would win in a fight between a bear and a shark?" In this future Bear v Shark has overwhelmed the culture, it has become the 'eternal question'. It is the only thing anybody seems to be interested in. Society is split between shark followers and bear followers (only a small minority of weirdoes is undecided).

The plot (to the extent that there is one) follows the Norman family on their way to the (next) big event of the century: Bear v Shark II. Bear v Shark II is a fight between a computer-generated bear and a computer-generated shark (a real bear and a real shark would not be realistic enough) to be held in Las Vegas (which has seceded from the rest of the USA). The plot is not really important and the characters are merely ciphers; they exist purely to drive the satire. This is not a character led drama; in fact I found it difficult to feel anything at all about the Norman family.

A successful, original, thought provoking satire. Highly recommended.

Bear v. Shark is one of the most clever books I have read in the last decade, combining wit with a complex satire of American consumer culture. The novel is mostly excellent, taking us on a road trip with an average American family, the Normans, on their way to see Bear v. Shark II, the biggest cultural event ever. Intertwined in the main story are small commercial-like segments that mostly elaborate on the Bear v. Shark question. The book is fast paced, and a quick read for a book that is 256 pages.

However, it is by no means perfect. Bear v. Shark slows to a grind in Part 2, written entirely as an interview between the author and a futuristic talk show personality (it works better than it should, but good writing can't help the gimmicky style used). Things pick up in part III though, bringing the book right to its violent, apocolyptic end.

I finished the book in two sittings, making it an ideal light read for those looking for something more challenging than the latest Clancy/Grisham novel. Chris Bachelder is a talented young author, and maybe next time around he can improve upon the winning formula.

I picked this one up at one of those discount book warehouses based upon reading the first page in the store. When I got around to reading this book, I had a hard time trying to decide if I liked it. The book is a satire about the influence of television, infomercials, entertainment-as-news and advertising in America today. It is written in a collection of sound bites, news clips, and slogans. It reminds me in many ways of Chuck Palahniuk's work. Much of it is very funny and original. But, the stylistics get a bit annoying after awhile. I think this would have been an excellent short story. Still, I think this was good writing and very witty. I look forward to seeing more from this author.

This book took me quite some time to even begin to grasp. But suddenly, once I figured out how to read the author's writing, it took on a life of its own. Don't put this book down, even if you hate it. It builds to a conclusion that makes you want to throw the book, because you are left simultaneously so fulfilled and completely unsatisfied. Brilliant satire, hilarious writing and a disturbing look at our future means that Bachelder has constructed a true gem.

You'd really be hard-pressed to find a more entertaining book than Bear v. Shark. Bachedler has invented a fictional world that's easy to laugh at but seems way, way too real and immediate in an eerie sort of way. The book satirizes today's world by presenting an all-too-possible fantasy world in what might be the not-too-distant future. As I laughed at the characters in the book, I found that I was laughing at myself, too. Don't feel bad, though. Bachelder laughs at himself, too, and even at the novel he writes. He plays around with language. He plays around with the way the reader reads the language. He plays around with the way the novel's put together. Unpredictability is entertaining, and this book is full of it. Bear v. Shark is an awesome book, Don Quixote-ish in one way, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-ish in another way, but ultimately just creative and original.

BVS is a shockingly strong debut. This is without a doubt the funniest book i've read this year, but Bachelder injects just enough doubt and ambiguity into his writing to make you feel for what you're laughing at. I won't spoil the surprise by giving away any of the plot (paper-thin, yes, but in a good way). Very quick, intelligent stuff. Pick this book up if you're going to be on the road any time soon - I read it on a recent plane trip, and have never had a more enjoyable flight.

First time novelist Chris Bachelder scores big with his debut novel, and has produced the kind of post-modern satire that the over-praised and under-edited Jonathan Franzen strains for in his "Corrections" leviathan.

In the future, the televisions have no off switch, nor do they have remote controls, because technology has gotten to the point that television no longer influences the culture, but IS the culture. Reality and simulation melt together seamlessly, without a trace of resistence from the archtypal family whose path we follow as they prepare themselves for a Las Vegas vacation to witness the much hyped Media Event of Bear v. Shark. Bachelder keeps a straight face through out most of this short but punchy novel, and displays an ear for the way television cant infiltrates our daily speech, and invades our dream life. Scattered through out the book are a heap of fast and savage rips on Mass Mediated news, sports call-in shows, flouncy entertainment underwhich nothing substantial resides.

In this world, experts in the guise of pundits, jocks, philosophers, and academics all feed a
an uncountably intrusive technology that renders every distraction and disturbance into an entertainment value, to be used until a new contrived sequence of illusion can be set in place.

Bachelder, demonstrating a brevity and incisive wit that trashes the claims made for the word-gorged "genius" of D.F. Wallace, writes surely, sharply, with his eye never off his target.

Though he does, at times, resort to the sort of post-modernism stylistics and cliches, such as having the author step out from the story to deliver some self-aware discourse on the limits of narrative's capacity to represent the external world fully, completely -- he has a novel or two to go before the lit.critese is pounded out of him -- our author finally reveals a humane side underneath the smart language, and issues forth a funny yet serious warning about our habit of relinquishing our thinking and our capacity to live imagitively over to the hands of data-drunk programmers.

A terrific first effort.

I just finished the book, and I think I'm suffering withdrawal from my Bachelder fix.

Some have said his book is flawed, pointing at the book's ending, the fact that the theme is really not new, even the book's cover design... The comments are perhaps founded, but the writer's dark humor, eloquence, perspectives and innovative approach to novel writing make this book one of my favorite reads of 2001.

Bachelder is certainly a promising author with an impressive mastery of our language and an intriguing vision of our society.

I posted a review of this earlier, but for some funky reason, it didn't come up. So here's the ol' college try for a repeat...

I rarely post book reviews, and judging by the chorus of praise this book has received, it hardly needs my support. But I feel compelled to encourage everyone to read this book. Simply put, it is the funniest novel I have ever read. The author combines sharp wit with a penetrating look at our mass-media culture to produce a rare comic treasure. Whether you're a fan of DeLillo or the Simpsons (or, like me, both), you'll be taken care of by Bear v. Shark.