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Summary: Bear mocks Humans
Review: What a wonderful surprise!! William Kotzinkle mocks human nature in this wonderful tale . I particularly liked the references to real life talk show hosts and media people and how typical it is that when they do an interview they only hear and interpret what they want to hear. A delightful book. A MUST READ AGAIN to catch the satire missed the first time around!!!
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Summary: Laughed until I cried
Review: I picked this book of the shelf based on the cover, it was so atypical of an adult fiction book cover. What a find! As I started reading this book I would come across lines in it that made me laugh so hard I had tears running down my face. My kids thought I had finally gone off the deep end. As I acclimated to the style of the book I was able to control these outbursts but still found it to be the funniest book I had read in a long time. Particularly funny if you own a dog or know anything about bears. I guess I also learned alot about the publishing and marketing of a book. So funny that none of the humans ever realized Hal Jam was a bear, they saw what they wanted to see (or didn't want to see). An easy read. Although listed at over 300 pages the amount of printed word per page is small, the book is closer in length to a typical 100 page book.
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Summary: Funny Modern Day Fable
Review: After thoroughly enjoying "The Fan Man", I picked up "The Bear Went Over The Mountain" and enjoyed it even more. It's a very funny tale of a bear who finds the novel of a writer who has gone into the woods to write. Taking the novel into the city, The bear quickly becomes the talk of the town -- doing interviews, endorsements, and saving lives. I read this book in four days because every page is fantastic. Truly a remarkable work.
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Summary: My first comedy fiction
Review: I remember when I first reading The Bear Went Over the Mountain. I was getting back to reading fiction, and this was the first of comedies for me. It was fate that brought me together with comedic literature. I was in eighth grade, I remember, and in a Borders book store. I needed a few books to read on my own for an English class book journal. I spun around very quickly and my eyes fell upon the cover of this book--a bear in a suit in an almost Normal Rockwell-esque scene. I was intrigued by the author's amiable and crazy-sounding name--'William Kotzwinkle' sounds like an alias for Santa Clause.I cannot say that I fell in love with the book right away, but I had to read it, as I purchased it and the story did drag me along. Once the bear does what the cover of the book promises, however, the book had me. Pretty soon, I was reading it all the time. I felt a little sad at the end, not feeling the usual feeling of minor accomplishment someone of that age gets from shelving a read book. I tried other Kotzwinkle books such as Midnight Examiner and Dr. Rat, and this one was the most memorable of them. The ending made me want to, at least at that age, steal a manuscript and get away with it.
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Summary: As Funny as the Truth can Be
Review: The Bear Went Over the Mountain is a comedy in the finest sense. Its lampoon of the academia is nearly perfect (and I should know!), and its lampoon of the publishing world is perfectly believable. I read this maybe three years ago. Every now and then, something reminds me of a passage, and I can't help but smile. I have to read it again every now and then, because it's always better than I remembered.
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Summary: A bear going places ...
Review: Yay! Another author for me to go bananas over! I am definately going to be looking at more Kotzwinkle books. Riddle me this: What does a bear do when he finds a manuscript in a briefcase under a log? Answer: He christians himself Hal Jam and gets what every bear needs: an agent and a publicist. The process from bear to best-selling author is hugely entertaining, with small flashes of insight into modern day living, and the way people communicate.
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Summary: what a pleasant surprise!
Review: I picked up this book expecting a light flight-consuming read and was blown away by the simple but beautiful prose. the tale is too fanciful to sustain for 300 pages but that is a minor fault when compared to the author's imagination and masterful writing. I urge any curious reader or aspiring writer to read (and re-read and re-read) the second to last chapter; it features some of the best writing I've come across in years!
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Summary: The Bear Is a hero
Review: This book will alter the way you view the world. After reading it everthing you experience will be understood from a Bear's perspective. Yes, the madness of man will forever be seen as the great source of humor and delight that it is. Somehow all will make sense to you.
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Summary: Wickedly funny allegory
Review: A bear becomes a Wall St. maven, while an English professor takes over the bear's cave. Hilarious commentary both on contemporary business practices and the ludicrous state of literary theory. Here's an example of an NYU professor critizing a Columbia rival: "Penrod places too much emphasis on the writer. Any real study of contemporary literature begins with those who teach it." Take that, Jonathon Culler!
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Summary: I hear you like pie?
Review: Aesop for the 90s! One of the most enjoyable stories I have read in years, and as a fable, it hits evey target. Yes yes, we all know that the idea has been done before and some of the targets are pretty easy, but it is so damned funny, and warm, that I would take this over Being There any day. One of the things that particularly impressed me was the sheer consistency of the bear in everything he did, even when he was adapting to life as a human.
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