The Bear by Andrew Krivak

 

After making my way through 700 pages of Vanity Fair this month, I wanted to move onto a shorter and easier read. I decided to try The Bear, a 2020 literary fiction novel by Andrew Krivak. I first heard about this book on YouTube, and what caught my attention was the fact that one of the characters is an actual bear. Bears are one of my favorite animals, so I knew I had to pick it up. I bought it when it first came out and it's been sitting on my shelf ever since. As it's only about 220 pages long, it seemed like the perfect follow up to the dense classic I just finished. So, I finally got started on it, hoping for a relaxing time and wondering how exactly a bear was going to fit into the story.

The plot of the novel follows the last two people on earth, a father and his young daughter. Whatever event that happened to lead to human extinction happened so long ago that neither father nor daughter know what happened. All they know is how their lives are now; they live off the land, hunting game and foraging in the dense forest around them to survive. The father works to teach the daughter everything he knows about survival, as he knows that once he is gone, she will be completely alone. Luckily, the daughter is strong and capable. As she grows from child to teenager, she becomes a skilled hunter and learns to take care of herself.

Eventually, on a long foraging journey away from their small cabin, the father passes away. The daughter, all on her own now, is nearly crippled by her grief and despair. In her darkest moment, a bear emerges from the woods and speaks to her. He encourages her to keep going and agrees to travel beside her as she makes her way back home. Along the way she faces harsh winter conditions and must call on all of the knowledge her father gave her to survive. The Bear is a story about grief, loss, and memory, and about the connections humans can have with the natural world.

This novel was absolutely beautiful. Krivak tells the story using simple prose that reads almost like a fairy tale, but in a way that remains grounded in reality. It seems strange to say that while discussing a book with talking animals, but somehow this feels more like a natural occurrence than a magical one in the context of the story. The characters, who remain unnamed, feel genuine as well. It is easy to form an empathetic connection with both the father and the daughter. It's been awhile since I've felt emotional while reading, but I was definitely moved by this story in a couple of places. Watching the daughter struggle to come to some kind of acceptance and peace after the loss of her father, knowing that she is completely alone in the world, definitely pulled on my heartstrings. Krivak does a nice job of exploring how we grieve and how we carry forward the memories of those we've lost, and the fact that it's set against the background of the end of humanity added a lot of interesting layers to think about.

The connection between the humans in the story and nature was interesting to explore. The father and daughter were completely at the mercy of the woods around them, and conditions were often hostile to them. At the same time, they were able to find everything they needed to live through their own ingenuity and hard work. They respected the natural world and made good use of everything they took from it. The daughter in particular learns to live so well in the wild that she develops almost a sixth sense for survival there and is able to communicate on different levels with the plants and animals. Of course, the best example of this is her relationship with the bear, who emerges from the woods to help her find her way out of her despair. Watching these characters and their spiritual connection to the wilderness made me contemplate if all of our innovations and conveniences have robbed us of something important. The book is never preachy on this point, but it does lead one to think about their relationship with nature and the interconnectedness of all living things.

Ultimately, I think that The Bear is a tremendous novel and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a quick read that managed to explore big concepts in a tender and genuine way. It felt special and important and it made me think about love and loss in a lot of different ways. When I first started reading, I didn't really think I'd be discovering a new favorite, but that's exactly what happened. This is undoubtedly going to be one of my favorite books of the year.   

Challenge Tally

Clear the Shelves 2021: 17/50 (keep)

Total Books Read in 2021: 36