Author: Marian Engel
Publisher: Daunt Books
Paperback
Staff Pick! Pema says…
It might feel wrong but I’m here to compel you, you must, must read the sexy bear book. It’s so good, wow, I sat down and read it in two hours. Faster, my fingers turned the pages until I found myself somehow at the end, left with questions, slightly dazed, uncertain about what it all meant. I’m still not sure, there’s a lot to it. More importantly – what does it mean about me? Did I love this book for the same reason I’m into watching YouTube videos about people who move to the woods and build cabins? Is it the smell of the older and more dangerous folk tales that draws me in? Is it because it speaks to the guilt I feel about my love for stinky old books written by louche, velvet-garbed moustachioed creeps? Dunno. I think Patricia Lockwood’s essay about it in the LRB is an interesting companion read tho. Oh! This is a great book to read upstairs in your old bedroom while at Christmas with fam. Afterwards you can stumble down to dinner glassy-eyed and unnerved, unable to relate to the people around you because you’ve just gulped down a book about a librarian who has a transformative sexual relationship with a BEAR.