Reviews for The Bear and the People

The average rating for The Bear and the People based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-01-07 00:00:00 Dominic Spinale Dear New York Review, I respect your expertise, but are you certain this is intended as a children's book? It reads a lot more like satirical social commentary for adults, lightly garbed in the style of fable. Yes, most people are pretty awful and life is sad.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-01-05 00:00:00 Dr. Cocktavius Maybe it's partly because it's translated from German, but the language (even in the title) of 'The Bear and the People' feels dreamlike, and kind of primal. Ostensibly a children's story, it's a sort of fable with an unclear moral that creeps up on you and is slightly unsettling: 'The entertainers have long sinced stopped traveling along the highways and there are no bears who can dance. But the melody is still alive.' It's the only children's story I've come across with topless dancers dancing topless who are observed in the most innocent fashion, just in the way children can be fascinated in the seamy side of adult life without carrying that interest to the heights the adults do. It's quirky and odd and entrancing. A certain kind of kid is going to latch on to that.