The Bear Went Over the Mountain : A Novel

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Summary: A great metaphor for human priorities!
Review: This is a great book! I read this book for a mother/daughter book club that I am in with some of my friends & our mom's. We all loved this hysterical book. I love how everyone takes every little stupid thing Hal says as a great work of the mind. I laughed the whole way through it.

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Summary: Rich satire on publishing and the 'media' in general
Review: This satirical look at the world of publishing gives us an amusing story of a bear who steals an author's manuscript and passes it off as his own It's more plausible than it sounds! While the bear becomes more human (nobody notices he's a bear), the real author begins to behave in a bearlike fashion. The transformation of both characters is handled well. I found the book hilarious and highly recommend it.

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Summary: Does A Wild Bear Laugh In The Woods?
Review: William Kotzwinkle's "The Bear Went Over The Mountain" is a superb satire of our culture, and a wise book indeed. The similarities to "Being There" and "Forrest Gump" are inevitable, but only serve to draw a sketch of what is a very fine portrait of the human landscape, particularly the landscape of wealth, fame, and power. Hal Jam, the bear ("I am a person!", he would say) who literally steals his way into that landscape, is the main character of this very funny book. He encounters literary agents, TV talkshow hosts, street gangs, and even the President, all of whom are so taken with the passion for using Hal's fame for their own purposes that they dare not utter the single most brutal fact of the story- Hal is not human. (Add "The Emperor's New Clothes" to the literary lineage of this work.) Hal's adventures on the human side of the mountain provide us with a mirror that reveals some very ugly and very funny views of our society. Kotzwinkle avoids the ever-present temptation to slide into mere cynicism, which often turns something humorous into something merely mean. There is not a hint of that here. There is close-your-eyes-and-laugh-out-loud laughter to be found in many places in this book, a great many brief, broad smiles(depending on where the reader sees herself or himself) but nary a twisted-lip sneer. The funny stuff is just funny, and it's a joy to read, because Kotzwinkle knows how to write humor. Treat yourself- read this book!

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Summary: Kotzwinkle may be the best satirest working in Fiction today
Review: As an author myself, I couldn't help cringing amid the laughs in The Bear Went Over the Mountain. Kotzwinkle tells this story with such affection for the characters, and such narrative grace, that his satiric barbs often blindside the reader. This a very true and funny book. Read it, savor it, tell your friends about this guy. Cool cover too.

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Summary: This is no Winnie the Pooh
Review: You know how a lot of your books get donated to the Salvation Army or get sold in garage sales? Me too. Not my William Kotzwinkle books. They all still reside on my bookshelves waiting to be read again. "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" is no exception. Hal Jam is an exquisite character, and the people he meets are so shallow that they don't even recognize his "bearhood." The juxtaposition of bear to man and man to bear is delightful. Tell me that you didn't laugh while reading this book and shed a slight tear at the end. I can't believe I read my first Kotzwinkle book over 25 years ago. Seems like only um-m-m, can I possibly be that old?

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Summary: Because Bears are smart animals.....
Review: Why is it that good writers are from Maine? Must be the weather or all the bears or something. This book was really, really funny! I picked it out because the cover made me laugh. Usually, this is a sure sign that the actual book will never be as entertaining as the cover, but in this case it was. Great satire!

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Summary: Hal Jam's base instincts zing humans
Review: A terrific book. Hal Jam's interactions with the more flaky elements in publishing are memorable - as are their reactions when he writhes in ecstasy on the floor scratching his back in the middle of a restaurant or loses his temper during a TV interview. This is a simple fable, well told and written with brevity and a sharp observational style. Enjoyed it tremendously

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Summary: this is new?
Review: this idea, and the humorous situations that grow out of the premise, has been done so many times it's hard to believe that anybody would bother writing it. Surely there are moments to laugh at, but large portions of the book seem to have been lifted right out of "Being There", with a little less satirical bite (a lot less, really). How many times is it going to be funny that people mistake this bear for a hemmingwayesque man ?Obviously, somebody out there likes this thing, but I had a creeping sense of deja vu at the beginning, kept waiting for some new unexpected twist, and then finally gave in to overhwelming boredom as I finished it up. Never again!

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Summary: As if I didn't already have ENOUGH to do...
Review: I have read only the first twelve pages of The Bear Went Over the Mountain, and already I know that I will have to go and read every damn thing Mr. Kotzwinkle has ever written!

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Summary: Stingingly funny, hauntingly simple
Review: This book made me laugh over and over, it's true. But the bear also touched me with his innocence and inspired me with his no-nonsense approach to life. Cake. Pie. Honey. Clean underwear. Do any of us really need more? I think not. And neither does the bear. Each of us gets what we want from The Bear. I got a wonderful story and a reminder of how simple life can be if we let it