Some bloggers and books are inextricably linked. Someone talks about a book with such passion, and perhaps often, that they and the book become united. I think that’s probably true of me and Miss Hargreaves. It’s definitely true of Dorian and Bear by Marian Engel.
You probably know Dorian’s brilliant blog, or have encountered him on Twitter – and he has written a wonderful article about this novella. Because of him, Bear has been on my horizons for a while. When it was reprinted by Daunt Books this year, I got a copy (and it was another recommendation, really, because Daunt are so flawless in their choice of reprints). When it turned out to match the club year, it was a no-brainer to pick up.
Lou is a librarian in Toronto, though her role seems to encompass archivist as well. Describing her job is one of the first moments I stopped to note down the beautiful precision of Engel’s writing:
Lou dug and devilled in library and files, praying as she worked that research would reveal enough to provide her subject with a character. 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.
Her role might sound wonderful to the likes of you and me, but she has grown weary of it and wishes to escape her lonely urban life. When the Institute for which she works needs someone to go to Cary’s Island, part of a legacy left by Colonel Jocelyn Cary, she is the person for the job. The idea is that she is to catalogue the library, find out what she can about Cary, and report back about whether or not the estate would make a good place to develop a research facility.
I love novels about outsiders going to small, isolated communities. Those narratives can take so many directions – perhaps it will be a new lease of life, perhaps unsettling, perhaps a panacea, perhaps antagonistic. Bear takes parts of all of these. Lou finds a sort of freedom in being unleashed from her life – and the locals are hesitantly welcoming. But there is much more to discover. Here she is, after talking to one of the locals who is sometimes kind and sometimes not:
She made as if to go inside the house again, for it was dark and she was tired and cold, but Homer stood looking at her uneasily, shifting from foot to foot. She wondered if he was going to touch her or to denounce her. She wanted to get in and get settled. There had been so much day; she had a lot to think about. She was impatient.
‘Did anyone tell you,’ he asked, ‘about the bear?’
Nobody has. It says something about the beguiling way that Engel writes that it somehow doesn’t leap out as ridiculous that her role on the island includes caring for a bear, and that nobody has mentioned it. But apparently the Careys have always had a bear – and there is one, enormous and noisome, chained to the ground. Apparently docile, but who knows what would happen if he were given his freedom.
Gradually, Lou starts to be curious about the bear. There is something about sharing this isolation with one other living creature that starts to give a sense of companionship. But she never forgets the essential danger of the bear – that he could end her life on a whim. She seems almost intoxicated by this potential for danger – as she is intoxicated by the sense of escape she has from her ordinary life.
And, yes. Moment by moment, the narrative edges closer and closer to a sexual relationship between Lou and the bear – so that, when it happens, it is shocking but it somehow coheres with everything that has gone before.
I think the reason Bear can cope with its bizarre, extraordinary plot is the fineness of Engel’s writing. She uses all the senses, as well as exploring Lou’s mind in sentences that are sparse but beautiful. Here’s an example of her writing treading that line between poetic and straightforward, finding the perfect place in between:
He smelled better than he had before he started swimming, but his essential smell was still there, a scent of musk as shrill as the high sweet note of a shepherd’s flute.
It is a short novel, perhaps a novella, and I read it in a few hours. There is something dizzying about it. While Lou dices with danger, the tension I found in the novel was really about Lou’s discovery of herself – of the limits of new frontiers, and how gently she can travel beyond those limits.
When I mentioned I was reading Bear, I got the impression that a few people wondered how I’d cope with the theme. Gasping emojis and the word ‘No’ were among the comments I got on Instagram. But it is far from my first moment of fictional bestiality! I wrote a chapter of my DPhil thesis on animal metamorphosis, and it also encompassed animal marriage and, yes, sex with animals. It crops up in Lady Into Fox by David Garnett and His Monkey Wife by John Collier – there is nothing new under the sun etc. etc. So the relationship that emerges between Lou and the bear might be the shocking detail that people remember most – but, at its heart, Bear is much more sophisticated than a can-you-believe-it moment.
Almost any story can be beautiful if told beautifully, and Engel’s writing is a sensuous, careful delight. I’d suggest going into the novella without worrying about where the plot will lead. Go for the journey.
Wonderful review! I just read this a month ago and felt the same. I went in knowing about the bear sex but found it made sense within the context of the story.
Thanks so much, Margot!
hmmmm…sexual and bear–that’s a no, but I am intrigued by the librarianship (I am a librarian and old enough to remember the field when an IBM Selectric typewriter was “state of the art” technology. Interesting review.
Oh I’m sad it’s a ‘no’ – that means I haven’t done my reviewing properly! I really hoped it would be clear that the novel is much more than that.
Great review Simon, and I think in some ways it’s a shame that all people talk about is the bear sex because from what I’ve read about the book, it’s about so much more!
yes! It’s like the amazing film Birth, where people only talked about Nicole in the bath with a child, when the film is so, so much more.
You have made this unusual tale sound really appealing, and I do love a novella…
Yes you do! I think it would be right up your street.
I have skimmed your review, as I will be writing my own later this week I hope. We seem to have read the same books! I liked it, maybe more than I thought, but didn’t quite love it. It is a shame the bear sex is so much talked about, it takes a lot away from the book. It is beautifully written, I enjoyed seeing Lou discover herself, and there was a wonderful sense of place.
Yes, we walked the same path this week, for sure!
Simon, I’m so pleased you enjoyed it! It won’t surprise you that I found your review spot-on… if you want even more Bear content, James (Caustic Cover Critic) and I joined Shawn the Book Maniac on his BookTube channel earlier this year to talk about it.
Thanks so much, that means a lot from you! And I do have that video saved to watch later on YT, but have yet to do so…
This is Dorian’s book! Im thinking about it for Novellas in November. I love the quote you chose, you’re right, very balanced and evocative!
It definitely is Dorian’s handiwork that so many bloggers are reading it!
Quite intriguing.
Another stunning book for the quality of its writing, where there’s sex with a monkey, is this one https://wordsandpeace.com/2011/04/06/the-evolution-of-bruno-littlemore/
My post for the #1976club is here: https://wordsandpeace.com/2021/10/12/my-top-10-books-for-the-1976-club/
The cover alone is quite seductive. I’ll look out for this – though apparently not in our library system.
Enjoy requesting that one :D
I’d never heard of this book until quite recently, and now it’s been cropping up everywhere, which I guess is because of the reprint. Patricia Lockwood wrote about it for whichever Review of Books she writes for (I want to say London? but I always forget), in a very Patricia Lockwood manner. :P
Bear is definitely having a moment!
Like Madame Bibi, I feel you have made this unusual tale sound very appealing. It seems to be a story of self-discovery and liberation – much more nuanced than I had been led to believe!
Yes, it is very nuanced, especially given the topic!
Miss Hargreaves AND “Simon’s Love Child” of course!!! Not sure I’m up for reading about bear sex (actually, the bear being chained puts me off although presumably he’s unchained if he gets to go swimming). An interesting choice, anyway.
Haha! Yes, within a certain circle certain that too!!
I’m reminded of the fairy tale, Snow White & Rose Red. No doubt the bear in this story is also meant to represent the animal or bestial sides of our own nature.
I’m also reminded of an Australian story called Wish by Peter Goldsworthy (a gorilla instead of a bear & an extraordinary read).
Karen Joy Fowler’s story We Are All Completely beside Ourselves also covers some of the same ethical and personal issues.
I have read Maestro by Goldsworthy, but not this one – thanks for the mention.