Bear

Finished September 18

Bear by Julia Phillips

This novel is a coming-of-age novel set on one of the San Juan Islands in Washington state. The central character is Sam, a twenty-something woman who is not happy with her life, but has a dream that she holds close for a better future. She works in the concession stand on the ferry, has no real friends, and resents that she wasn't hired for a better job, despite having a merchant mariner certification. 

Sam lives with her mother and older sister Elena in a house that her grandmother had lived in and passed down to her mother. Sam's mother has been ill for years, and now is almost bedridden. Sam knows that the time will come when her mother will pass away, and back when Sam was in high school, Elena convinced her to stay and add her income to what Elena earned at the golf club where she worked to provide for the three of them. The pandemic set them back, with the ferries running without concessions for a couple of years, and Sam, unable to find another job, took online surveys to bring in a little money. 

Elena does most of the work assisting their mother, and has taken on the finances and other necessary chores for them. She seems to be similarly living in a narrow existence between work and family. 

One day, a bear leans up against the house when they are all home, startling them and affecting both the young women in different ways. Sam is scared, apprehensive that the bear will return and reports the incident to the wildlife authorities. Elena seems more in awe of the experience of having such close contact with a wild creature, and we see as the novel unfolds, how this difference in viewpoint creates a rift of sorts between the two sisters.

Sam escapes through her countless internet surveys and brief sexual encounters with a coworker, but Elena has a different path. 

This is a book where we see Sam come to understand the situation they are living in, and what her dreams are really made of. Because several revelations happen so close together, Sam finds herself unable to cope well for a time, and I really felt for her. 

A great read. 

The Wild Inside

Finished December 5
The Wild Inside by Christine Carbo

This mystery novel is set in Glacier National Park. Ted Systead is an agent for the Department of the Interior, working out of Denver. Ted is assigned to investigate a disturbing killing in the park, where a man was killed by a grizzly. While a bear killing would not be within Ted's purview, the victim was tied to a tree before the bear killed him. The case is unusual and disturbing, but it also takes Ted back to the horrific event that happened when he was fourteen. He and his father were camping at Oldman Lake in the southeast end of the park, when a grizzly attacked them in the night, dragging Ted's father from the tent and killing him. Ted's boss doesn't seem to have connected the current case with Ted's past, so Ted flies in and begins to tackle the case.
The local park police assign an officer to assist him, and Ted both resents and depends upon Monty, finding that he has good instincts. As the case leads them to old girlfriends, relatives, and the drug trade, they discover that the victim wasn't very likeable, and while a lot of people may have wanted him dead, no one seems likely to have gone to the level of planning that seems to have been done. Ted is forced to confront his issues with his past, and rely on his experience and intuition to draw out the real story behind this crime.
I love Glacier National Park and love to read a mystery where I am familiar with the landscape and geography. I also liked the depth of character shown here. Ted is a good officer, but he has never really dealt with the nightmare of what happened to him and the aftermath. That avoidance has affected his relationships and not allowed him to move forward in his personal life. We see what is going through his mind, his good instincts and his bad ones. He is real and likeable. The story is interesting and complex with a victim that is easy to find deserving of a bad end. But we see his history as well, and find that it is also complex. This is definitely an author to look for more by.

