jessar 's review for:

Bear by Marian Engel

3.0

dark medium-paced

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Because what she disliked in men was not their eroticism, but their assumption that women had none.

We get this gem of a quote, 131/176 pages in and it speaks a lot to what Bear is exploring. It's a fucking weird book - but it's pretty clearly meant to be. A nice little wiki search told me that the author had initially drafted about 30 pages of this story as a prompt of pornographic literature by serious authors. Now THAT'S fucking funny! Bear doesn't take itself very seriously and in its unseriousness explores what eroticism is and what nurtures it and what and where it goes, as influenced by the world around us - the man made world and the natural world. It's loneliness, it's cabin fever, it's animal brain vs conscious brain and yeah, it's 🐻 🍆 but it really surprised me.

The ending I thought was genius because

we are constantly waiting for it to go all wrong and our protagonist Lou really just gets that post-nut or better, post-mauling clarity and kind of snaps into her better self. Her self-worth finally clicks into place and she realises, she can go and do better for herself. Good on you Lou!