Reviews

• This is a hellaciously entertaining read: funny, melancholy, erotic, scathingly satirical. And the language occasionally reaches magical heights of realism. There are webs of words in here that will give you glimpses of actual experience itself - surely the ultimate writer's conjuring trick. The book's hero incarnates an audacious leap of the imagination: he's a Caucasian circus bear, who can talk, reads literature, studies mysticism, and... plays the alto sax. The Bear heightens the duality of human nature - part angel, part animal - in order to explore it. It's a satirical premise that illuminates many of the contradictions lurking in the depths of our contemporary social mythos - our ambivalence towards Nature red in tooth and claw, our reduction of even the most transcendent art to commodity, our acceptance of lives that are pale shadows of their potential. If you've ever wondered what it's like to be a professional musician, The Bear Comes Home will satisfy your curiosity. If you've ever been involved in the performing arts, you will recognize many of the situations. Among its many treasures, The Bear is stunningly effective as an evocation of the seemingly constant frustration and occasional epiphanies of the creative process. It's also a dead-on portrait of the jazz life, a deeply felt exploration of the complexity of human relationships. Most amazingly, The Bear himself never collapses into a man in a bear suit. It's not that tough to devise and describe an unusual protagonist. But by the third act, even faerie queens and immortal vampires descend to the same petty, mundane emotions that drive your personal soap opera as relentlessly as they do mine. The Bear is different. Although the situations he lives through are achingly human, The Bear is never quite, no matter how much Rumi he reads, how deeply he loves, how fanatically he explores the possibilities of his horn. You've never met anyone quite like The Bear, and unless you read this book, you never will.

• An astounding extended reworking of the Goldilocks story. The protagonist is an astonishingly portrayed bear, sentient, jazz- musician and philosophically inclined. For the first time ever I thought I might just have the tiniest corner of a handle on the inner working of a musician's mind. to understand some of the frustrations and drivers inherent in the creative and innovative process that is improvisation. A stunning read

• If you like Jazz, get this book. If you like reading about music theory, but in a way that makes want to learn more, not in way that gives you a headache, get this book. I'm a super beginner piano player, learning to play beginner/fetal versions of Count Basie and Bach. I loved reading about the Bear interacting with or being influenced by other musicians and songs that actually existed. You can tell the author used to be a music critic for a magazine, he knows his music and jazz history. I'd often read a few pages then search for a video of a certain musician or piece of music like Carla Bley, Gary Bartz or Shostakovich violin concerto 1. The way the author describes music, is amazing, even when I don't totally understand what he's saying, I still kind of get it. OK, Is the story any good? Considering the rest, it doesn't have to be, but yeah it's decent. There is enough story to keep you wanting to read and wondering what will happen next. Occasionally the author goes off on a "Tolkienesque" rant describing something, but he always brings you back before you get bored.

• The words...the phrasings ...are exquisite. Even when you have no idea of what they mean (as in context of jazz ruminations cast before the non-musician, philosophical ramblings, and the vast expanse of literature, religion, and nature). The opening sections are the strongest. Mid-sections retain the beauty and precision of the narrative but wander a bit overwrought into the joy of sex and love. The final downhill run combines human outlook with otherworldliness only to crash abruptly in a premature end. And yet I can't help but recommend the read. It is too rare and beautiful a prose to overlook. Writing today tends to be much spared, more concise. You will either get lost in the words and revel (or despair and run for cover elsewhere).

• It is hard to believe that this is Zabor's first novel. His writing is - well, maybe rhapsodic is the word. It seems appropriate because much of the novel is describing jazz. Now, I don't have a deep understanding of jazz, but Zabor's descriptions of the various songs as they developed creates an experience approaching ecstacy. It is also hard to believe that the hero of this book is a bear, a bear who not only talks, but plays jazz (alto sax), reads Shakespeare, loves women, and has spiritual awakenings. This is one my husband and I read aloud to each other, and is one of our all-time favorites.

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