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Summary: Welcome to PTSD
Review: "The Bear's Embrace" is written by a woman who was hiking with her husband when they were attacked by a bear. Though both seriously wounded, they made it out alive and began the long road back to recovery. Both have facial scarring, but hers are much more severe, causing years of pain and permanent disfigurement.Ironically, the problem one reviewer had with: "hoping for some kind of information about how people actually cope with such devastating horror in their lives, but there was nothing here, just page after page of seemingly pointless suffering without redemption or relief" is exactly how living with PTSD is like. It's extremely difficult to cope with, which is why it can break up families/friendships. As someone who has PTSD, I was able to empathize with almost everything with the author was talking about. The writing can be emotionally raw and the constant emotional turmoil Ms.Van Tighem goes through is captured well. Though she's able to pull herself up for small periods, at one point starting a support group for those having facial disfigurements, most of the book is about her trying to cope with her disfigurement and depression. Only at the end is she able to start climbing out of the pit she is in, when she was finally diagnosed with PTSD after 20 years. If you'd like to get a glimpse of how badly PTSD can affect someone, read this book. It does an excellent job of showing the difficulties a PTSD victim has in reintegrating themselves back into everyday life as well as the daily struggles just to live one day at a time.
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Summary: Horrifying and courageous story
Review: I absolutely LOVED this book! It is so well written and horrifying that I could not put it down. My heart goes out to this courageous woman for all her sufferings and I hope that she has somehow, found peace in the bears embrace.
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Summary: Absolutely beautifully done
Review: I just read this book for the second time and couldn't put it down.....either time. It's more than extraordinary. The editorials sum up the story but it is the author's personality, honesty and warmth, palpable throughout, that truly give it such life. Thank you, Patricia, for sharing this remarkable journey with us. Your light truly does shine.
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Summary: What can I say, she says it all.
Review: I picked up this book for resale, and I leafed through it. I was caught at page 16 and sat down to read it all. I did. The attack, the recovery, the emotions, and finally the resolve. This woman has been through hell and lived to tell the tale. The life we all have, or will, experience: Marriage, love, accident, loss of a loved parent/child. A less than perfect life. I hope you will never know the sorrow this woman has been through, but I hope her story will enlighten you to be strong, and deal with your demons before they bring you down. And, by the way, she is an excellent writer.
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Summary: Impossible to put down
Review: I read The Bear's Embrace in one day, finding it absolutely impossible to put down. I admire Patricia and her husband very much in the way they handled their tremendous challenges after the bear attack. The book has several moments that touch your emotions. For me, the most memorable scene was when Patricia and her little daughter Ellen are talking in bed one day, years after the attack. Beautiful writing from a strong, beautiful spirit.
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Summary: Skip it.
Review: I'm not sure if this is more a story of a woman's survival after a nightmarish mauling by a grizzly bear, or an indictment of the Canadian health care system. Thank goodness the book was fairly short; if I had had to read many more pages about yet another infection, bout of depression, hospitalization, or doctor who wouldn't believe that she was in pain, I think I would have needed medication. I read all the way to the end, but the moment of enlightement or epiphany that the title seemed to promise never arrived. I had been hoping for some kind of information about how people actually cope with such devastating horror in their lives, but there was nothing here, just page after page of seemingly pointless suffering without redemption or relief.
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Summary: A woman strong as a bear.
Review: Patricia Van Tighem was an ordinary person living a contented life, when a pleasant hike became a years-long struggle for health, for her relationships, and for her sanity. There are other books about bear attacks, but this one examines the long-term aftermath of serious injury, in a way that can apply to anyone who has lost their health, their good looks and/or their equilibrium in a bad car wreck, an assault, or other sudden trauma. The damage done to her body happened in seconds. The struggle to save her life took hours. Her road after that toward physical, emotional and mental healing has taken almost two decades, is still continuing, and is what makes this book so compelling. She offers no easy answers or triumphant happy ending, and she seems all the more real for it. Ms. Van Tighem's experience teaches that healing comes through going ahead and living life, even while struggling. During extreme physical and mental trials, living with chronic pain and battling depression, she has raised a family, organized support groups for those with disfiguring injuries, and lobbied for improvements in the Canadian mental health care system. Her husband, who was also injured badly in the attack, has maintained their marriage, supported her throughout her struggles, and is as much a part of this record of recovery as she is. As for bears, this one was real, and its shadow looms large over the book and over all of us who love the high places where bears live. But one need not know bear country or bears to appreciate this woman's journey. There is a legend that a person who is injured by a bear receives the bear's strength; Patricia Van Tighem, despite her protestations to the contrary, is as fiercely strong as a grizzly.
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Summary: Incredibly Brave Book
Review: PTSD is a wickedly subtle thing that can creep into your life without you having the slightest clue what it is or what the far reaching effects may be. It can be the result of a pointed trauma or something smaller, such as an adverse emotional experience. Ms. Van Tighem seems to have no interest in exploiting her drama for the sake of attention, but perhaps seeks validation for her experience exactly how it happened- a few hours of horrifying excitement during and immediately after the attack, and more pointedly, the reality of the long term effects of this life altering incident to herself and her family over the following seventeen years. It is something that is often missing in the bear attack story compilations on bookshelves today. Kudos to this author for finding the bravery and the shameless audacity to actually write a true story, as is.
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Summary: Surviving a bear attack
Review: The author was mauled by a bear in the wilderness and was disfigured, losing one eye and experiencing isolation and trauma which were to change her life. The Bear's Embrace tells of her experiences, her recovery, and her struggles with surviving a bear attack. Riveting.
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Summary: No good grizzly books?
Review: This is a very good book about a fascinating, though often devastating, subject. Just wanted to mention: A reviewer wrote that there are not many good books about bear attacks. Not true! I want to recommend "Night of the Grizzlies," by Jack Olsen. It is an incredibly riveting account. There is nothing like it. You will not be able to put it down. Or forget it.
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