The Bear - Claire Cameron

Little, Brown and Company, 2014.

Four Stars

 

As it is also narrated by a five-year-old, this novel will inevitably be compared to Emma Donoghue’s Room. I thought that Room was fantastic, and The Bear compares favourably in my opinion. The immediacy of the danger in this novel is even more effective when written from a child’s view. It is hard enough to read about the outright terror of a bear attack, much less hearing it from a small child who has no real sense of the danger they are in – talk about anxiety-inducing for the reader. All we can do is observe as Anna and her two-year-old brother Alex (nicknamed “Stick” in Anna’s idiosyncratic use of language) face off against the dangers of the wilderness of Algonquin Park in Ontario – everything from the direct threat of the bear to the more insidious concerns of sunstroke and dehydration, while they wait for rescue from a mom and dad who may never arrive.

 

As Cameron tells us in her author’s note, the novel is based on a real event that took place in Algonquin Park in the early 1990s. A bear attacked two humans for no discernable reason – the campers had done everything right to avoid provoking bears. In the case of violent wilderness attacks, we always search for someone to blame, and if there is no one, our fear escalates. Justifying the attack is the only way we can continue to live alongside wild animals, and this sort of incident is beyond unsettling.

 

Anna, in her own young way, also tries to justify the events she witnesses, and the aftermath that leaves her struggling for survival. Uncomprehending of the full scope of things, Anna narrates in a stream-of-consciousness style: she is easily side-tracked by seemingly petty memories of play-dates and dolls, which is frustrating for the reader who wants her to focus on survival. Nevertheless, she is well-intentioned in her care for her little brother, in spite of being easily distracted. Anna shares so many memories for one so young that it may be unrealistic, but I found it authentic to the scattered, non-linear thinking of a busy child.

 

The device of a child narrator could so easily turn gimmicky, but Cameron manages it well. I think anyone’s enjoyment of this book will hinge on their acceptance of Anna’s voice – and I accepted it whole-heartedly. The immediacy of her observations and the twists of an undeveloped mind were intriguing. Anna’s desire to be good was heart-breaking, especially as she felt she was being punished by the disastrous series of events that befell her. It was difficult to witness her attempts to be brave, alternating with a fear that she has been abandoned for being “bad”.

 

Parts I and II were action-packed and adrenaline-inducing, but I found Part III to be the most interesting. The psychological aftermath of the attack on its survivors is deep and dark, and it is intriguing to see that Anna understood much more than she realized about the attack. PTSD materializes in unusual ways in a five-year-old, as Anna struggles to cope with her undeveloped emotions. In the park, Anna was forced to confront her fears of “the black dog” – her impression of the bear – and even when she returns home, she feels its weight, telling us “The black dog is inside me.” (p. 144) The trauma of the bear attack will always be with her, and the way she expresses her traumatic experiences is what makes this novel so powerful.