Black Bear: A Story of Siblinghood and Survival
This is a full-throated memoir that asks — indeed, that seeks fervently to understand — how our species can live alongside wildlife, like the black bear, without exerting our dominance and usurping their habitats ... But it is also a story about the oft-fraught business of living together with humans, and of loving them ... It is a prodigious task to tell the story of two complex relationships — one with a sibling and one with a species — without diminishing one or the other ... Moyles elegantly threads this needle by emphasizing subtly, yet persistently, the animality of humans and by gesturing to the common ground we, as siblings and parents and children, share with the bear families she observed in the wilderness. She nudges at these parallels gently, without imposing human attitudes upon bears’ way of life ... Readers might, at this point, wonder if Moyles is familiar with Werner Herzog’s 2005 documentary, Grizzly Man (she is), or with Marian Engel’s 1976 novel, Bear, in which the female protagonist falls in love and becomes intimate with a bear ... But to accuse Moyles of infatuation would be to overlook the ethical rigor everywhere present in the book, not to mention her respect for these creatures, which is so evidently inextricable from her love of them.
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Trina Moyles's stunning second memoir, Black Bear, is an exploration of the fraught connection between humans and bears, and a tender account of her complex relationship with her brother ... Moyles writes in vibrant, poetic prose about close encounters with bears in the boreal forest, then turns the same clear, lyrical lens on her relationship with Brendan and its challenges. Black Bear is a powerful, sensitive account of one woman's willingness to set aside her fears and pay attention--to the bears, to her brother, and to the possibilities for living in relationship with fellow creatures, be they human or ursine.
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In this down-to-earth memoir, environmental journalist Moyles (Women Who Dig) intertwines her experience losing a sibling to drug addiction with the story of how she learned to coexist with bears ... Through keen observations and captivating storytelling, Moyles shows that survival is about finding inner peace and learning to overcome fears. This personal history goes straight to the heart.
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