He Saw the Other Side

Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy , Fiction

One might think that after my last blog, I might be done with ideas dragged out of the nursery and dressed in adult clothes.  Not so!  In fact, I continued in the same vein this past week with The Bear Went Over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle. 

In The Bear Went Over the Mountain, a struggling Maine author loses his first manuscript to a fire, and the briefcase containing his second one to a bear.  The author goes into a deep depression.  The bear dresses up in clothes, reminds himself not to carry the briefcase in his mouth, and heads off to sell the manuscript in New York. 

What follows is a laugh out loud satire of the publishing arena, as the bear gambols through the world of agents and book tours.  With his self-chosen pseudonym "Hal Jam", and his gruff and usually senseless one word answers ("Honey?"), the bear is "the next Hemingway" in the eyes of his new acquaintances.  In the meantime, Arthur Bramhall, the original author of the manuscript, is denned up in the Maine woods.  He's developed an overgrowth of hair and an overwhelming hunted feeling.  The book's courtroom denouement is a bit rougher than the preceeding story, and there were a few occasions on the last few pages where I wondered if some changes might have improved the ending. However, the ending does mesh with the rest of the book in the end, and despite a few rough patches, The Bear is definitely worth the read.