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A review by chrissie_whitley
Bear by Julia Phillips
2.0
2.5 stars
A sorta, kinda, maybe retelling of the Snow White and Rose Red fairytale, as collected and made famous by those fabulous Grimm brothers.
Bear is set on San Juan Island in the Pacific Northwest in a little rundown house on a valuable piece of land. Sam and her sister, Elena, are both nudging 30 and caring for their dying mother. Medical bills are piling up, but the sisters have long planned to leave town. Following what she assumes is Elena’s lead, Sam is purposefully avoiding any relationships or attachments, ready to bolt with her sister after their mom’s death frees them to sell the house, clear their debts, and break free. Then, a bear enters the picture.
Terrified of the bear, Sam is baffled by Elena’s behavior towards it. Elena’s fascinated, allowing herself to be drawn to the bear, eventually approaching it like an old friend or a new family pet. As the situation escalates, Sam, the younger of the two, grows increasingly desperate and turns to more drastic measures in an attempt to reason with her sister.
This started out fairly strong, but as with many literary fairytale retellings, the threads holding this together started to fray and the filling showed through. Fairytales are, by design, very short, and even in capable hands, their structure rarely supports a longer retelling. This also had a faint whiff of romanticizing poverty, which I tend to dislike. Mainly, though, I was just bored — and rooting for characters to get killed off. Never a good sign.
I did find it interesting that Phillips chose to tell this story from Sam’s perspective — the “non-believer” in the friendliness of the bear, so to speak. But it’s not like she’s the more grounded of the two sisters, which leads me to think the dynamic between Sam and Elena represents the duality of a single person. It mirrors early adulthood when reality is confrontational. At times, Sam is childhood and Elena is adulthood — until they switch roles. Both grapple with shrugging off the vestiges of fantasy and carefree dependency.
A sorta, kinda, maybe retelling of the Snow White and Rose Red fairytale, as collected and made famous by those fabulous Grimm brothers.
Bear is set on San Juan Island in the Pacific Northwest in a little rundown house on a valuable piece of land. Sam and her sister, Elena, are both nudging 30 and caring for their dying mother. Medical bills are piling up, but the sisters have long planned to leave town. Following what she assumes is Elena’s lead, Sam is purposefully avoiding any relationships or attachments, ready to bolt with her sister after their mom’s death frees them to sell the house, clear their debts, and break free. Then, a bear enters the picture.
Terrified of the bear, Sam is baffled by Elena’s behavior towards it. Elena’s fascinated, allowing herself to be drawn to the bear, eventually approaching it like an old friend or a new family pet. As the situation escalates, Sam, the younger of the two, grows increasingly desperate and turns to more drastic measures in an attempt to reason with her sister.
This started out fairly strong, but as with many literary fairytale retellings, the threads holding this together started to fray and the filling showed through. Fairytales are, by design, very short, and even in capable hands, their structure rarely supports a longer retelling. This also had a faint whiff of romanticizing poverty, which I tend to dislike. Mainly, though, I was just bored — and rooting for characters to get killed off. Never a good sign.
I did find it interesting that Phillips chose to tell this story from Sam’s perspective — the “non-believer” in the friendliness of the bear, so to speak. But it’s not like she’s the more grounded of the two sisters, which leads me to think the dynamic between Sam and Elena represents the duality of a single person. It mirrors early adulthood when reality is confrontational. At times, Sam is childhood and Elena is adulthood — until they switch roles. Both grapple with shrugging off the vestiges of fantasy and carefree dependency.