The Wilding

Finished June 17
The Wilding by Benjamin Percy

This novel is about a man, his relationships with his father, his wife, and his son. But it is also a tale of the wild nature in all of us. There are three main speakers: Justin, a schoolteacher who has never lived up to his father's expectations of male behaviour; Karen, Justin's wife, who has largely withdrawn from their marriage after the stillborn death of their second child years before; and Brian, a young man, suffering both physically and mentally from injuries received in Iraq.
Justin works hard at his job, but has left the house repairs slide lately due to his heavy workload. He still loves Karen strongly, but has almost stopped trying to connect with her after repeated rejections. His father is a man's man, and wants to take Justin and his sixth-grade son Graham on a weekend hunting trip at the spot he and Justin go to every year, as the area is slated for development. This will be Graham's first hunting trip.
Karen is obsessed with exercise, running daily and cooking only healthy, organic food she has carefully researched and bought. She is also obsessed with the obverse, looking up ugly diseases and disgusting illnesses on the internet to make herself feel better. She has no respect for Justin, but there seems to be little rational reason for her feelings toward him. Having lost one child, she is protective of Graham, and worried about the influence of Justin's father Paul.
Brian suffered a head injury in Iraq when a bomb sent off near the vehicle he was in, and has bad headaches and unexpected mood changes as a result. He lives alone, operating the business he inherited from his father, and is obsessed with the idea of becoming a wild animal.
The hunting trip is a opportunity for Paul to orient Graham to hunting, and yet Justin shows himself to be comfortable in this environment, a man who knows how to do things and worries about things appropriately.
When the presence of a bear becomes apparent, Justin must decide how much he is willing to risk for his family, and whether he can overcome his father's authority to protect Graham.
Karen also finds herself put in the position to make a choice that will affect her family, and she finds herself strangely pliant in the face of another's wishes.
Brian is drawn to Karen after meeting her through work, and yet also drawn to the wildness in himself. He will be forced to make a choice as well.
I liked the immediacy of nature in this book, from the two instances with the owls to the setting of the hunting camp and the recurring bear. The native story about nature and its revenge was also an interesting element.

The Bear

Finished March 7
The Bear by Claire Cameron

This novel was inspired by a real incident that took place in Algonquin Park in 1991. A couple who were camping were attacked and killed by a bear, and analysis of the incident failed to uncover any obvious reason for the attack. Cameron was a camp counselor at the time, and was struck by the seeming randomness of the attack.
In this novel, she recreates the incident in the same place as the real one, but adds the presence of two young children, Anna and Alex, ages 5 and nearly 3. The story is told from the point of view of Anna and I found her voice very believable. Alex has a family nickname, Stick, and this is how Anna refers to him. He is still developing his spoken communication skills and his difficulty with Anna's name results in him calling her Nana. Also playing a role in the story is Anna's doll Gwen.
As the book begins the two children have been put to sleep in the tent while their parents sit near the fire as the day moves into evening. The bear attack for Anna thus has certain aspects of being a dream as she struggles to understand what is going on, and uses past experience for making sense of what she observes and hears.
As the story progresses, Anna's recollection of past events fills in some background of the family, helping the reader to get a good sense of the family dynamics.
As I read, I both wanted to keep reading and to delay getting to the end of the story. Like many a big sister, Anna is both annoyed by her younger sibling and compelled to protect him as best she can. It is this that enables her to follow her mother's instructions to get to a safer place and use the knowledge she has to keep herself and Stick safe.
I found it interesting to see the adult reactions and assumptions, as Anna struggled to adapt to her home situation. The epilogue brought Anna's experience to a new realization and a type of closure.
This book is already making the bestseller lists, and the inevitable comparisons with another book with a child narrator, Room. I think this will be one of my favourite books of the year. I think the cover is perfect too.

Emory's Gift

Finished December 27
Emory's Gift by W. Bruce Cameron, read by the author
This is a magical novel of a few months in the life of a boy. Charlie Hall finds himself a boy with few friends the summer before he starts eighth grade. He lives out of town and with his mother dying earlier in the year, a divide has been created between him and the other boys. As Charlie wanders around the creek and woods near his home, he encounters a grizzly bear, a rarity in northern Idaho. This is not your usual grizzly bear. Charlie feels a connection to the bear and apparently the bear feels the connection too.
As Charlie starts school, he finds that most other boys in his grade have had a growth spurt, that he didn't have, and he feels even more alone when his supposed friend Danny spurns him. Three things help him through: his ability to run, which gains him some new friends at school; his first love, who seems to feel strongly about him too; and Emory, the bear.
As the existence of Emory begins to become more widely known, Charlie's distant relationship with his father is tested, and so are other relationships. The bear has a message, but how will it give it, and what its meaning is will take time to discover.
This is a special book about love, faith, and trust and how they can heal.