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Bear v. Shark: The Novel Paperback – November 12, 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars 33 customer reviews

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Scribner; Reprint edition (November 12, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0743219473
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743219471
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #917,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

By M. JEFFREY MCMAHON TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on November 12, 2001
Format: Hardcover
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.
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By A Customer on November 6, 2001
Format: Hardcover
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.
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Format: Paperback
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.
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Format: Hardcover
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.
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By A Customer on November 1, 2001
Format: Hardcover
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.
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Format: Paperback
Creative in both content and execution; what other work of narrative fiction has an index amidst the final climatic chapters? I agree with other reviewers in that it reminded me of Vonnegut. The satirical, futuristic, and dystopian-like elements are all there. Still, Bachelder has his own clear and unique voice. It really comes through in both the organization of the book and in his prose. Amidst the boldface humor, and Palahniuk-flavored shock, there is some really beautiful writing here. The scenes are set in vibrant color and lucid detail, the characters desperation palpable. With U.S.! next on the list, I really look forward to reading more of his work.
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Format: Hardcover
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.
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